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Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree, or disagree with President Zelensky, just posting about how this video made me feel**.
He comes across as humble, for the people, as in this video he is seated, wearing a dark (green - possibly army fatigue) shirt, hair ruffled, and a goatee. He presents the opposite of what we remember Putin (because I don’t recall him appearing in public since the invasion) as in an expensive suit & mirror-polished shoes, hair slicked back, good, close shave - all about the image. Zelensky appears to be running on just a few hours sleep over the past number of weeks, pale, possibly just got off the battlefield and you can imagine the dirt and gun grease under his fingernails, boots scuffed and dirty from just driving a tank. Z attempts to tug at the heartstrings of his audience; he a national hero-as we have heard of a few such as the heavyweight boxing champ Klitschko - both Ukraine heroes / celebrities who are now picking up arms and battling in the trenches, protecting the homes of many, both rich and poor. Z is trying to drum up support of all political leaders, but not by saying they are victims, but rather because they are fighting a good fight against a bulley - a real David v Goliath story. He paints a picture of Goliath bombing some of Ukraine’s most vulnerable areas such as universities where their most bright and youthful population resides and studies. Z slowly chips away at any credibility that P may have left, and in this sense, is a master ‘manipulator’ at getting the EU / world on board to side against Goliath. Z says at one point ‘Glory be to Ukraine’ bringing in God’s support as well, which is symbolic as if to render P as the devil. After this speech, we see the cameras then turn to his audience, presumably politicians (congress, parliaments), some of the most influential people in the world, giving him a standing o - who knows for how long as the video ends after a few minutes of uninterrupted o, punctuated by his fist pumping the air next to him in a sign of solidarity and power.  Z, as a former actor / comedian, seemingly plays upon the viewers wish to root for the underdog, and in doing so, he has flipped the script displaying his propensity to be a leader of peace and protector of democracy - all in stark contrast to P. Ed Bourque

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One of the best leaders I observed emerge from the Covid pandemic was Dr. Ritesh Ram, an epidemiologist, who worked closely with, and led our local municipal leaders through the early stages of the state of emergency. His calming influence, and presentations based on facts and his extensive training, helped all involved to be able to breathe a sigh of relief that all would be ok through this concerning time.  While providing world statistics, he would also work with the Drumheller Mayor, ‘boots on the ground’ so to speak, to create videos, such as at the gas pumps where he would show how to use a spray or javex wipe to safe-guard the nozzle, and wear gloves to ensure minimizing the exposure during something we do on a daily basis. Of course, he would take Dr. Henshaw’s lead on the direction that AHS was providing as far as restrictions to abide by, but he also put his own spin on it, and we believed him due to the utmost trust we had established with him as a local Dr already.
Ed Bourque

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My initial exposure to Zelensky was when he blew up my Tik Tok feed. News of an impending war was breaking and all of a sudden videos and montages of him and the people of Ukraine were everywhere. Initially, I thought wow-this leader really knows how to use social media. He brought the world to its knees by humanizing the war, standing by his people and garnering sympathy and outrage. He has certainly moved the world with his words. When he speaks, he is believable and in a time of leaders who are at times, unkind, self serving, dishonest and oftentimes corrupt, he appears authentic and humble. His eyes, his hand over his heart, he really gets you in the feels. He appears to walk the walk as he can be seen in videos on social media in fatigues walking amongst Ukrainian soldiers. He exudes charisma (most likely from his background in acting) but also humility. I read an article awhile back that discussed the world's leadership crisis, that the pandemic certainly highlighted. He is portraying the antithesis to this at a time when people needed it. - V Croswell-Klettke

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Hello Everyone, Someone that stands out to me since the pandemic has started would have to b Newfoundland and Labradors chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald. Dr. Fitzgerald had taken on the role just before the world was taken hostage by COVID-19 and she was tasked with keeping our province safe, she immediately imposed strict conditions on socializing, working and just about everything we do outside our own homes. Her rules kept this province in check with the lowest per capita rates of infection and having the highest multi-dose vaccination percentage per capita in the country. As infection numbers stayed low, she stood firm on the guidelines she imposed, facing criticism from some as low infection numbers fostered a false sense of security and called for her to loosen the restrictions. NL tuned in daily for her updates, listening intently to her calls for cooperation, watching her show emotion as she told us we couldn’t spend holidays together, staying within our bubbles, not seeing all of our loved ones. At the end of each update she would sign off by saying “hold fast Newfoundland and Labrador”, This rapidly became coined as our “COVID motto”, and was widely adopted at home and with Newfoundlanders across the world.  It took much courage to stay committed to this position, Her Integrity was clearly evident in what was likely the most challenging time of her career. Her conviction and steadfast leadership was inspiring to thousands, and created a sense of public trust that is unmatched in my opinion. Those are characteristics of leadership that I applaud.Jamie Rideout

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Hello Everyone, Someone that stands out to me since the pandemic has started would have to b Newfoundland and Labradors chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald. Dr. Fitzgerald had taken on the role just before the world was taken hostage by COVID-19 and she was tasked with keeping our province safe, she immediately imposed strict conditions on socializing, working and just about everything we do outside our own homes. Her rules kept this province in check with the lowest per capita rates of infection and having the highest multi-dose vaccination percentage per capita in the country. As infection numbers stayed low, she stood firm on the guidelines she imposed, facing criticism from some as low infection numbers fostered a false sense of security and called for her to loosen the restrictions. NL tuned in daily for her updates, listening intently to her calls for cooperation, watching her show emotion as she told us we couldn’t spend holidays together, staying within our bubbles, not seeing all of our loved ones. At the end of each update she would sign off by saying “hold fast Newfoundland and Labrador”, This rapidly became coined as our “COVID motto”, and was widely adopted at home and with Newfoundlanders across the world.  It took much courage to stay committed to this position, Her Integrity was clearly evident in what was likely the most challenging time of her career. Her conviction and steadfast leadership was inspiring to thousands, and created a sense of public trust that is unmatched in my opinion. Those are characteristics of leadership that I applaud.Jamie Rideout

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Ukraine’s president is viewed around the world  as one of the most influential leaders of the day, his leadership style is very motivational. To think that right out the gate as this conflict started, the world held little hope that Ukraine would hold their own a week let alone go this long holding off the Russians. President  Zelensky has inspired a nation and the world, he has been invited to address many governments in an effort to get assistance and such requests have been met by the way of supplies and equipment to aid in the fight. His optimism is contagious and it’s admirable how he builds up his people.

Jamie Rideout

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I think Zelensky has performed admirably as a leader throughout the invasion. He recognizes the stakes involved, given that Russia seeks to dissolve Ukraine's national identity and subsume its people, its language and its culture into a new Russian empire. He has demonstrated some of the most important leadership qualities in my opinion, which are selflessness, leading by example, and a certain appetite for risk and sacrifice. When push came to shove, and when it became clear that Russia intended to assassinate him at the first opportunity and replace him with a more pliant leader, he remained resolute and continued to advocate for his country on the international stage while organizing its defense at home. Fleeing his people in their time of need and seeking safety abroad never appeared to even cross his mind. He could have sold out his country and his people, but he chose to risk his life, and for that he has my respect.

