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| Course facilitator Mr Tony Olton |
Basseterre, St. Kitts (April 28, 2004): A leadership workshop organised by the Public Sector Reform Unit aims to develop skills in four areas including self management, people management, organizational development as well as managing performance and maintaining morale.
Course facilitator Mr Tony Olton told SKNIS that a key component of effective leadership is introspection due to the belief that most managers are not undermined by the people they lead but by their own inconsistencies.
Within the outlined areas for discussion the sub topics include the attributes, roles, and dimensions of leadership; charting new organisational paths, agreement building, upgrading staff performance, and managing change.
Mr. Olton placed responsibility for the problems associated with performance in the civil service squarely on the shoulders of bureaucratic systems. He commended government for employing a stringent policy of change.
He said the challenge for most public sector organizations is that they are encumbered with rules and processes that have outlived their usefulness. He said the government is well on its way to remedying this problem with its rigorous reform strategy which challenges senior officers to employ more worker and production friendly policies.
Mr Olton said that participants would return to their jobs fully persuaded of the capacity to encourage people to bring their creativity and initiative to the organisation, to challenge the status quo and to create an environment of well being.
He added that in pro-reform circles this is referred to as developing “meaningful” workplaces and cited the disadvantages of non-performance which he said add up to general disatisfaction.
Public Sector Reform Director, Mr Douglas Wattley explained that the course facilitator was sourced from the Poda-Centre in Barbados, a training and human resource development company dedicated to improving the human resource capacity in the region.
Mr Wattley gave a brief overview of the extensive training programme being undertaken by participants. He explained that the group of managers have been participating in workshops since early last year and will function as consultants to the Public Sector upon completion of their intensive prgramme.
The workshop concludes on Friday.
