Examine the Role of Leadership in Relation To

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EXAMINE THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN

RELATION TO

VALUES, ETHICS, CREATIVITY AND

INNOVATION FOR CIVIL SERVICE

EXCELLENCE


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BACKGROUND

This paper requires the examination of leadership roles in conjunction to

values, ethics, creativity and innovation for civil service excellence. In

examining these leadership roles, this section attempts to establish certain

baseline with regards to the definitions and roles of leadership, they would be

anchored on specific references.

INTRODUCTION

Why are values, ethics, creativity and innovation important to the Civil

Service? Being the keeper and implementor of rules and regulations, law and

policies that were mooted and passed by the law makers for the betterment of

the citizens, both individuals and corporate, and whoever relying on those

services have a duty to discharge to all of them. The Civil Service for so many

years had borne the brunt of complains amongst others for not being

customer friendly, practicing outdated processes and systems, slow, corrupt,

officers abusing their powers, practising office politics, and slow. The Civil

Service owe an obligation of duty, care and responsibility to provide the

necessary services to those stakeholders within the parameters of rules

defined, in compliance to values and ethics, and always looking for creative

and innovative ways in providing them, i.e. always looking for improvements,

new and better ways. The Civil Service must stay abreast not in just

knowledge, but also the systems and infrastructure in place, with the private

sector. However behind the systems, equipment, technology, machines,

equipment, rules, regulations and everything else is a human being a

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person. Thus the person, the Civil Servants, are the ones that need to have

the values, ethics, creativity and innovativeness to bring the Civil Service to

excellence.

LEADERSHIPAND ROLES DEFINED

In many references, what is very clear are the distinct differences in

roles between being a manager and a leader. A manager is typically defined

as the person who does the things right. Whilst a leader; is defined as the

person who does the right things.

Which role comes first? If the managers role comes first, you may be

doing all the things in the right way, but are the things being done being the

right things? For all intent and purpose, if the right things are not defined

clearly, we may be doing all the wrong things right. Hence, being a leader,

one need to be clear of what are the right things, and only then do them right.

Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so

clearly that they come to see it in themselves. Stephen R. Covey, The 8th

Habit.

Covey fundamentally suggested that a leader is someone who makes

the effort to develop other people, informing them of their worth and potential

and inspiring them to move forward to attain different levels of excellence.

They inspire trust by being trustworthy themselves. These leaders patiently

work with people to enable them to see and realise the potentials that they

have in themselves. This opinion is also shared by Larry Bossidy, the former

CEO of Honeywell, who was quoted as saying, How am I doing as a leader?

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The answer is how are the people you lead doing. Do they learn? Do they

visit customers? Do they manage conflict? Do they initiate change? Are they

growing and getting promoted? You wont remember when you retire what

you did in the first quarter of 1994, or the third. What youll remember is how

many people you developed. How many people you helped have a better

career because of your interest and your dedication to their development?

When confused as to how youre doing as a leader, find out how the people

you lead are doing. Youll know the answer.

People development comes into play in both statements. Once the

leaders help people to be aware of their worth and potential, the direction they

need to move towards, the leadership then move towards developing systems

and processes, and providing opportunities for the people to grow. These can

be done through delegation and empowerment of tasks and responsibilities

besides the usual methods of training and development.

Welch also argued strongly that the best leaders were the antithesis

of bureaucrats. Welch thought that bureaucrats was one of the worst

things you could call a leader. Bureaucrats play it safe; they dont embrace

change They muck up the works. Bureaucrats are the problems, not the

solution. Jeffrey A. Krames, Jack Welch and the 4 Es of Leadership.

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Great leaders are great teacher:

They accomplish their goals through other people

they teach.

They teach others to be leaders, not followers.

Winning leaders make teaching a personalpriority:

They consider teaching one of their primary roles.

They use every opportunity to learn and to teach.

-- Noel M. Tichy, The Leadership Engine.