In any democracy, great power comes with great responsibility, and a willingness to put yourself on the line for your country and your ideals is something that I consider to be the bare minimum we can expect of our leaders. In times of peace, the leaders we elect tend to live lives of insulated privilege, which is all fine and well. But in times of war and crisis, we should expect our leaders to stand behind their ideals and make sacrifices as Zelensky has done.

Zelensky's admirable qualities as a leader are even more apparent when you contrast them with leaders who performed less than admirably under similar pressures. When you compare Zelensky to someone like Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, there's no question as to who the better leader is. Credible allegations were made that the latter embezzled $150 million in government funds as the Afghan state he helmed collapsed around him. While Zelensky decided to put up a fight, Ghani was among the first public officials to flee Afghanistan as soon as the Taliban started to gain the upper hand, leaving his country in chaos and many of those who were loyal to him vulnerable to reprisals by the Taliban. While context is important here, and Ghani was merely the last in a long line of ineffectual and corrupt Afghan statesmen, the same can be said of Zelensky's Ukraine, which has historically also been mired by both. Zelensky chose to stand above the rest and rise to the occasion, while Ghani merely perpetuated an existing pattern of failed leadership.

Marc Maggi

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A former senior Afghan official says he has answered questions in a U.S. inquiry into allegations that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took $150 million in cash with him when he abruptly left Kabul last year as the Taliban took control.

Hamdullah Mohib, who served as Ghani's national security adviser, says he voluntarily met with John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in December at his office in Arlington, Virginia, to answer questions about corruption in the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

"I also gave [SIGAR] my bank accounts and details of all my assets," said Mohib, who left Afghanistan in the same plane with Ghani and stayed with him in Abu Dhabi for a while. He told VOA that he would continue to cooperate with SIGAR investigations.

The U.S. was the largest donor to the Afghan government until it collapsed, and SIGAR has been tasked by Congress to investigate allegations that Ghani took millions in cash as he fled Afghanistan last August.

"The fact that we're looking at those allegations doesn't mean that they're true or not," Sopko said at an Atlantic Council event last week.

In addition to the cash flight allegations, which were first reported by the Russian Embassy in Kabul, Sopko said his investigators were looking into several related issues. "Why did the government of Afghanistan fall so quickly? Why did the military collapse so quickly? What happened? All the weapons? What happened to all the money that we were sending right up to the end - money, fuel, things like that."

SIGAR is expected to find answers to these questions and present a classified report to Congress in March or April this year. There will also be a public report which will be released later, Sopko said.

Ghani not interviewed
Fazel Fazly, another close aide to Ghani who fled with him in the same convoy and now lives in Sweden, told VOA the former Afghan president has not yet been interviewed by SIGAR. "I've been in touch with the president," said Fazly, adding that he also had not yet received inquiries from SIGAR.

In a video message released three days after he left Afghanistan, Ghani strongly rejected the reports that he took cash with him, and later called on the United Nations to launch an independent investigation into the matter.

Like Mohib, Fazly said he is willing to cooperate with SIGAR to prove he was not involved in any corruption, while at the same time admitting corruption infested all layers of the former Afghan government.

"It's insane to say there was no corruption," Fazly said. "We expect SIGAR to do objective, comprehensive and meaningful investigations to uncover the truth about corruption in Afghanistan."

Mohib and Fazley, widely reported to be closer to Ghani than any other Afghan officials, both said allegations that Ghani fled with sacks of dollars were aimed at maligning the former Afghan president as a corrupt U.S. ally.

"Moscow's relations with President Ghani were terrible and even some Central Asian leaders called him a Western imperialist," Fazley said.
The Cash
Fazly and Mohib both said they were unaware ofthe existence of large volumes of cash in the Afghan Presidential Palace.

While Ghani's predecessor, Hamid Karzai, confirmed that his office received bags of cash from the CIA and from the Iran government, Ghani said on multiple occasions that his office never received cash from the CIA or any other intelligence agency.

Ghani claims he had transferred his executive authority over state funds to a government committee and had no power over U.S. and NATO contracting processes for Afghan military funding, according to Mohib.

Others say the president did not need to personally receive the assistance funds in order to make use of them.

"There was money in the Afghanistan Bank," said Sayed Ikram Afzali, director of a local corruption watchdog Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Bank building - headquarters of the state-run central bank - is adjacent to the Presidential Palace compound in central Kabul where all funds, liquidities and highly valuable items were stored.

"Moving cash from the central bank to the palace was not a hard thing to do, especially when the governor of the bank was a Ghani henchman," said Afzali, adding that Ghani had kept Ajmal Ahmady, a U.S. citizen, as governor of the central bank even after his nomination to the post was repeatedly rejected by parliament.

Ahmady, now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School who leads a study group entitled "Afghanistan-What Happened & How to Engage the Taliban," told VOA via email that "no monies were taken from DAB [the central bank] by anyone except through legal means."

Ahmady did not answer a question as to how much money was left in the central bank accounts when he fled Kabul.

"Corruption in Afghanistan did not take place only for one day, and we must not be solely fixated on what happened on August 15. Large amounts of money were taken out of Afghanistan for so many years and those involved in high-level corruption were not waiting until the last day of the republic to move physical currency out of the country," Afzali said.
Accountability
From 2001 to the end of 2021, the U.S. spent more than $2 trillion on the Afghan war, including some $140 billion spent on development projects, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs.

At least $15.5 billion of the U.S. development funds went to "waste, fraud and abuse," SIGAR's investigations have found.

"Systemic corruption perpetuated an implosion of the system in Afghanistan," conceded Hamdullah Mohib.

Like others, Mohib said he was concerned that "truly corrupt" individuals who enriched themselves through the U.S.-bankrolled funding and contracting systems in Afghanistan now roam free in different parts of the world.

Since the fall of the Afghan government, tens of thousands of Afghans, among them former government officials and contractors, have sought refuge outside Afghanistan.

There are now growing calls, even by officials of the former Afghan government, for some sort of accountability by their own former colleagues.

"[Former government officials] must be held accountable and tried," Naseer Ahmad Faiq, chargé d'affaires of Afghanistan's mission at the United Nations, told a Security Council meeting last week. "It is not fair that 38 million people [in Afghanistan] are starving and mothers sell their children to survive but these corrupt former government officials live in luxurious houses and villas in different countries in Europe and the U.S."

SIGAR's investigations have led to criminal charges and trials of some individuals and companies, both U.S. and Afghan, in U.S. federal courts. It's unclear whether SIGAR would press criminal charges against former Afghan officials, who were previously commended as U.S. partners, if found guilty of fraud and corruption.

"We're looking at more people than President Ghani about taking money out of the country at the end," John Sopko said in response to a VOA question.

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US Inspector Questions Top Ghani Aide on Corruption, Collapse of Afghan Government

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A former senior Afghan official says he has answered questions in a U.S. inquiry into allegations that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took $150 million in cash with him when he abruptly left Kabul last year as the Taliban took control.

