One of today’s world’s running and critical topic is on leadership issues in the public services and this is particularly pertinent for public services that still remain the focus and driving forces of development. Our country still relies on the public service to define the path and meaning of development and also it is an expectation that the bulk of funding for development projects comes from the public funds. It is for this reason that we should be forever engaged in understanding the nature and permutations that arise from the type(s) of leadership in our public services. The critical decisions on our development and the utilization of funds for that purpose are critical leadership decisions that require the “right” type of leadership in place, at the right levels and in the right positions. Generally there are a number of traits that are considered important for leaders to possess, if they are to be effective leaders and I will just briefly discuss some of those.
For me the most critical trait that leaders ought to have in them is that of personal honesty and that is leaders in the public service must be persons of honour. This will cultivate a culture of honesty and truthfulness in their decision making responsibilities. It is expected that honest and truthful leaders must be first be truthful to their organization and dedicate to serve it in that manner. In our case it the public’s expectation that public service leaders with dedicate their personal honour to serving the public interest at all times. Secondly, public service leaders must be honest and truthful to their superiors and subordinates. The majority of our public service leaders are responsible to higher organs such as the legislature and responsible for the activities of the many juniors under their authority and in all these two areas the expectation is that leaders will always discharge their responsibilities with utmost commitment to truth and honesty. Lastly, and for me very central, leaders must be truthful and honest to themselves because I find it hard for one to be truthful and honest to the organization, superiors and subordinates if one is not honest and truthful to oneself.
The dedication to truth requires that leaders must at all times seek and pursue the truth in making decisions in the public interest. This includes the need to pursue truth even when that can be destructive in the short term. The extent to which leaders abrogate their responsibility to lay the truth bare simply because it may in the short term lead to possible chaos, loss of jobs by some and even loss of trust by those been protected, cannot be allowed to be reason enough to conceal and fail to expose practices of fraud, nepotism, corruption and general malfeasance. True effective leaders are forever on this trail because they know and understand that this can only be in the long term interest of the public and that short term considerations may actually be very costly in the long term.
The second important trait has to do with leaders ‘ability to be courageous and have confidence in themselves and their ability to make the right decisions, again in the public interest. Leaders will demonstrate their confidence through their actions and especially actions that defines their commitment to advancing and protecting the public interest. Amongst, but not limited to these, would be decisions on realistic expenditures for government including prudent use of finance, resources such as land and how citizens are generally empowered to easily access services that are critical for their survival. These are the challenges we face today at both individual and community levels; how to effectively harness the country’s productive resources to enhance both individual and community self-actualization. In addition to the courage to make decisive decisions in the public interest, leaders are expected to have the courage to own up to those decisions and assume responsibility for their actions (good or bad). It is here that I sometimes feel we are found wanting as a nation and in particular public service leadership. We are either too selfish to own up to decisions that have turned bad and choice to pass the bark or we simply play the innocence card and hope to get away with it and indeed a lot of leaders simply get away with murder, not in the literal sense.
We only have to look at the current state of affairs at the Botswana Meat Commission, the Ministry of Health where even deaths are reported resulting from simple negligence of duty and other reported incidents where we can question the levels and details of decision making that went in there. The range of possible reasons for all these problems is from possible dishonesty to concealment of truth to superiors, including lack of honesty and truthfulness to ones’ position and level of responsibility, including self-interest considerations in other instances. All these put to test the calibre of some of the leaders we have in the public service and whether they can be counted with trust to protect this nation’s resources and guard the public interest. There is a big question mark in some of these areas.
Lastly, leaders ought to have a fair understanding of the human element as it relates to the impacts of their decision making responsibilities. We entrust leaders with the responsibility to have concern for the nation, their subordinates and the public expecting that their decisions will among others ensure protection of the citizen’s rights and personal dignity and consider these as sacred and inviolable. We want our public service leaders to be guided by principles of fairness and justice as they discharge their responsibilities. At all times the public must be comfortable in the knowledge that they are served by men of honour whose dedication to truth guides their decision making and they in turn find solace in having upheld the public interest rather than protecting their individual or private interest of some kind. To weed out fraud, corruption and malfeasance, our public service requires leaders who are honest, truthful and courageous enough to take risky decisions in the public interest. These are critical traits for our leaders.