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Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, defines leadership as

being the antithesis, i.e. being an exact opposite of bureaucrats and one of

the worst things that can be opined being as a leader. In his opinion, a leader

by definition is not a bureaucrat. In his years as the CEO of General Electric

(G. E.), he passionately brought bureaucracy in GE to a halt and in fact was

his first initial act when he assumed the leadership role in G. E. and continued

doing so in his almost two decades of being the CEO.

Therefore in reference to the above, a leader by definition:

Creates a clear understanding for themselves and for the people in the

organisation to enable them to execute and live the vision, mission,

values and strategic plans of the organisations.

Would also endeavour to remove non-value added systems and

processes to clear the path for execution. Innovation is the result of

having a system that allows people to be creative. Instead of having

systems and process that hinders the functions of the organisation

and the development of people in enhancing their capabilities in

providing those services, a leader would fundamentally removed such

systems and process and incorporate a better set of systems and

process to smoothen the delivery of services to clients, users, and

stakeholders.

Have a certain leadership style, to encourage empowerment and

delegation onto the people in the organisation to do whatever are

needed, within the parameters of organisational rules and

regulations, to fulfil the mission of the organisation, their agreed upon

goals and objectives.

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Would become the role model to the people, where they show

trustworthiness and inspire trust through out the organisation, when

they walk the talk.

In his book The Leadership Engine, Noel M. Tichy, stated But the same

traits that are necessary to bring off huge corporate transformations are

equally important at other levels of the organisation As Mike Walsh, the late

CEO of Tenneco, once put it, Every person in a key position has to see

himself or herself as a Mini-CEO. They have to conceptualise what has to be

done in the same way the CEO has... In this regards, in the Civil Service,

even though the formal leadership basically operates at the executive level,

the operations, the nuts and bolts and the failure or success of the services

are in the care of other leaders found throughout the organisation, including

the nurses, hospital attendants, officers, clerks and whoever that provides the

related services.

Based on the definitions above,

in a training program offered by

Franklin Covey Organisation

Services, called the 4 Roles of

Leadership, defined the leadership

roles as follows:

Pathfinding.

Aligning.

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Empowering.

Modelling.

Pathfinding: Here the leaders will attempt to identify who are important to the

organization (stakeholder), for example, in the case of the hospital who are

important in its provision of its services and what are important to the

stakeholders. As the organisation working towards achieving its goals, the

leaders would also attempt to identify their purpose (vision of the

organization), what matters most to the organization (mission of the

organization), and how would the people in the organization behave towards

each other and also towards the stakeholders (values of the organization).

Finally the leaders would need to identify the strategies in getting there.

Aligning: In executing the strategic plans, an organization would need to

have an elegant system, as a delivery mechanism, that would help in

delivering the hospital services. The leaders will seek to learn how the whole

system works together, what are the parts of the system, and how do the

parts of the systems are aligned to help achieve the vision and strategies with

the said operating values and ethics. The health care services presently have

many systems and processes, but are the systems and processes are being

continually improved to become the best delivery mechanism?

Empowering: The empowering leader would choose the different and right

leadership styles in different situations that require it. Their styles too would

encourage people to want to seek more challenging assignments and seek to

improve the systems and process of the delivery mechanism. Target, in the

civil service in the form of Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) or Sasaran Kerja

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Tahunan (SKT), will function as a basis of a Win-Win Agreement between the

individual employee in the work force and the organization. The KPI or SKT

will be the condition for empowerment, i.e. being the parameters of

operations, and performance evaluation. The empowering leader would seek

ways to cultivate an environment where people would do their best and to be

committed, for the parties involved to understand the nature of the work being

done, and the level of authority and responsibility that they would have.

Modelling: In the modelling role, a leader would behave and act in ways that

would build their trustworthiness. By being that trustworthy person, in their

daily interactions with others, this person would create better relationships

that are based on trust. Trustworthiness creates trust. In the modelling role,

the leader would seek the question of, who would follow him/her. In this

context, many leaders in organization do not get genuine loyalty from people;

they merely use authority, position, power to get others to act on things.