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Gauging Pandemic Leadership Effectiveness: New Zealand's Response

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Gauging Pandemic Leadership Effectiveness: New Zealand's Response

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It is with great difficulty from our vantage point in 2022 that I must judge any leader's pandemic performance. The pandemic is very much a volatile, ongoing concern, much as we might wish to put it in the rear-view mirror. Any leadership judgements made now might not hold true for very long. Countries that mismanaged their responses early on, like the United States and much of the Eurozone, are now muddling through relatively well due to high vaccination rates (by global standards at least). Meanwhile, countries that were initially praised for their pandemic response measures and low case counts like South Korea and Japan went on to face devastating waves recently with the Omicron variant. Low to nonexistent testing in much of the developing world has obscured the effectiveness of many countries' pandemic responses, while countries that initially invested heavily into testing, like Canada, are now falling woefully short as public support for pandemic related spending dwindles.

It's obvious to me as time goes on that many of the strategies which worked best early on are failing against the much more virulent Omicron variant, which is why I think flexibility, agile decision-making, and a willingness to heed evidence are the best leadership approaches for tackling this constantly evolving virus. If I had to pick leaders who responded best to the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than picking any one person, I would probably pick New Zealand's Prime Minister, cabinet, and ministry of health. Their response hasn't been perfect (as the high profile resignation of their minister of health in 2020 can attest to), but overall their proactive and flexible approach minimized both case counts and societal fallout from the pandemic. As cases started to surge this winter with the Omicron wave, they skillfully shifted from an elimination policy to a mitigation policy, which ensured that their Omicron wave peaked very quickly.

As for the economic fallout of the pandemic, New Zealand acted more swiftly and more forcefully to control its housing bubble than either Canada (where average housing prices have risen 50% since the start of the pandemic) or the United States. As benchmark interest rates were slashed to near zero by central banks worldwide in order to avert a liquidity crisis and a recession, New Zealand acted prudently to end tax-incentives for housing speculators (like mortgage interest deductions for rental income) and to end zoning restrictions that artificially restrict supply. As a result, New Zealand has had falling house prices since last summer and is seeing a gradual cooling of its housing bubble. Crucially, a lower proportion of homes in New Zealand are being purchased by housing "investors" now. Compare that to Canada's approach, where the Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said "we need the growth we can get" and all but invited speculators to recklessly hoard housing and to outbid Canadian families in the process.

In trying to solve one crisis, our leaders stoked an even bigger crisis. Canada is only just now starting to implement the kinds of policies that New Zealand implemented last year to make housing more affordable for average people, and it hasn't gone nearly far enough. Meaasures like the foreign buyer ban are superficial and seem designed to give the appearance of doing something without actually solving the issue at hand. I would say that New Zealand's leadership style with respect to the pandemic economy was proactive, rather than the reactive leadership we are seeing in Canada. Most importantly, New Zealand's leadership has shown a proactive willingness actually to do something about the affordability and cost of living crisis, whereas Canada's leadership seems to only care about appearing to act, and only when it is politically convenient to do so (eg., during the last federal election). That's not what real leadership looks like to my eyes. New Zealand's response hasn't been perfect, but they have done a far better job of mitigating the broader economic fallout of pandemic-related spending and debt creation.

Marc Maggi

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wo weeks ago marked the two-year anniversary of New Zealand's adoption of the elimination strategy and a lockdown that successfully stamped out the first wave of Covid-19. By chance, it was also the week that the government announced a major relaxation of Covid-19 control measures in response to the Omicron variant wave sweeping the country.

By most metrics, the New Zealand Covid-19 response - the initial elimination strategy which has now transitioned to a mitigation strategy - has been one of the most successful in the world. It got the country through the first 18 months of the pandemic until vaccines became widely available, giving it very low Covid-19 mortality rates. Life expectancy actually increased during this period. Protecting public health has also been good for protecting the economy, resulting in relatively good economic growth and low unemployment.

The shift to mitigation was supported by the lower severity of Omicron and the relatively high vaccination coverage of the population. However, the high infection rate with the current Omicron wave has pushed numbers in hospital with Covid-19 to over 1,000 at its peak and cumulative deaths are approaching 400. Many thousands of future cases of long Covid seem plausible in adults and possibly children. New Zealand will need to maintain and even strengthen some controls in the months ahead. So what can it learn from the past two years?

Firstly, principles matter. During the course of the pandemic the New Zealand government has emphasised that the response is primarily focused on protecting public health. This starting point reinforces a number of key principles, notably: leadership that listens to the science; a focus on equity and partnership with Māori; use of the precautionary principle in the face of uncertainty; and the need to create legacy benefits for our healthcare and public health systems.

Framing and effective communication matter. By their very nature, pandemics are a shared threat.

The behaviour of individuals affects others. This was a strength of the elimination strategy in that it could rightfully celebrate the benefits of working together (the "team of 5 million"). An emerging alternative framing of " learning to live with it " is somewhat understandable given the nature of Omicron. But this framing is problematic in that it puts too much of the responsibility on to individuals and vulnerable groups to manage the risks they face. Instead, we need to keep emphasising the value of shared health security, the benefits of collective action and the role of government.

Transparency and political consensus matter. During the initial phase of the response, efforts were made to achieve multi-party agreement on the response. Unfortunately, such agreement has now fractured, with the response increasingly politicised. The premature lifting of some safeguards two weeks ago was a likely sign of this politicisation. Politicians need to revisit mechanisms that strive for transparency and political consensus. This matters for Covid-19 but would be essential for even worse pandemics, eg from engineered bioweapons.

Infrastructure matters. The pandemic is just the latest in a series of public health problems that New Zealand has struggled to manage, including a disastrous contaminated drinking water outbreak in Havelock North and a national measles epidemic. These problems can be partly attributed to the fragmentation and erosion of public health infrastructure. Fortunately, these deficiencies may be addressed with health sector reform, including the establishment of a Public Health Agency and Māori Health Authority.

This is an important opportunity to build on the infrastructure assembled during the pandemic response.

Effective pandemic tools matter. The pandemic response has required New Zealand to swiftly develop a new set of tools for managing this threat. They include systems for border management and quarantine, a national immunisation register and vaccine mandates/passes, a national case and contact management system, and frameworks to manage physical distancing and mask use.

Successfully rolling out vaccination has highlighted the critical importance of funding Māori and Pasifika service providers. The response has been supported with improved information tools, including better surveillance, disease modelling, genomic sequencing, wastewater testing, evidence-informed policy development and evaluation. Continuing investment is needed in all of these areas.

Safe indoor environments matter. One of the greatest legacies of the pandemic is that it has shown the importance of the indoor air environment for transmission of respiratory infections. This awareness has highlighted the value of using masks and improved indoor ventilation to prevent Covid-19. But much still needs to be done so that high-quality indoor ventilation is year-round and cost-effectively combined with providing thermal comfort.

There are many other things that also matter, such as accessible and effective health care services, and these will hopefully be considered as part of a future official inquiry into the pandemic response and what we can learn from this experience.

