Civil Servants must drive govt vision to reposition Lagos – Ambode

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday charged civil servants to drive the vision of his administration to reposition Lagos State into a smart city.

The governor spoke at a two-day training programme  on “Fundamental Leadership Principles for Senior Civil Servants in Lagos State,” held in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke said the effective senior government leader must count on the employees or members of the civil service to make sound tactical and operational decisions that were aligned with the desired vision.

He said to ensure that these decisions were well made, the articulated vision must be applicable and clearly related to the core issues that the organisation was designed to solve.

“It is always helpful to remember that an effective vision provides a picture of the desired long-term future.  In order to make sound day-to-day decisions, all members of the organization must be able to begin with the end in mind.  All steps must ultimately keep the civil service on course toward the long-term objective.

“As a strategic leader, you will count on timely and accurate information about prevailing relevant conditions.  It is essential to build and employ effective mechanisms for observing and listening to what is going on in the environment.  Real-time information, in turn, must feed on-going strategic and operational shifts and deployments,” he said.

According to Ambode, the take home lesson for managers of men and resources was that in order to make effective leaders and ensure that the strategic team was ready to make effective decisions, they must look carefully in the mirror.

“Do you encourage debate, even argument, among your team about key decisions, or do you encourage blind alignment with the organisation’s positions?  A realistic self-assessment enables the organization to leverage the strengths of the organization and to shore up areas of weakness.

“In deed, in order to take advantage of intelligence gained through a SWOT analysis, the strategic leader must ensure that intelligence does not sit idle, but is immediately mined for insight that can be used in strategic and operational decision-making. All historical stories of the great strategic achievements of history include anecdotes of decision-makers poring over maps and data and striving to find the optimal course of direction and events,” he said.

Permanent Secretary, Establishments, Mrs Clara Ibirogba charged the trainees to pay adequate attention so that they could get the best from the training and be able to pass the knowledge gained to the junior officers.