Rarely these leaders lead by influence, the influence of trust. Walking the talk

(cakap serupa bikin) does not become a maxim for these leaders. True

leaders would lead by influence.

APPLICATION: THE ROLES OF LEADERSHIP IN RELATION TO VALUES, ETHICS,

CREATIVITYAND INNOVATIONFOR CIVIL SERVICE EXCELLENCE

I believe, in conjunction to the first leadership role of Pathfinding, a

leaders role first and foremost is to understand who the stakeholders are and

what their needs are even before the notion of values and ethics come into

the picture. In this regards the leader would need to play their role in assisting

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the people in the organisation to actually know who the stakeholders and what

their needs are. Many a times, many organisations discharge their

responsibilities without these understandings and thus not being able to

deliver the needed.

Why is it important to identify and understand these stakeholders and

their needs? Simply because the stakeholders are the reason why the

departments of the Civil Service exist and become relevant.

A stakeholder has been defined in the Oxford dictionary, as a person

with an interest or concern in something. Therefore the question at hand for

the Civil Service, of the respective Ministries and departments would be who

are the people who have interest or concerns in the Civil Service provision of

services. The vision, mission, values, strategies and innovativeness and how

the services are provided will depend very much on the interest of these

stakeholders. Therefore the activities of the Civil Service would revolve and

center on the stakeholders needs.

In the words of Jack Welch in the book Jack Welch and the 4Es of

Leadership by Jeffery A. Krames, The best and most sustainable innovation

occurs where creativity and customer (stakeholder) needs intersect. Good

ideas dont just leap out laboratoriesthey are called out by the clear voice of

the customer and need to be reinforced with the right resources.

Therefore it is incumbent for the leaders to understand who these

stakeholders are and what their needs are. To plan and strategise, to

organize and implement systems and processes, to behave and act in

accordance to values and ethics, and to innovate, create and being creative

around the stakeholders needs. It is also for these leaders to lead the people

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in the organizations to understand them. Typically what happened is, these

leaders are too busy to undertake these tasks and tend to implement policies

and strategies without a holistic understanding of the stakeholders and their

needs. More often than not, many Civil Servants act and implement based on

the needs on a limited or restricted perspective, i.e. their bosses, people with

political clout or strings, higher-ups. The ordinary peoples needs are at times

being pushed aside or not attended to. Case in point, how many times have

we heard and saw the ordinary people are being deprived or pushed aside

because the staff need to expedite or focus on the so called V.I.P.s?

The present system may not intentionally provide these leaders with the

opportunity to assist the Civil Servants to actively participate in understanding

these. Maybe, one of the first act of a leader is to do this, each year, every

year, every time the Malaysia Plans are announced, with the staff they lead,

get connected to the stakeholders and their needs. Why? Because the values,

ethics, creativity and innovations are for the stakeholders. The present forums

available could be utilized to identify, understand and strategize towards the

stakeholders and their needs; the Monday morning meetings, the Friday

evening Continuous Education sessions can be utilized to discuss these, in

lieu of creating additional forums.

On August 19, 1991 a systematic and comprehensive guide entitled

Values and Ethics in the Public Service was published intending to provide

the Civil Service an enhanced understanding of values and ethics that need to

be practiced and internalised. Chapters in this book are dedicated to clarify

the meaning of the values, ethics and the formation of values as an

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instrument in culture building. It also discussed the matter of the concept of

values and ethics in the Civil Service; culture, values and ethics in the

management of organisations in the Civil Service; value system incorporated

in the regulations of the Civil Service; work ethics in the context of

organisational management; and internalising good values in the Civil

Service.

The former Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Dato Seri

Ahmad Sarji was quoted, Quality good/service begins with a quality man.