Responding to Covid-19 has taught us a lot, but this pandemic and other future pandemic threats will remain challenging. New Zealand needs to keep a focus on core principles, effective communication, building consensus and continuously upgrade its public health systems and tools.

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New Zealand's Covid strategy was one of the world's most successful - what can we learn from it? | Michael Baker and Nick Wilson

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wo weeks ago marked the two-year anniversary of New Zealand's adoption of the elimination strategy and a lockdown that successfully stamped out the first wave of Covid-19. By chance, it was also the week that the government announced a major relaxation of Covid-19 control measures in response to the Omicron variant wave sweeping the country.

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Zelensky's Leadership Style - Jessica MacKeen

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Zelensky's Leadership Style - Jessica MacKeen

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My first impressions of Zelensky's leadership style is how he comes across even through a screen. He seems genuine, kind, personable, and compassionate, which are all traits of a great leader. He also puts a big focus on developing a better future even in the face of such danger that is going on in their home country. He also speaks is a positivist light and this resonates with people during dark times. When a leader speaks in such a way, it can highly motivate people and instill hope and faith in people when its desperately needed. So even though people may or may not agree with what he's saying its the delivery and composure that I think draws people in and makes him a good leader.

Jessica MacKeen

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In the video, Zelensky embodies an authentic leadership style. His refusal to read a prepared statement and instead speak directly and openly is admirable and reflective of the gravity of the situation. He balances the positive and hopeful message about the strength of his people and the unity of the international community with the very real human suffering. Authentic leaders tap into the language of human experience and emotion in order to mobilize support, and Zelensky has been successful in this regard.

On the other hand, I think as a society we have an unhealthy idolization of wartime leaders. The tragedy of war and its immediate and unifying emotional response of citizens makes the leader's task quite simple, compared to a cumulative problem like the climate crisis. A few "good versus evil" and "light versus dark" metaphors solidify the masses against a common enemy and toward a common goal. In survival mode, the complexities of consensus, perspective-taking and delicate balancing of competing priorities dissolve into a singular goal of winning the war and keeping people alive. I am not arguing that leading a country under attack is by any means easy, but it may not showcase the full set of leadership skills on which to assess a leader's performance.

-Natalie James

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One of my favourite leaders is a man many people do not know. Richard Ireland has been the mayor of Jasper, Alberta since the municipality was first created more than 20 years ago. From what I have seen, he always appears to have the community’s best interests in mind, is transparent, empathetic, tough when he needs to be, but always diplomatic.

When the pandemic started, the mayor (who I know is not tech-savvy) started making thoughtful video messages for the community. The videos contained municipal updates, gratitude for local businesses and health care providers, and directed people on where to find accurate information from the provincial and federal governments. Throughout the pandemic these videos continued and included other topics like volunteer appreciation and messages of congratulations for the high school graduates. These videos made me feel more connected to my community during a time of isolation.

When the mayor didn’t know something with respect to COVID-19, he didn’t pretend to have the answers. He was frank and up-front but assured us the municipality was trying its best. Around the Council table, it was the mayor who suggested ideas like an economic task force made up of local stakeholders, property tax deferrals and rent subsidies at municipal facilities.

Many residents watched the mayor juggle conflicting messages from the province while also trying to support the community’s main industry: tourism. An example of this is when the Government of Alberta buckled down on health restrictions and discouraged out-of-town travel, but allowed ski hills to remain open. People from all over flocked to our small remote mountain community while active case counts climbed and the small hospital struggled. The mayor took to the media, encouraging people to save their visits for a safer time.

Many of us also watched as the mayor demonstrated his collaborative leadership skills with Parks Canada - as a town within a national park, the Municipality of Jasper shares governance with the federal government. When the province started easing its health restrictions, the national parks did not. The mayor once again took to the media, encouraging people to pack a kit (gloves, hand sanitizer, etc.) and come support the local businesses while taking in some nearby hiking trails.

I can only imagine how challenging it must be to maintain open and positive relationships with residents, businesses, and multiple levels of government (especially during a global pandemic), but I think Richard Ireland is an excellent example of someone who navigates these relationships with competence, tact and empathy.

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One of my favourite leaders is a man many people do not know. Richard Ireland has been the mayor of Jasper, Alberta since the municipality was first created more than 20 years ago. From what I have seen, he always appears to have the community’s best interests in mind, is transparent, empathetic, tough when he needs to be, but always diplomatic.

When the pandemic started, the mayor (who I know is not tech-savvy) started making thoughtful video messages for the community. The videos contained municipal updates, gratitude for local businesses and health care providers, and directed people on where to find accurate information from the provincial and federal governments. Throughout the pandemic these videos continued and included other topics like volunteer appreciation and messages of congratulations for the high school graduates. These videos made me feel more connected to my community during a time of isolation.

When the mayor didn’t know something with respect to COVID-19, he didn’t pretend to have the answers. He was frank and up-front but assured us the municipality was trying its best. Around the Council table, it was the mayor who suggested ideas like an economic task force made up of local stakeholders, property tax deferrals and rent subsidies at municipal facilities.

Many residents watched the mayor juggle conflicting messages from the province while also trying to support the community’s main industry: tourism. An example of this is when the Government of Alberta buckled down on health restrictions and discouraged out-of-town travel, but allowed ski hills to remain open. People from all over flocked to our small remote community while our active case counts climbed and our small hospital struggled. The mayor took to the media, encouraging people to save their visits for a safer time.

Many of us also watched as the mayor demonstrated his collaborative leadership skills with Parks Canada - as a town within a national park, the Municipality of Jasper shares governance with the federal government. When the province started easing its health restrictions, the national parks did not. The mayor once again took to the media, encouraging people to pack a kit (gloves, hand sanitizer, etc.) and come support the local businesses while taking in some nearby hiking trails.

I can only imagine how challenging it must be to maintain open and positive relationships with residents, businesses, and multiple levels of government (especially during a global pandemic), but I think Richard Ireland is an excellent example of someone who navigates these relationships with competence, tact and empathy.

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President Zelensky has been a fixture on our televisions the last few months, where previous to Russia's most recent invasion, he was a bit unknown across the globe. Through the many different times I have seen President Zelensky speak on television (including the Youtube video) I find him to be genuine, brave and doing everything he possibly can to save his country. I think he is exhibiting all the qualities we would hope to see in our own leaders if faced with the same obstacles in our country. He is showing his unwavering dedication to his people, and is working hard to get the word out there regarding the injustices being done in his country and gather support from other countries to assist them in this fight. I also think, with technology now, we are able to have a better understanding of what they are going through and therefore appreciate more the efforts that are being taken to help the people of Ukraine.

