Liz Cosson, the former secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), has a reputation for public service that looms larger than the imprints her size-six boots have left along the way.
In 2007, Cosson was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of major general. But this trailblazer for Army women, who has also led in various government departments, says that staying true to her values meant intentionally doing things her way and selectively picking her battles.
Reflecting on almost 40 years of combined military experience and as an APS administrator, the former secretary said that while she never tried to be “one of the boys”, she was keenly aware that she could not win every cultural battle she wanted to take up.
“The importance of diversity thinking is key to success in any environment, and any organisation which you serve,” Cosson told an IPAA ACT audience.
“But you must ensure your voice is heard, and this isn’t about speaking louder. It’s about finding opportunities to influence, it’s about being persistent, and it’s about picking your time.”
Personal discipline and courage were also essential ingredients for staying the course and leading true to her own beliefs, she said.
Cosson made her remarks in a valedictory address in Canberra on Tuesday. Her tenure as head of DVA ended on January 23, when top mandarin Alison Frame took the reins of the department.
Support from superiors and a healthy dose of self-belief
Cosson’s leadership style was shaped by a sense of a responsibility to walk the walk, actively listen and address on the concerns of her subordinates, as well as clarity of purpose.
As a woman leading in a male-dominant sector, Cosson shared an example of the self-doubt she encountered when she was chosen to deploy to PNG as the chief of staff for a peace-monitoring mission in the province of Bougainville.
Recalling her reluctance to accept the role, and how she had openly declared she couldn’t possibly take on the challenge, Cosson observed there were many women she had witnessed get in their own way because they did not feel they were 100% ready.
“I’m forever grateful that my boss said to me at the time, ‘You are ready. You can do this. You have been preparing for 20 years for this role. This is why you’ve enlisted in the Australian Army. This is your purpose. This was why you wanted to make a difference,’,” she said.
“So I got that gentle push, I faced up to my doubts and I accepted the role, and it was the best decision I ever made.
“We are all responsible for creating our own destiny and by making our own career choices. We should not be fearful of ambitions, but embrace those opportunities and those possibilities,” the former secretary said.
Acknowledging an element of good fortune and effective sponsors in her career, Cosson urged public servants to take a proactive approach in endorsing diverse talent. Many people with the potential to become great leaders were overlooked in their careers, she said, because they were not championed in the same way that she had been.
“Attaining leadership positions isn’t just about you pulling yourself up alone, it’s often that someone was reaching down and gave you a helping hand,” she said.
Accountability can be uncomfortable but values lead the way
On the issue of resilience, alluding to an incident in 2006 when then-brigadier Cosson was appointed to investigate how the body of an Australian soldier was lost after he died in Iraq, she said the public, professional and personal scrutiny was “defining”.
When Cosson returned from Baghdad, she mistakenly left a computer disk containing the draft report into the soldier’s death in a computer at Melbourne airport. A member of the public later found the disc and passed it onto broadcaster Derryn Hinch, who then published some of the material.
“I made a significant mistake. It captured headlines and it caused embarrassment for the Australian Defence Force, for the chief of the Defence Force, for our minister, for a veteran’s family and for my family,” Cosson said, plainly owning the bungle.
“Challenges can build your resilience, they shape who you are, and help you bounce back from disappointment, from the feeling of defeat, and that devastation.
“Resilience isn’t about not feeling. It’s about being affected, and it’s about being able to bounce back.”
Another similarly defining moment was being told that she had reached the most senior rank she could hope to attain, a career challenge that Cosson said forced her to evaluate who she was and what her values were.
Having enough robust sense of self-esteem to refuse to be told what path was chosen for her gave the former mandarin the mettle to pursue opportunities beyond what she once may have dared to hope for herself.
“This involves redefining your purpose, and what still inspires you, and wants you to get up [in the morning]. It’s about having faith in yourself and that remains, no matter what’s happening around you,” she said.
“This was an important lesson, when you’re leading an organisation, and when you are facing public scrutiny, such as a royal commission, and you’re receiving that public, and that social media scrutiny — it can be so harmful and damaging.”
Cosson was appointed secretary of DVA in 2018.
Letters patent for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide were issued in July 2021, with the federal government apologising for DVA shortcomings last September after the commission handed over its interim report.