Noel M. Tichy, in his book The Leadership Engine was quoted to be

saying, Winning organisations have strong values; these values define

desirable behaviours, they support the organisations central goals. Tichy

further added, Winning leaders live the valuesprivately and publicly; their

personel conduct embodies the values, their actions reinforce the values in

others.He also highlighted that, Values are a key competitive tool; they are

the fabric of the corporate culture, they provide the instinctive grounding for

smart actions.

Jack Welch in his book Winning defined values as, are just

behavioursspecific, nitty-gritty, and so descriptive they leave little to the

imagination. People must be able to use them as marching orders because

they are the howof the mission, the means to the endwinning.

Therefore why are Values important to the Civil Service? Its the way we

behave in delivering the services, i.e. the stakeholders needs, as clarified in

the vision and mission of the Public Service. But please understand, it is not

how we behave toward a few people, at certain times, but to all the people i.e.

other Civil Servants high and low in the hierarchy, the public, customers,

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What is very clear, as far as the Civil Service is concerned, there never

was a lack of values and ethics, in fact the Civil Service had more identified

than other organisations, including in the private sector.

Base on the diagram below, creativity and innovation are mentioned as

values for professionalism.

Again quoting from Jack Welchs Winning, Bear with me, if you will,

while I talk about mission and values. I say that because these two terms

have got to be among the most abstract, overused, misunderstood words in

business Business schools add to this confusion by having their students

regularly write mission statements and debate values, a practise made even

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Nilai & Etika Dalam

Perkhidmatan Awam

Nilai-nilai Peribadi Asas:

Amanah;

Bertanggungjawab;

Ikhlas;

Berdedikasi

Berdisiplin;

Bekerjasama;

Bersih;

Tekun;

Sederhana.

Nilai-nilai yang Mengutamakan

Pelanggan:

Berbudi mulia;

Bersabar;

Sopan-santun;

Peramah.

Nilai-nilai Kepimpinan:

Adil;

Berani;

Syura.

Nilai-nilai Profesionalisme:

Berilmu;

Kreativiti;

Inovasi;

Integriti;

Neutraliti;

Kejujuran Intelektual;

Akauntabiliti;

Berkecuali.

Nilai-nilai Yang

Produktiviti/Kualiti:

Produktiviti;

Kualiti.

Nilai-nilai Keagamaan:

Bersyukur;

Beriman;

Bertakwa.


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more futile for being carried out in a vacuum. Lots of companies (and

organisations including government agencies) do the same to their senior

executives, usually in an attempt to create a noble-sounding plaque to hang

in the company lobby. Too often, these exercises end with a set of generic

platitudes that do nothing but leave employees directionless or cynical.

Jack Welchs observations has relevance in our, Civil Service, context.

We do have more than enough values and ethic statements, but the questions

at hand are: do we really buy-in to them and are we connected, heart, soul

and mind to them (Pathfinding role)?; do we build the values and ethics into

our delivery systems and processes, to everyday encourage the values and

ethics to function as guidelines in delivering our services (Aligning role)?; do

we evaluate and appraise staff performances against the specific sets of

values and ethics (Empowering role)?; and finally do we model and behave

the way the values and ethics dictate us to behave (Modelling Role)?

Since the Civil Service already has identified our own sets of values and

ethics, with their elaboration, we need not reinvent the wheel but that should

not make them static.

In the leaders assuming their Pathfinding role, what would be important

is to actually clarify how these values can personally be deeply connected,

creating personel relevance, to want to believe in them and live them. Thus

the leaders too have the responsibility to carry out the same tasks downwards

throughout the whole organisation. This would be a challenging task, partly as

the imbedded system of job rotations and transfers or simply the magnitude of

population in the civil service might impede such an undertaking, but that

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should never be the excuse. In my opinion the present orientation or induction

training programs has not been able to create relevance as the training of

values in these forums are general in nature. What I propose is for the leaders

of the respective departments to complement these programs by carrying out

first of all, a briefing session why the respective values and ethics matter to

the organisation. How they will impact the quality of services and the

achievements of the organisation. Secondly, for the discussions and dialogue

to be cascaded downwards to individual staff, none excluded, to create similar

relevance in their day-to-day behaviour in discharging their responsibilities

and compliance to the values and ethics.