Seonaid MacDonell

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Leaders who have risen during the Covid-19 pandemic

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Leaders who have risen during the Covid-19 pandemic

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Someone who I have found has a stood out as a leader throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, is Dr. Robert Strang in Nova Scotia. First of all, kudos should be given to all the doctors and leaders in the roles of managing and creating the public health restrictions. I can only imagine the difficulties that came along with those roles. What impressed me so much about Dr. Strang's approach to dealing with the pandemic was how he always prioritized the science and took a more precautionary approach until he knew more about how people would be affected. He also kept a close eye on the number of cases within hospitals and put forth updates for public health restrictions based on this. I always felt like our health was always the top priority within Nova Scotia which was so important, especially early on in the pandemic when we were dealing with so many unknowns. I also want to commend our provincial Premier at the beginning of the pandemic, Stephen McNeil. I didn't always agree with all the decisions made surrounding his government, but I do feel he did a great job at collaborating with Dr. Strang, to make sure they were on the same page with our provincial public health restrictions and put the health of Nova Scotians first and it never appeared that politics came into their decision making. Now I know this leadership route was not favoured by every Nova Scotian, as the economy did take a hit but, I do feel the steps they took were necessary, especially during the beginning before vaccinations were being distributed.

Seonaid MacDonell

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Lanette Siragusa, who served as Chief Nursing Officer and Co-Incident Commander for the Province of Manitoba during the first 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, stood out to me as a strong administrative leader. She communicated recognition and gratitude for the ongoing efforts of healthcare workers, both directly, on the ground and publicly during daily news conferences. During a time of crisis when nursing duties became much more difficult, this application of motivational and supportive leadership helped to build and instill trust. Siragusa also displayed integrity and selflessness by taking on frontline shifts at personal care homes that were experiencing simultaneous staffing shortages and COVID-19 outbreaks. When asked about these shifts by reporters, Siragusa was very humble showing that her intent was not to garner recognition but simply to pitch in.

Multiple times during the pandemic Manitoba's intensive care units were overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 patients and ultimately patients had to be flown to other provinces to receive care. This was undoubtedly a failure in leadership to adequately prepare the health system capacity, however the responsibility for this failure is shared among health care administrators and political leaders.

Both Van Wart's 2013 article and Katie Gibson's review of Barbara Kellerman's 2016 essay on leadership present the view that leadership is a system rather than an individual. This idea resonated with me as it seems unrealistic to expect one person to have everything it takes to manage the complexity and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table is a good example of a horizontal and collaborative network that displayed leadership during the pandemic. This group of scientific and health care experts was assembled due to the lack of an existing table with the necessary cross-disciplinary lens to address the emerging crisis. The credibility of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table came from both its objective evaluation of emerging evidence and evolving knowledge and from fact that it drew in multiple perspectives and was not reliant on one individual.

-Natalie James

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Like many of us, our Provincial Chief Medical Officer of Health shone during the pandemic. Dr. Deena Hinshaw came out with a calm, no no nonsense demeanor and shared facts. She was compassionate and at the start of the pandemic, she made everyone a little less afraid. We all trusted her. T-shirts were made with her face emblazoned on the front. Social media was abuzz with uh oh she cut her bangs, we are headed to lockdown. She was cared about but most importantly, believed and trusted. It all went downhill when people got tired, their hero worship wore off. One side wanted measures lifted and one side wanted more extreme measures and sadly she got caught up in the political game that so many of our health advisors did and still do. She is now embroiled in a court case having defend provincial measures. How did she go from hero to this? Honestly, I think too much time lapsed, people got tired, they stopped believing, they didn't see things getting better. Measures contradicted themselves, and well, as I said everyone got tired and no hero came.... and the one they had lost her shine. I have mad respect for this woman and think she was caught in a lose lose situation. I think Zelensky will find as time wears on he will face the same. Vanessa Klettke

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Like the Forbes article indicated, we like rooting for an underdog. Zelensky has stepped up as a stoic unassuming leader, demonstrating courage, authenticity and relatability.

In contrast to Putin’s authoritarian style of leadership, Zelensky presents himself as an equal to those that he governs; he is aligned with democratic practices and seems to share the values of his country.

Zelensky is also an effective communicator. He appears to be transparent when describing the situation and next steps. I think in a time of uncertainty and destruction, people find comfort in a leader that can be firm, honest and express genuine humility.

Kayla Byrne

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I find it interesting to watch Zelensky's leadership style as he is an actor, which I am too.
Actor's are good at being in the moment, and creating a sense of importance in the room or situation.
I respect how he inserts himself into the actual situations and lays things out as they really are, not sugar coating.

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I am going to say that someone who has impressed me during this crisis is Dr. Robert Strang.
Many people probably didn't even know what a chief medical officer did before this pandemic.
He has been thrust into the spotlight and having to manage huge teams of people for over 2 years. It was probably more than he had ever imagined possible when he took the job.
I love that he is always calm, will apologize when he makes mistakes, and takes time to speak with care and be inclusive.
I know that not everyone agrees with all the decisions that he and his working partners have made, but I do truly believe that he has always had the public's wellbeing at the forefront of all decisions and strategies. He leads with care and humility.

- Laura Caswell

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After reading the article and watching the video of President Zelensky speaking to the European leaders I felt an overwhelming desire to cheer for him, as many did.  His clear, concise message is heard throughout the world, his expectations and rationales to his supporters are transparent and consistent when requesting aid.  He continues to encourage, praise and recognize the strength and sacrifice his people and his country is making for their land, their rights, their freedoms.  His honesty is saddening, as he describes horrors and war crimes against innocent people to his audience, clearly naming those responsible.  His words are mobilizing and inspiring, they demand a response and the world is responding with supports for his cause.  Weeks into what everyone thought was going to be a one-sided fight Zelensky continues to keep his people focused on the ultimate goal and achieving results.  He is somehow present and available to the Ukrainian people and they are "holding there own"  in this un fair fight.  I dare say, President Zelensky's leadership style plays a significant role in the results of Ukraine's efforts.
Tanya Webber

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I believe someone who rose during the Covid-19 pandemic as a great leader is Dr. Robert Strang, the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Nova Scotia. Dr. Strang has been leading Public Health in NS since the early 2000s, yet I believe many Nova Scotians like myself have not felt his presence as we have in the past two years. During the pandemic, I felt Dr. Strang took a transformational leadership approach. He showed many of the traits that come with this leadership style, including upheld moral standards, fostering an ethical work environment, promoting clear values and standards, and emphasizing authenticity and open communication. Something that struck me and some of my family is his unwavering calmness when delivering Covid-19 updates, which is a great personality trait to have when being in an important leadership role that deals with life-threatening situations.

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The transformational leadership style inspires workers to embrace change by fostering a company culture of accountability, ownership, and workplace autonomy.

What is transformational leadership?

The transformational leadership approach encourages, inspires, and motivates employees to innovate and create the change necessary to shape the future success of the company. This is accomplished by setting an example at the executive level through authenticity, a strong sense of corporate culture, employee ownership, and independence in the workplace. Transformational leaders are change agents in the business, who can identify innovative and shifting trends in technology, and then help the organization embrace that change.

Transformational leaders inspire and motivate their workforce without micromanaging - they trust trained employees to take authority over decisions in their assigned jobs. It's a management style that's designed to give employees more room to be creative, look to the future, and find new solutions to old problems. Employees on the leadership track will also be prepared to become transformational leaders themselves through mentorship and training.

