'Leaders must formulate goals, objectives well'

Leaders of the public sector must identify well-formulated goals or objectives and constantly articulate them repeatedly to get everyone to work in the same direction.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said when making recommendations, they must stick to the ones with the biggest payoffs.

"Firstly, when thinking of solutions, think of the elevator speech -- the solution should be so crisp and clear that you can explain it to someone in a 30-second elevator ride.

"Secondly, leaders must be able to energise people to get things accomplished and allow them to solve the most vexing problems."

Najib said the coming decades were periods to lay the foundation for substantial growth and change.
He said this in a speech, read by International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, at the closing of the "Public Sector Young Executive Conference" at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre yesterday.

The two-day conference was opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Tuesday.

Najib said qualitative case analysis as well as rigorous studies were beginning to provide leaders with knowledge to allow them to bring forth and effectively address key issues. [like this Perakmen: a fait accompli -ed.]

He said it was his observation that the leadership in the public sector was now facing an array of daunting challenges, including inverse global competition, changing demographics, issues of integrity and accountability, political aberrations and those relating to risky human behaviours.

"While we are slowly working from differences to similarities, the challenges are not minimised but, in fact, becoming more complex."

Therefore, Najib said, the leadership in the public sector must be about handling information and knowledge to achieve competitive advantage and effectiveness.

He added that the skill to envision various alternatives, expected or otherwise, was not a luxury anymore.

"The idiom of thinking outside the box should become a matter of habit to facilitate creativity which will help towards realising wisdom.

"We have to be both smart and wise to display a successful public sector leadership to face the challenges of a globalised world." -- text: NST