At the end of the day, the values of the organisation should not just be

statements mounted on posters, hung up on walls all over the office,

published in circulars and other manner of publications but being paid no

heed by anybody. It should also not be mere rhetoric, spoken with fire by

everyone in the organisation, particularly by the leaders more often than not,

espousing the need to not just inculcate but living those values but finally

ending in words but not deeds. In examining this role of leadership, I believe

more can be done to actually create staff understanding, connecting to the

values, and having a sense of awareness that these values are the very

ethics that will rule how the delivery of services will be dictated, in the quality

of the services, how we treat our stakeholders, clients and each other. And in

fact the whole subject of this paper, about values, ethics, creativity, and

innovation (these 2 being clearly expressed as values for professionalism) ,

first and foremost revolve around and being formed around the values

clarified. In the words of Noel M. Tichy in The Leadership Engine, As

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important as it is for leaders to espouse good values, what really matters is

getting people to live by them. And this is where winning leaders and winning

organisations clearly outclass the losers. In our case, Civil Service

excellence!

In the Aligning role of a leader, it becomes his/her responsibility to

ensure or create systems, process, structure, and people that are in alignment

to the vision, mission, values, and strategies. Observe the following extract,

from The Leadership Engine, of the credo, mission and values statements of

the American Special Operations Command, a uniform group in the U. S.

army.

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Reinventing Licence

Is it the right thing for our country? Our forces?

Is it consistent with our organisations values?

Is it legal and ethical?

Is it something you are willing to be accountable for?

If the answer is YES to all those questions,

DONT ASK PERMISSION, JUST DO IT!

Signed

FRONT

REVERSE

MISSION; Prepare Special Operations Forces to successfully conduct

worldwide special operations, civil affairs, and psychological

operations in peace and war in support of the Regional Combat

Commanders, American Ambassadors and their Country Teams, and

other government agencies.

WE VALUE: Our people, creativity, competence, courage, and

integrity.


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Those statements were printed on plasticised cards, the size of our

MyCard, to be carried by people in the command. Innovation and Creativity

live in a government agency.

What we are looking at is an example on how a system being present to

enable empowerment and creativity based on a certain value system, so that

the people in the organisation is never far away from the objectives of the

organisation, and using the card to remind people of the values of the

organisation.

For example, what are needed to encourage staff to be creative an

innovative in pursue of Civil Service excellence? First of all, the Malaysian

Civil Service value system actually encourages people to be creative and

innovative, and by virtue of those values, both creativity and innovation

becomes the rules, the ethics and thus expected out of us. Therefore it is

almost sinful, for us Civil Servants to not being creative and innovative in

discharging our responsibilities.

Why are we not being innovative and creative then? Are there systems

and process in place that allow and encourages creativity and innovation? If

the systems and processes exist, are they making the staff feeling secure and

not threatened by the risk of failure in their creative and innovative actions?

What kind of recognition would the staff get for their creativity and innovation?

And here we are not talking about the research and development functions

that are already expected to being creative and innovative, but more of the

people in the front lines, operations, dealing with clients and customers,

vendors, suppliers, the general public and others, every day to be creative

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and innovative. Therefore what can a leader do about having such systems,

processes, and people to live such values?

In examining some of the incidences where creativity and innovation is

found to be lacking in the Malaysian Civil Service, one does not need to look

very far. Just look at how sometimes leaders behave. The leaders themselves

do not encourage creativity and innovativeness. I had the privy of noticing

how a leader, a university graduate and being an Assistant Director of a

department, putting down a non-graduate fellow officer of the same

department.

Some leaders believe that creativity and innovation must come from

them. They believe they are more creative and more innovative. All these

thoughts and believe come by virtue of their formal leadership position Not

true. Creativity and innovation strive and present in every leader throughout

the length and breadth of the whole organisation!