Transformational leadership theory

The concept of transformational leadership started with James V. Downton in 1973 and was expanded by James Burns in 1978. In 1985, researcher Bernard M. Bass further expanded the concept to include ways for measuring the success of transformational leadership. This model encourages leaders to demonstrate authentic, strong leadership with the idea that employees will be inspired to follow suit.

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While Bass' transformational leadership theory dates to the '70s, it's still an effective leadership model practiced today - this style of authentic leadership never changes, just the environments it's used in. It's applicable across every industry, but it's especially vital to the fast-paced tech industry where innovation and agility can make or break a company.

For a deeper look at the transformational leadership model, see " How to apply transformational leadership at your company."

Transformational leadership model

Four main elements define the transformational leadership model and style. These factors were developed by Bass in 1985 to help define what transformational leadership looks like and how to be successful as this type of leader:

Idealized influence: The most important thing you can do as a transformational leader is to lead by example. Employees will look to you as a role model for behavior in all areas of the workplace. If you lead with authenticity, employees will pick up on that behavior and feel inspired to maintain that high standard for performance. It's not about manipulating employees into working hard, it's about leading by example and positively influencing others through a commitment to trust, transparency, and respect.

Intellectual stimulation: To help create change, it's important to challenge long-standing beliefs in the company and push the status quo by encouraging innovation, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Transformative leaders should help employees feel comfortable exploring new ideas and opportunities that can inject innovation into the organization. You want to establish an environment that welcomes growth and gets everyone excited about digital transformation and other important initiatives in the organization.

Inspirational motivation: As a transformational leader, you will need to encourage your team to feel attached and committed to the vision of the organization. You want to ensure employees feel as committed to these goals as you do as a leader by giving employees a strong sense purpose, rather than attempting to motivate them through fear.

Individual consideration: Employees need to feel a sense of independence and ownership in the overall business goals. As a transformational leader, it's important to understand every employee is a unique person within the company and will have specific needs, mentorship styles, and their own contributions to the company. These leaders will tailor their coaching and mentorship styles to the employee and help them reach goals both inside and outside of the organization.

Transformational leadership characteristics

Businesses want transformational leaders who display an " executive presence," according to David E. Ulicne, senior director of executive education at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.

"The most important attribute for the success of the CIO would be their ability to articulate their vision and gain support of key stakeholders." It's a skill that takes practice, and you'll need to "build your storytelling skills " by presenting at conferences and symposiums, and even recording yourself delivering speeches and asking your PR or media team for "constructive feedback."

For a deeper look at leadership traits, see " 7 leadership traits major enterprises look for in a CIO."

According to Bass' model, transformational leaders set themselves apart from other types of leaders by doing the following:

Encouraging the motivation and positive development of followers

Exemplifying moral standards within the organization and encouraging the same of others

Fostering an ethical work environment with clear values, priorities, and standards

Building company culture by encouraging employees to move from an attitude of self-interest to a mindset where they are working for the common good

Holding an emphasis on authenticity, cooperation, and open communication

Providing coaching and mentoring but allowing employees to make decisions and take ownership of tasks

For a look at how to draw attention to your transformational leadership qualities in your resume, see " IT resume makeover: Highlighting transformational leadership."

Transformational leadership examples

Harvard Business Review analyzed companies on the S&P and Fortune Global 500 list to uncover the best examples of transformational leadership. These businesses were judged on "new products, services and business models; repositioning its core business; and financial performance."

Jeff Bezos, Amazon: Harvard Business Review attribute's Bezos' "insider, outsider" status as part of what makes him a great transformational leader. As someone who jumped from the finance world, he brought a fresh perspective to e-commerce through years of experience in a different industry.

Reed Hastings, Netflix: Hastings tied for first alongside Bezos, and for similar reasons. Hailing from the software industry, he wasn't rooted in pre-established process and procedure in the television industry.

Jeff Boyd and Glenn Fogel, Priceline: Boyd and Fogel reinvented travel reservations by charging lower commission fees on reservations, but focused on smaller niche markets (inns, B&Bs, and apartments), eventually spawning Booking.com.

Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Apple: HBR points to Apple as an example of "dual transformation": Jobs innovated on original Microsoft products while also building a software ecosystem. Cook has extended on Jobs' vision, maintaining a focus on innovation, software, and brand loyalty.

Mark Bertolini, Aetna: Bertolini is known for his realistic management approach in the healthcare industry. He says his goal is to build strategies around a realistic vision of the future.

Kent Thiry, DaVita: Thiry managed to take a bankrupt company and turn it into a thriving business through firm core values that included "service excellence, teamwork, accountability and fun," according to Harvard Business Review.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft: Nadella started at Microsoft in 1992 and worked his way up the corporate ladder, eventually running the business' cloud computing efforts, which landed him the executive position.

Emmanuel Faber, Danone: Faber started out as an architect for Danone and earned the CEO job after he helped develop the company's vision to turn the company into a sustainable health and nutrition company.

Heinrich Hiesinger, ThyssenKrupp: Hiesinger become CEO of ThyssenKrupp in 2011 and helped alleviate pressure from Asian competitors in the steel market by embracing newer forms of manufacturing, including 3D printing - "new growth areas" that now make up 47% of the business' sales.

Transformational leadership in IT

Although the concept of transformational leadership can apply to every industry - including healthcare, education, and government agencies - it's increasingly important in IT as companies embrace digital transformation. Adapting to rapidly changing technology requires innovation and strong leadership to stay ahead of the curve and to remain competitive.

As leaders in IT, CIOs are responsible for setting the example as transformative leaders - especially considering they're largely responsible for the digital transformation of the organization. Gartner reports that 40% of CIOs are leaders of digital transformation in their organization, while 34% say they're responsible for innovation. Inspiring and motivating employees is an important aspect of digital transformation success, as everyone must buy into and embrace growth and change.

Digital transformation has become an even bigger priority since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way companies operate across every industry. According to the Digital Leadership Report 2021 from Harvey Nash Group, the pandemic sparked a "time of unprecedented change and transformation of digital at the majority of organizations." While this digital shift began years ago, the pandemic only accelerated it through an increased demand for remote work and significant changes in supply chains and customer behavior.

In 2021, 50% of digital leaders said they expect major or radical changes to products and services, 47% planned to unlock new value through digital, 43% were tasked with supporting innovation, and 48% had expectations to transform and digitize the enterprise, according to data from Harvey Nash Group.

While there is certainly a growing need to keep an eye on the future - whether it's security, new technology, or shifting platforms - not every part of IT will benefit from transformational leadership. Some processes, procedures and development projects require more structure, consistency and reliability; this is called transactional leadership.

To read how CIOs are making good on transformational leadership, see " Transformational CIOs juggle innovation and operations."

Transactional vs. transformational leadership

Transactional leadership is the exact opposite of transformational leadership - it relies on motivating employees through rewards and punishments. It requires supervision, oversight, organization, and performance-monitoring. This leadership model doesn't try to innovate. Instead, it's rooted in keeping things consistent and predictable over time. Errors and faults are closely investigated, and the overall goal is to create efficient, routine procedures.

