Leadership and Change: A Best Practice Case Study

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Leadership and Change A Best Practice Case Study

• Colin Moore and John Wilson
• 10 October 2008
• CIPFA Regional Conference

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Presentation

• Leadership
• Modernisation of public services
• Developments in local government
• Transformation of Redcar Cleveland Borough
  Council (RC)
• Lessons from RC

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Leadership

• For a leader, don't let your ego be carried
• away by the praise or your spirit
• diminished by the criticism and look on
• each with a very searching eye. But for
• heaven's sake lead.
• Tony Blair, July 2006

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Research findings on leaders in public services
(1)

• Leaders work through the creation and
  dissemination of a vision, which is a statement
  of a desired future state of the organisation
• Leaders have to be good at listening and asking
  questions because the vision is not down to them
  alone and needs to have some resonance in their
  organisation
• Leaders empower managers and employees
• Leaders may be seen as exemplary in their
  behaviour, for example by role modelling the
  importance of personal learning
• Leaders may raise the energy levels of managers
  and employees and this is important for the
  change process

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Research findings on leaders in public services
(2)

• Leadership in big public service organisations is
  not confined to the top level
• Leaders are committed to developing their
  organisations and show genuine concern for the
  people in the organisation
• Leaders recognise and reward people who perform
  well
• Vision has to be embedded and sustained through
  strategic decision-making and through culture
  management

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Publicprivate differences?

• So what emerges from these studies?
• Leaders, it seems, are much the same in
• both the public and private
• sectors.Leaders ensure there is a
• vision.They communicate the vision
• and inspire and empower others.
• Joyce (2004) Emphasis added

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Good to great? Conventional wisdom challenged?

• We must reject the idea well intentioned, but
  dead wrong that
• the primary path to greatness in the social
  sectors is to become
• more like a business. Most businesses..fall
  somewhere
• between mediocre and good. Few are great. When
  you compare
• great companies with good ones, many widely
  practised business
• norms turn out to correlate with mediocrity, not
  greatness. So, then,
• why would we want to import the practices of
  mediocrity into the
• social sectors?..........True leadership only
  exists if people follow
• when they have the freedom not to.
• Collins (2006)
• Distinguishes between executive leadership (based
  on
• power) and legislative leadership (based on
  persuasion)

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Level 5 Leadership

• Level 5 Executive
• Builds enduring greatness through a
  paradoxical blend of personal humility and
  professional will
• Level 4 Effective Leader
• Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous
  pursuit of a clear and compelling vision,
  stimulating higher performance standards.
• Level 3 Competent Manager
• Organizes people and resources toward the
  effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined
  objectives
• Level 2 Contributing Team Member
• Contributes individual capabilities to the
  achievement of group objectives, and works
  effectively with others in a group setting.
• Level 1 Highly Capable Individual
• Makes productive contributions through
  talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits

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Local Government Modernisation Agenda

• Beacon Council scheme
• Best Value regime
• Capital strategies and asset management plans
• Capacity building
• CPA/CAA
• Electronic governance
• Intervention and recovery support
• Local Public Service Agreements
• Local Strategic Partnerships
• National Procurement Strategy
• Powers to trade and other freedoms

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CPA Scores for Upper Tier
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RC BC

• Popn 140,000
• Area 93 sq miles
• Politics 59 Members No overall control
• 23 Lab, 16 Liberal Democrats, 13 Conservative, 5
  Independent, 2 East Cleveland Independent Party
• Employees 5,700
• Revenue budget 06-07 288m gross, 104m net

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.the worst Council in the North?

• 2nd Highest Council Tax, no reserves
• Services cut annually
• No strategy vision or leadership, weak managers,
  strong silos
• Trade union and producer domination
• No performance management system
• IT obsolete, incoherent or non existent
• Key services very poor

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The worst Council? contd

• Early report identified
• Sense of victimhood and hopelessness
• Negative mindset re financial position
• No strategic vision or leadership
• Absence of corporate identity/collective
  responsibility amongst senior managers
• Weak middle managers
• Silo culture

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Shared experiences of poorly performing councils

• Poor political leadership
• Silo management
• Poor senior management/lacked leadership
• Lack of engagement with wider community
• Change to unitary status
• Insularity

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Priorities for new Chief Exec

• Place finances on sound footing
• Establish standard business processes
• Establish a strategic partnership with private
  sector
• Investment in coherent IT
• Recruit leaders with vision and ambition
• Cultural change
• Set clear goals and allow managers to manage
• Persuade Members to be externally focused

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Promises to staff

• Stable finances and scope for growth
• Commissioner over provider
• Purpose over process, X Dept working
• Community and neighbourhood focus
• Many of you will lose your jobs
• Many of you will be outsourced
• You will have different managers
• You must change the way you work

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First Sort Finance

• Apply earlier logic to cost reduction
• Restructure debt
• First three years
• Zero rise in Council Tax (Out of top 100)
• Investment in services no cuts in service
• Balances restored to prudent level
• Medium Term Financial Plan Tied to Priorities

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Next Services

• Assistant Directors group to break silos
• New Director for Social Care
• Break up DSOs and create Area structure for clean
  and green
• New Director Area Management
• Performance Management System
• New leadership for Performance Management
• Build strong partnerships

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ICT and Business Transformation

• Strategic Partnership with Liberata
• Up front investment in ICT
• Business Process Reengineering
• Cost reductions pay for investment
• Further cost reductions shared

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External Accreditation

• 2000 Poor
• 2002 Fair (By one point)
• 2004 Good
• 2005 Excellent (Four Star)
• Strong reputational improvement

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Reputation

• Long standing poor reputation
• County dissolution RCBC last choice
• Vicious circle of poor reputation
• Cant recruit quality people
• Low expectations and aspirations
• Virtuous circle of good reputation
• Recruiting quality people
• Ambitious organisation high expectations

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Barriers

• No compulsory redundancies
• Too slow to replace bad managers and weak leaders
  (But reputation first)
• Best value and poor quality inspectors
• Strategic Partnership

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Critical Role of Leadership

• Clear direction
• Consistent focus
• Put right people in right place
• Pull through inspiration and example
• Push through encouragement
• Set goals and parameters
• Let them get on with it

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Leadership 2

• Dont try to be popular with everyone
• Be accessible to all - worry if you dont hear
• Empower execution of your strategy but keep an
  eye on the details
• Encourage risk taking but dont take success for
  granted
• Keep it simple, adjust to circumstances and avoid
  fads, theories and experts
• Contribution over position

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Key attributes for a CE as ranked by CEs

• 1 Ability to lead, motivate and inspire
• 2 Finely tuned political antenna
• 3 Resilience ability to stay on course
• 3 Ability to communicate and network well
  internally and externally
• 4 Ability to engage with people at all levels
• 4 Unwavering focus on improving outcomes
• 5 Enthusiasm and skill managing ambiguity and
  uncertainty

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Key attributes for a CE as ranked by CEs

• 6 A passion for public service
• 7 Being a model of organisational values and
  ethics
• 8 Deep understanding of what customers want
• 9 Great time and stress management
• 10 Financial acumen
• 11 Passion for partnership working
• See LCG 12.10.06

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Conclusions

• Lessons from R C consistent with previous
  research findings
• Permanently failing? Organisational inertia?
  Literature on organisational turnaround.
• Level 5 Leadership? Evidence needed re
  performance post-Moore

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Conclusion

• As to the best leaders, the people do not
• know their existence.And when the best
• leaders work is done, the people say we did
• it ourselves.
• Lao Tzu