What the formal leadership must do is to allow it to happen. The leader

must provide the necessary alignment to allow a system of creativity and

innovation to be established to allow creativity and innovation to strive.

How does a leader do that? I would like suggest that:

1. Leaders must align themselves to believe in the values of creativity

and innovation and not merely paying a lip service to them. Believing

them, and then to live them. Always exploring the opportunities, by

being creative and innovative, to improve the delivery mechanism.

2. What if the leaders lack creativity and innovativeness? If they are

aligned to the values, then allow others to be creative and innovative.

Provide an atmosphere and environment where people feel safe to be

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creative and innovative. Allow the atmosphere and environment to

prevail, within the boundaries and confines of Malaysian Civil Service

rules and regulations. Do not allow failures to stop the leaders

believing in the values. Thomas Edison failed hundreds on times

before he finally came up with a light bulb.

3. Provide avenues where creativity and innovativeness. Previously, and

maybe presently too, Kumpulan Mutu Kerja (QCC) was the hype. You

would see the whole department gearing itself to that one QCC event.

Everyone putting on the Q badge for the whole week of the event.

Showcasing the creativity and innovation of the department. An event,

one single event in the whole year? It must happen every time and all

the time. For example, how long have the fail meja not been revised?

How long have the same process existed that way, and when the

public asked, Kenapa lama sangat proses? The standard reply has

always been, Boss takde! or Tiada arahan. Remember the

stakeholders? The department exist to serve the stakeholders. Ask

this question always, What if there is an alternative service provider,

with similar service charges and fees, what makes them choose us?

4. Reward creativity and innovation. You dont need to reward them with

salary increments or official recognition only. Every formal leader in

the Malaysian Civil Service is provided with a monthly Elaun Keraian.

How much is actually spent on keraian, entertaining the staff? Why

not use a portion of it, lets say 5% as a provision to show appreciation

for creativity and innovation. How much would that be? If you are

provided RM 500 monthly entertainment allowance, that would be RM

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6,000 a year. 5% would make RM 300. A mere RM 300 a year to

encourage creativity and innovation. Do not just give them cash,

maybe lunch or dinner voucher for 2, movie tickets, or entrance tickets

to a theme park would suffice. Maybe a Thank you card would be

sufficient. In fact some of the staff even doubt that the leader, the

boss, even being aware that they exist.

The maxim of the U. S. Special Operations Command, if it does not

breach the rules, just do it, and if it exist in the Malaysian Civil Service it would

encourage the values to be lived in a system that drives creativity and

innovation towards excellence.

As an Empowering leader, two major factors would need to be

examined in this role:

1. Leadership style,

2. Parameters to operate within.

It is without doubt that the leadership style plays a big role in inculcating

a culture of living based on values, ethics, creativity and innovation that would

lead to Civil Service excellence. There are some leaders who have the styles

that were practiced by the colonialist of the olden days, i.e. command and

order. These kinds of leaders are very particular about hierarchy, instructions,

orders, and thus do not inspire much creativity and innovation.

Once in a hospital clinic, the department was headed by such a leader.

The medical staff, nurses, attendants are always instructed to do this and that,

she shouted at them for slip-ups and mistakes. The atmosphere in the clinic

was tense every time she was present. Would this kind of leadership make

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people want to be creative and innovative? I say not. People would just be too

afraid. Creativity and innovation requires one to take risks as some of your

creativity and innovation may not work the first time.

Please understand that when the leader behaves in that manner, people

just shut down and be out of the loop, they would just bring their body to work,

lock and leave behind their spirit, heart, and mind in the car or at home. They

just do what the leader tells them to do, play safe, and not run the risk of

being on the boss wrong side, risk free, nothing extra. How do you innovate

and be creative when coming to work is no fun? The leader need to know

when to be strict, when to let go, when to participate, when to let the staff be

on their own to do things. These would require different leadership styles and

empowering levels, for example as the diagram below indicated, from the 4

Roles of Leadership by Franklin Covey.