This style is best suited to departments or organizations that require routine and structure - areas where businesses want to reduce chaos or inefficiency. But it doesn't allow for innovation or future planning the same way transformational leadership will.

Transformational leadership, on the other hand, supports agile environments, especially where failure carries less risk. You want the development and maintenance of a current product to remain consistent and error free, but you don't want that to hinder the progress and growth of future updates and improvements.

Transactional leadership takes care of creating a consistent development process, while transformational leadership leaves people free to come up with new ideas and look at the future of products, services and ideas.

Training and certification

Although transformational leadership skills are considered soft skills, there are still plenty of resources, certificates, and training programs aimed at developing transformational leaders. Here's a short list of online resources to earn training and certifications in transformational leadership. However, it's likely you can find an in-person training course at a local college or university in your home state.
More on transformational leadership

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What is transformational leadership? A model for motivating innovation

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The transformational leadership style inspires workers to embrace change by fostering a company culture of accountability, ownership, and workplace autonomy.

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Jessica MacKeen wrote the post about Dr. Strang and forgot to author it at the end. 

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Jessica MacKeen wrote the post about Dr. Strang and forgot to author it at the end. 

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I think that an example of Zelensky being a credible world leader occurred well before the Russian invasion. Of course he became a household name following the invasion, but he wasn't a complete political unknown prior to that, as he resisted attempts of Donald Trump to smear his political rival in return for military aid. Standing up to pressure from the American president is no easy task, regardless of how ludicrous the ask is. He rebutted political smears against him levied by Trump and his associates in the months surrounding Trump's first impeachment. He didn't have a lot of credibility prior to that, as a comedian (who played the president on TV) and then actually won public office likely wouldn't. The easy choice would have been to capitulate, but at that time, as an unknown with no political credibility, he showed that he in fact did have a backbone enough to stand up to bullying tactics. Fastforward to Feb/2022 and while the war in Ukraine is shocking, that Zelensky's reputation for standing up to bullies contiues to grow isn't as shocking.

Its difficult to discern exactly what his leadership style is. He would obviously rather not lead the way he currently has to. He would likely rather run a somewhat boring administration rather than what he has had to deal with since taking office. We, as observers have only had widespread access to him through events and crisis that have been out of his control. With what we have seen, he seems to understand the stakes and play a steady hand. He probably has come far closer to soiling himself than we would expect, but exudes a steadfast sense of resolve when he gives an address. I think what is inspiring about the guy is that being inspirational isn't what he's going for. Of course he is trying to motivate his citizens to keep fighting. But I think the thing that speaks to us all, more between the lines, is that he embodies a workman like attitude. He makes it seem like he is just going to work, just like any of us do, just his work of the day is defending Ukraine from being swallowed up by an aggressive and invading superpower. It stands out because we are all able to see some sort of reflection of ourselves in him. He is a commoner who is doing something pretty incredible, even if failure is still very much on the table.
Rob Siver

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Some great posts and observations, thank you! We are using the Zelensky model as a way of understanding what makes for a "strong"  or "effective" leader. You have identified certain characteristics and refer to the change in character required of the wartime leader.
Sometimes leaders emerge in exceptional circumstances, and are called upon to lead in the face of uncertainly, complexity and to adapt to unexpected factors (for example, a war). This type of leadership - contextual - requires leaders to adjust their style to the context or situation at hand  and respond in novel ways.

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A leader that I feel stood out during the past two years navigating through the Covid-19 pandemic is Dr. Janice Fitzgerald.  Dr. Fitzgerald began as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Chief Medical Officer of Health just prior to when the Covide-19 pandemic was declared.   She quickly became a household name within the province and her ability to share information about the pandemic in a way that people understood and could relate to helped in making her a trusted leader throughout these times.  She was honest in her presentation, and showed emotion while continuing to deliver information and guidance at a time when many were finding it difficult to navigate our world.  She was kind and reminded us to always be kind to others, to be aware that others in our community may be struggling in ways which many are not.  That we must think of those that are more vulnerable.  That our collective actions are what will help us get through these difficult times.  She was empathetic and acknowledged the difficulty the restrictions she was imposing were having on individuals and families, including her own. Dr. Fitzgerald made a point of always acknowledging her team, reminding us that though she was the face we saw daily, the voice who delivered the Covid-19 updates, it was her team that were working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the right information was shared with the public in a timely fashion.  She was able to mobilize people to continue her message even when she was not in front of the screen.  It seemed everywhere you looked, especially in the earlier days, there was a reminder of Dr. Fitzgerald – there were snow sculptures made of her in visible places, people were sending her “gifts”, a mug with her famous saying “Hold fast Newfoundland and Labrador”; artists painted pictures of her and shared on social media; cookies were baked to resemble her; there was a Facebook page dedicated to thanking Dr. Fitzgerald; people were hanging scarfs on their front doors (Dr. Fitzgerald was seen most times wearing a scarf when she appeared for the updates.).  Given that she was new to her position when this pandemic started, we watched her grow into the role and with this we were able to see many qualities shine through which showed that she was an average person, she was real and showed honesty and vulnerability and was always humble in her approach and delivery of her message.  She was gentle in her words and her demeanor but still able to convey the seriousness of what we were facing and the steps that needed to be taken to protect us all.  She was a leader that people wanted to support, they wanted to do what she was asking because they trusted her and her advice and guidance and believed that the decisions she was making were for the best interest of all.

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A leader that I feel stood out during the past two years navigating through the Covid-19 pandemic is Dr. Janice Fitzgerald.  Dr. Fitzgerald began as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Chief Medical Officer of Health just prior to when the Covide-19 pandemic was declared.   She quickly became a household name within the province and her ability to share information about the pandemic in a way that people understood and could relate to helped in making her a trusted leader throughout these times.  She was honest in her presentation, and showed emotion while continuing to deliver information and guidance at a time when many were finding it difficult to navigate our world.  She was kind and reminded us to always be kind to others, to be aware that others in our community may be struggling in ways which many are not.  That we must think of those that are more vulnerable.  That our collective actions are what will help us get through these difficult times.  She was empathetic and acknowledged the difficulty the restrictions she was imposing were having on individuals and families, including her own. Dr. Fitzgerald made a point of always acknowledging her team, reminding us that though she was the face we saw daily, the voice who delivered the Covid-19 updates, it was her team that were working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the right information was shared with the public in a timely fashion.  She was able to mobilize people to continue her message even when she was not in front of the screen.  It seemed everywhere you looked, especially in the earlier days, there was a reminder of Dr. Fitzgerald – there were snow sculptures made of her in visible places, people were sending her “gifts”, a mug with her famous saying “Hold fast Newfoundland and Labrador”; artists painted pictures of her and shared on social media; cookies were baked to resemble her; there was a Facebook page dedicated to thanking Dr. Fitzgerald; people were hanging scarfs on their front doors (Dr. Fitzgerald was seen most times wearing a scarf when she appeared for the updates.).  Given that she was new to her position when this pandemic started, we watched her grow into the role and with this we were able to see many qualities shine through which showed that she was an average person, she was real and showed honesty and vulnerability and was always humble in her approach and delivery of her message.  She was gentle in her words and her demeanor but still able to convey the seriousness of what we were facing and the steps that needed to be taken to protect us all.  She was a leader that people wanted to support, they wanted to do what she was asking because they trusted her and her advice and guidance and believed that the decisions she was making were for the best interest of all.

