Twice in recent months I have visited people at the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital under extreme circumstances. They have received excellent treatment, and the staff have been professional, helpful and generally friendly. The wards and linen are clean and the food adequate.
I know, by contrast, of other public hospitals where you may be safer outside than inside the hospital, and where patients feel abandoned or even abused.
I have taken to sorting out vehicle licensing issues at the office in Waterfall Estate, which is some distance from my home. It is like the business class lounge of licensing offices – comfortable, efficient and polite. It’s also open until 9:00 pm. It’s in an office park, but open to the public. Friends tell me of being bullied and insulted at other licensing offices closer to where I live. So I give them a miss.
A colleague recently described having to visit various government offices on family business in a small city in one of the poorer provinces. She described getting things done with reasonable efficiency in good time. Good service from public officials should not come as a surprise, but there are so many other stories of endless queues and rude officials creating obstacles for no reason that it was good to hear of her experience.
These islands of good service exist in the same departments as the places where the experience is not positive. They are staffed by public servants drawn from the same pool, who have received the same training, and whose pay and other conditions of service are identical.
Another example is found in those few public schools in poor areas which consistently produce matric results that outshine the neighbouring schools. Without fail it is an outstanding principal and a strong team of senior teachers who manage to make a difference in the lives of their students.
This dynamic is at work in the private sector as well. A few years ago I changed the pharmacy chain I use purely on my experience in the queues – both for collecting medicine and for paying. The one was slow and uncomfortable, the other quick and efficient.
We might ask “What makes the difference?”. But it’s really a rhetorical question because we know the answer. The difference lies in the quality of management.
This simple but important truth inspires Thornhill in the work we do every day.
In recent years we have run 360° assessments in a number of government related entities, and conducted feedback coaching sessions for executive and senior managers who have taken part. In every case we have found that the great majority of participants are serious about their jobs and committed to continuous improvement in their organisations, and in their own leadership and management capabilities. Many have previously had jobs in the private sector, and have chosen public service because they wish to make a contribution to society.
This gives us hope for the future. Effective management and leadership is an important part of making our country work well for everyone and we have seen that there is a larger pool of committed managers in state institutions (as well as the private sector) than is commonly believed.
We should work together to turn that pool into a torrent of talent.
We see at least three benefits that would flow from such an effort.
Firstly, there is the individual benefit that accrues to individuals, personally, at home and at work from just managing things (and themselves) better.
Secondly, there is the benefit that accrues to companies and organisations by growing their bench of talented and enthusiastic managers who can become the truly effective leaders of tomorrow. Some will leave and go elsewhere. Equally, as the pool grows, companies will be able to recruit talent from elsewhere.
Thirdly, the country benefits. Of course building a country that we can all be proud of requires more than just excellent organisational leadership and management. On the other hand, it is also true that everything else that needs doing can only happen if there is an ever expanding number of leaders who know how to strategise, plan, implement and manage teams of people to do what needs to be done. Flooding the country with competent and ethical managers will itself create positive pressure for change, and provide the human resource to make change possible.
This is not something that will happen on its own. It will result from a concerted national effort to increase still further the number of effective and ethical senior managers. It is an area where the public and private sectors can work together, and where all parties can do well, by improving their own performance, and do good by contributing to building a national culture of competence and effectiveness.
One final thought
There is something we can all do to support the development of effective management. We can acknowledge it when we experience it. South Africans are awash with negativity, but acknowledging excellent work in a positive way can lift our own mood, and certainly affirms and encourages those who are making things run well. Write about it on social media, send a letter of thanks to the manager concerned, or just say “thank you” when you can.
For information on Thornhill’s various leadership development products and services, please contact us on admin@thornhill.co.za.