Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

References to leadership permeate every aspect of the public sector from positiondescriptions to executive meetings, whole of government strategies and frameworks. Inreality, however, leadership is frequently discussed, infrequently applied and rarelytransformational.The challenges of transformational leadership are common to most public sectors. The UK’sNational Health Service found that only about ten per cent of senior managers appeared tounderstand how to transform their agencies and even fewer understood what they needed todo to create and protect innovation. Many executives, “although excited by the vision ofchange and a desire to give up command-control management, appear uncertain of theirleadership role within the modernisation process.” 309Effective leadership is having the right people with the right attitude in the right roles withthe right organisational processes, structure, and resources to support them. Too oftenexecutives focus on managing day-to-day issues and spend little time, energy or passiondeveloping strategic insights or invest for the future. During the Review, over 160 officialsembraced the opportunity to join together, share insights and offer solutions to long standingACTPS challenges. The ACTPS must harness its workforce to drive solutions to the specificchallenges of a small jurisdiction:… departmentalism and protecting fiefdoms do not help the change process. … crosscutting work is not rewarded or owned by any one person or department – its successdepends on individual motivation and commitment. Each department has its ownperformance management indicators and the vertical silos within governmentdepartments have not been dismantled. The lack of joined-up government is evidentin policy, process and resource streams. … Unfortunately, new relationships are toooften inhibited by old cultures and structures. 310Critically, this change must be led by the Strategic Board individually and collectively. TheStrategic Board should foster the internal modernisation process so that their direct reportsinstigate, lead, protect and sustain the change process. The importance of this role as changeagent will be obvious. Directors-General must be accountable to each other as well as theChief Executive and Head of the ACTPS to ensure they collectively harness the capability ofthe ACTPS, align their approach and operate with a coherent strategy. The Strategic Boardwill need to conduct itself as the model of leadership – exemplifying the ACTPS leadershipvalues of respect, integrity, vision, strategy, adaptability and teamwork.309 Maddock, S. (2002) “Making Modernisation Work: New narratives, change strategies and people management in the publicsector”. International Journal of Public Sector Management 15(1), pp.13-43., p.29.309 Maddock, S. (2002) p.12.Capability, Capacity and Effectiveness: 243