The former secretary said that her experience of facing a royal commission came with a sinking feeling, and navigating that necessary discomfort required a clear understanding of her values.
“My values kicked in, and you have to own it, you have to deal with it,” Cosson said.
“Lessons can sometimes be quite brutal, but they must be learned and it is the learning from them which leads becoming a better leader,” she said.
Pride in service and riding the waves of change
Between 2012 and 2016, Cosson served as deputy secretary at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and deputy secretary/chief operating officer at the Department of Health, where she oversaw the implementation of major cultural and behavioural reform activities.
In 2016, she returned to Veterans’ Affairs as deputy secretary, before being appointed secretary.
During that period, she said, a lot of ambitious and necessary transformation was underway to make departments like Defence and Veterans’ Affairs more interconnected and fit for modern purposes. But that change, including efforts to overhaul DVA’s paper-based processes into the 21st century back in 2016, was not easy.
“Today, there is a better understanding of the veteran experience, better understanding of the impact of military service, and the importance of that close relationship with Defence before they leave their military service,” Cosson said.
“The transformation program is only part of the answer to this. At its heart, it [aims] to put veterans and their families at the centre of everything by knowing who the veterans are, connecting them with service, supporting them when they need it, and reforming and simplifying the processes, and respecting them for their service.”
Former @DVAAus boss Liz Cosson has used her valedictory address to promote the power of values-based leadership and underscore why “people matter” in the APS. @IPAAACT #auspol #APS #APSnews pic.twitter.com/94Wx6MkDh6
— Melissa Coade (@Coadem) February 20, 2023
An army brat, Cosson has a long and proud military tradition in her immediate and extended family. Her great-grandfather was a WWI veteran who was wounded at the Battle of Gallipoli and killed in action in the Battle of Pozières a year later, in 1916. Cosson’s grandfather was also a WWII veteran, her father served in the Army for 31 years, and her husband Brigadier James Baker has served in both Gulf wars and commanded Australian forces in East Timor.
“I am passionate about service to the nation, and I am proud of my family’s history — it defines me, and it guides me, and I draw strength from that history,” Cosson said.
“I was raised in the Army family. We followed dad’s career. We lived in four countries, we lived in 12 homes, and I attended seven schools,” she said of the formative years that shaped her desire to serve.
After finishing high school, Cosson made her intentions to enlist known to her parents. Both were, in her own words, “strongly opposed” to the idea because it was “not a job for girls”. Heeding their advice, she went off to business college where she learnt secretarial skills and touch-typing. Her very first job was as a secretary working in Canberra.
At the age of 20, Cosson could not dampen the call to duty, and she decided to leave home to train as an officer cadet at the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps School. Her father did not believe she would successfully complete the inaugural course for women, telling her it would be “too tough”.
“Well, he was wrong about not finishing — I did. But he was right, it was tough,” Cosson said.
“It was on the 22nd of February of 1979 when I marched through those gates with another 32 wonderful women to commence the first course of its type for women. Little did I appreciate that I will be following in the footsteps of so many wonderful ground-breakers, and I realised that there were – and there are – many women who have the capacity and a willingness to step up to some remarkable challenges,” she said.
It was important to consider how far society had come, Cosson noted, because things many people take for granted in 2023 in terms of gender equality and equal opportunity could not have been dreamt of when she was starting her military career in the early 1980s.
“I was privileged to enter [in] a decade that saw significant change — we saw the integration of military training, the first female pilots graduate, and the first female Navy commanders be appointed. This decade of the ’80s saw around 43% of positions open up to women, and today it is 100%,” Cosson said.
“But there’s still some way to go improve the female representation in our Australian Defence Force,” she added.
The former public servant said that faith was a little-discussed topic in the context of leading in complex environments, but that hers helped her keep focused on values-based leadership and staying resilient.
Cosson also credited the mentors, champions, family and friends who guided and counselled her during some “interesting times” throughout her career.
“To all of you wonderful people who I’ve worked with in many organisations: we faced many challenges together but we went out to work together and work through that, and I thank you,” Cosson said.
“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank those men and women who put on a uniform and serve in our Australian Defence Force — to thank them for their service.”
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Fairer and less Kafkaesque: Elizabeth Cosson takes command of DVA’s five-year plan
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