LEADERSHIP IN THE PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY SECTORS

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LEADERSHIP IN THE PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY
SECTORS

• THE RT HON JOHN REDWOOD MP

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WHAT IS GREAT LEADERSHIP?

• Articulating a great aim. we must win the battle
  or the war we must make our company the finest
  in its industry we must win the Olympics.
• Gaining substantial support for the aim from
  those affected and from the wider public.
• Mobilising the resources needed to hit the
  target.
• Encouraging people to deliver.
• Succeeding.

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WHO ARE/WERE GREAT LEADERS?
Nelson
Elizabeth I
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WHO ARE/WERE GREAT LEADERS?
Sir Terry Leahy
John Buchanan
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HOW DO THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS COMPARE
TODAY IN THE UK?

• World class competitive financial services,
  banking, legal services, accountancy, business
  advisory, pharmaceuticals, aerospace engineering,
  food retail, media and communications.
• Competitive general retail, oil and gas,
  construction, aviation, food manufacturing.
• Falling behind education, postal services,
  animal husbandry (thanks to the CAP).
• Poor performers fishing (thanks to the CFP),
  road provision, railways, health service.

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• Innovation, higher levels of customer
  satisfaction, and higher productivity all come
  from competitive models.
• For example, financial services and telecoms
  post-privatisation.

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• Low levels of innovation, shortage of supply,
  lower productivity and higher prices come from
  monopolies and over regulation.
• For example, road provision and the water
  industry.

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WHAT CAN LEADERS DO?

• In the dynamic competitive model good leaders
  have the following characteristics
• They are good at defining a vision and mission,
  and setting it to all employees and customers by
  good communication.
• They are good at choosing, rewarding and
  motivating people to get the job done.
• They have a good understanding of the market,
  both through intuition based on experience, and
  through attention to detail and analysis.
• They know how to handle competitors within the
  constraints of competition law, analysing
  relative strengths and weaknesses well and
  compensating or adjusting where their own
  enterprise is lacking.

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WHAT CAN LEADERS DO?

• In the public sector leaders have come to define
  their tasks rather differently
• They are risk averse, often concentrating on the
  negatives of a possible new move, and favouring
  delay or further appraisal over action. They see
  that from their point of view it is easier to be
  blamed if you try to do something different than
  if you merely preside over the inheritance,
  tinkering at the edges.
• They are keen to involve others to fudge or put
  off decisions. They seek extra external advice
  from consultants. They widen the net of the
  consultees to garner in a wider range of
  objections.
• They favour a regulated and documented approach
  over an inspirational or intuitive initiative.
  There is safety in moving slowly and in avoiding
  innovation.

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HOW THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS COMPARE

• The public sector has more people in management
  roles relative to the issues to be managed, and
  now also uses more consultants and external
  helpers in forming a judgement.
• The private sector reduces the number of issues
  it seeks to manage, and gears peoples tasks and
  remuneration to this simplified view of the
  world.
• The public sector often makes things more
  complex, and rarely manages to concentrate
  activity or link rewards to essential tasks.
• The public sector believes in the ethos of public
  service, the private sector in the efficacy of
  the profit motive.

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IS THERE A PUBLIC SECTOR ETHOS WE SHOULD BE PROUD
OF?

• The traditional view is that public service is
  superior because
• Public servants work for the good of the
  country/department, not for their own profit.
• They are disinterested and without prejudice.
• They are well educated and flexible, capable of
  handling a wide range of differing issues fairly
  and well.
• There is none of the waste of competition.
• Their remuneration is lower than private
  performance geared remuneration, and is linked to
  seniority within a clear graded structure.
  Everyone knows what everyone else is getting.

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THE CRITICAL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

• Public servants are not well motivated, visible
  in higher sickness and absentee rates, shorter
  hours of work, and a high incidence of delays and
  errors in work for the public.
• Public servants come from the Guardian reading
  classes, with a distinct bias against free
  enterprise and a resentment towards commercial
  success.
• The civil service no longer commands the best
  brains, as they go into financial and business
  services and into the consultancies that now
  advise the public sector.

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THE CRITICAL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

• Their remuneration has now risen sharply and in
  some cases overtaken private sector comparators.
  Incentive pay has been introduced, but not
  properly policed to make it effective.
• The civil services lack of specific skills in
  most areas coupled with the policy of moving
  people between jobs on a regular basis means the
  civil service is always at a disadvantage in
  trying to grapple with complex problems. It
  effectively has no learning curve.

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THE VOLUNTEER AND CHARITABLE SECTORS

• The Third sector tries to fuse the best of both
  worlds.
• Like the old public sector ethos, a charity can
  often unite a disparate team of people and
  persuade them to deliver that much extra because
  they believe in the cause. Even the full time
  paid staff are motivated in part by the wish to
  do good and to go the extra mile to do so.
• Like the private sector, charities seek to
  harness the talents of senior management and
  entrepreneurs from the market place. Often high
  placed volunteers from the world of commerce come
  in and give their time to organise events and
  fund raising in an entrepreneurial way.

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WHAT ACTS OF LEADERSHIP ARE NEEDED TODAY?

• Health. Curbing MRSA and C-Diff.
• Railways. Getting the trains to run on time and
  over the holiday periods
• The Civil Service. Getting a grip on personal
  data and security at borders