Conditions for empowering to take place must prevail in the Civil Service.

Presently each Civil Servant is either given their annual targets or identifies

their own annual targets, through the SKT. However, I believe that generally

the SKT speak of numerical objectives, maybe the speed of processes,

volumes of cases to be cleared but clearly lack in other measures or targets,

behavioral in nature that the person concern displaying behaviours depicting

living the values and ethic of the Civil Service, and examples of creativity and

innovation in day to day operations and functions. If these factors are built into

the performance measurement system and clearly communicated to the staff,

then the staff would align their behaviours towards such objectives.

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Finally, in the Modellingrole of a leader, creativity and innovation being

a set of values and values being the ethics of Professionalism, it is incumbent

on the leader to model such traits. A leader must project that he/she is a

trustworthy person, and being trustworthy is a product of character and

competencies.

The character of the leader goes far deep into the person within, it is not

personality. It is a believe system. Character is a function of principles and

values. Question is does the leader believes the values and ethics if the Civil

Service and displays behaviour aligned to them. It is to note that many a times

that the political leadership, for example during the tenure of Dato Seri Dr.

Mahathir Mohamed, who introduced the idea of Bersih, Cekap, dan Amanah,

the present Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, to not

work for him but to work with him, and his introduction of Islam Hadhari and

integrity, had not brought about the desired changes and improvements.

I had the opportunity to observe Civil Service officer making fun of Pak

Lahs statement and not taken the idea to heart. The leaders are not

modelling the values. Over and above this, the leaders must display

competencies in the said areas where they are leading. More often than not,

competency is the outcome of knowledge and skill. Being competent in the

areas where one operates is mandatory however we are not expected to be

competent in everything. But does a leader have the humility to learn from the

rank and file?

If you take a leader who models trustworthiness in the context of values,

ethics, creativity and innovation, you would see leader whose words and

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behaviour depicting those values, and live those values. If one is not

competent, it is the leaders job to enhance his skill and knowledge. The

leader is responsible to create a climate where creativity and innovation to

prevail. A leader, who models the values and ethics of the Civil Service.

That leader IS the trustworthy person, and DOES what would make him

to be trusted.

I would like to suggest based on what had happened in the past and

presently, staff has somewhat grown cynical of the many initiatives taken by

the government in improve the Civil Service. There is a lot of example to point

towards what caused this cynicism. Many initiatives had been launched to

improve the Civil Service; some were implemented half heartedly after the

heat of the launch had dissipated, hangat-hangat tahi ayam. There were

also incidences where leaders in the public showed support of those

initiatives, but in private condemned them. Some initiatives were launched at

the heat of the moment, what is popular and what is being the focus at that

present moment. Not enough thoughts being put before the launch. And many

failed. Who are being accountable for them? And these leaders do not inspire

trust in the people working with them.

In the words of Larry Bossidy, how successful you are as a leader is always

measured by the success of your people.

CONCLUSION

Finally at the end of the day, if the leaders do not play their respective

roles, no matter what values and ethics or otherwise, and whatever creativity

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and innovation that we try to put into place, will all be a futile and wasted

effort. Excellence is a mere word we say and play about but never something

that we really strive for. In the final analysis, the Civil Service, being an

organisation that becomes the machinery of implementation and delivery of

services for the development of the country has the responsibility to reinvent

itself in that creative and innovative organisation within the boundaries of its

values as ethics. Being an organisation that has close to a million people, the

task is a daunting one to undertake but if the leaders, at all levels of the

organisation do not uphold those responsibilities, then where do we stand?

Once I was asked, can we achieve Vision 2020? I said yes, in terms of

technology, infrastructure, and modernisation, but not in terms of mentality

and attitude. We need leaders who would instil values and ethics, and

encourage creativity and innovation in the Civil Service.

In the words of Aristotle, We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,

then, is not an act, but a habit.

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Examine the Role of Leadership in Relation To