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Francine Keough

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I have to admit that before the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, I was largely unfamiliar with President Zelensky and had never given much thought to his leadership style. Then it seemed like overnight he was everywhere.

There were multiple vides of him all over my social media channels and everyone had an opinion. There were thoughts on his words, manner of speech, his choice of attitude, whether or not he was genuine or was an incredibly gifted spokesperson that that the charisma to connect with the masses over the tragic situation.

After  taking in everything that I have seen, I do believe that part of his current popularity is due to a lot of the qualities that he displays. His humility, a man of the people approach resonates with many as someone people can relate to - whether or not they are directly affected by the crisis.

I think oftentimes leaders (especially leaders of countries can have such a degree of separation from their citizens (e.g. the British royal family). I do believe that part of why many are drawn to Zelensky and his leadership style is due to the fact that he exudes so many of the qualities that most think a good leader should, like bravery, loyalty (choosing to stay with his people and face the situation) and dedication and perseverance- while seemingly being able to connect with everyday people on their level.

Written by Chelsea Davidson

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Like many other Eastern European leaders, I find Zelensky to be passionate and relatable. He is operating under very extreme circumstances, with an incredible amount of pressure on his shoulders and the world watching. More than this, he is considered responsible for the lives of his people and part of his job is to protect them from outside threats. His transformational  leadership style is so reflective of what is called Patient-Oriented Research (POR), whereby patients become partners with researchers. The traditional model of healthcare research DOES research TO/ON patients, while POR embodies the idea of "nothing about us without us". To me, this approach can lead to wonderful collaboration and more appropriate and usable research outcomes. It also is the perfect marriage between technical expertise and lived/living experience expertise. - Linzi

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1000% the leaders of the pandemic in my eyes are researchers, healthcare workers, and all essential workers. These are individuals who persevered in the face of so much hardship - doubt, fake news, being overworked, separated from loved ones, developing vicarious trauma, etc. - more so than most. Definitely more than me. - Linzi

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Tizard reading - Challenges and Opportunities in Contemporary Public Sector Leadership

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Tizard reading - Challenges and Opportunities in Contemporary Public Sector Leadership

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Leadership of Organization resonated with me as it outlined how we run our detachments by including all (internal and external) stakeholders to contribute to our priorities that lay the clear foundation of our vision and strategic objectives. We begin each fiscal year by running a public survey or environmental scan, asking what the public’s priorities are.  In addition, I meet regularly with the non/elected leaders to determine their priorities and these can be flexible depending on current events or major events.  After we have received the priorities, we develop our organizational vision and objectives, backed by our policies, with initiatives on how we plan to achieve our goals.  We include striving to maintain or increase our community visibility.  Once our plan is developed, called the Annual Performance Plan, I share this with our non/elected officials and my team to inspire confidence of our stakeholders in the job we plan to do.  Then quarterly I provide reports on our progress, including any deviation in crime patterns, including our crime mapping system that the public may pull up at any time to check on their community area and determine any areas of concern.  We also include barriers, or risks that may impede us achieving our set goals.
Then Leadership through collaboration also resonated with me as, in the spirit of accountable spending of ratepayers’ tax money, we work with larger-center area specialized units such as CFSEU and ALERT to target our area habitual offenders.  This requires strategic requests to these potential partners to make our area of interest to them; worth their time and that the opportunities to have success is of great potential.
Lastly, I have learned over the past few years the importance of willingness to cede and share power and resources instead of trying to micro-manage my team.  This encourages motivation, accountability, and innovation.
Eddie Bourque

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Effective Leadership in the public sector leads to innovation.

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Effective Leadership in the public sector leads to innovation.

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As I stated toward the end of my first post from module two, I believe a leader’s ability / willingness to cede and share power and resources breeds trust and relationship.  This leads to accountability in other leaders / supervisors as well as our Constables where they are comfortable in taking appropriate risks to achieve their goals.  It is important for all of us to learn from our mistakes, and thus when employees are making an effort to be innovative and fail, as long as they learn from it and moving forward and even train others to learn from their mistakes, our team grows in experience and maturity.  The more responsibility I give to others, when they are ready to handle it, the more they will react positively and flourish.  Eddie Bourque

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What struck me most within this article is the discussion of leadership through collaboration. The fact that this is considered "new" blows my mind given the amazing benefits of collaboration and partnership that we know within other contexts (e.g., research). Further, the idea that one person in a leadership position is expected to take full responsibility/blame for decision-making is 1) not the full picture (given subject-matter experts and such that leaders rely on to aid in decision-making), and 2) from a psychological point of view, a large cognitive burden for that individual. The other aspect of this discussion that I considered is how styles of leadership tend to be gendered, whereby "female" leadership tends to be described as more collaborative, while "male" leadership tends to be seen as agentic. So it would appear we are moving towards a more "female" style of leadership. I can get behind that. Change is good. Change is necessary. No, collaborative leadership isn't perfect, but I believe it invites more inclusion, diversity, and equity in our world. - Linzi Williamson

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I thought I would end up mentioning some sort of example of female leadership (e.g., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), but then I was reminded of Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments. It was reported last year that Dan took a pay cut in order to provide an increased minimum wage of 70K/year for his employees. To me, this move embodies what it means to humanize people. In a world with continuing inflated of prices of basic needs (housing, food, water), the move towards offering employees a salary that ensures their basic needs can be met is incredibly humanistic, compassionate, and frankly a smart business model. Happy employees = increased retention, increased productivity, improved morale, etc. Further, this move decreases the separation/hierarchy between CEO's and employees, which to me embodies what it means to be a collaborative leader. - Linzi Williamson

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Tizard Reading - Creative vs Bureaucratic Leadership Styles

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Tizard Reading - Creative vs Bureaucratic Leadership Styles

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Tizard brings up an interesting phenomenon when discussing greater autonomy for local public sector leaders in the UK. "Public sector leaders should regard this as liberating but interestingly some seem to have secretly liked the 'protection of doing what was required of them without having to decide what to do.'" This is something that I haven't really considered or come across before, but makes intuitive sense to me. What is really happening here is that public sector positions with greater levels of autonomy are better suited to one type of leader over others. Creative leaders, who might be what Tizard calls the "leading leaders," would thrive in such situations, since they would have the autonomy they naturally need to experiment with new ideas, all without the red tape that would usually prevent such experimentation. They might experience great outcomes in those kinds of positions.

But those who exhibit bureaucratic leadership qualities might be ill-suited to those kinds of positions. They might appreciate a rigidly hierarchical, rule-bound workplace. They might simply feel adrift without constant guidance from someone above themselves, or without having a set framework to guide their work. And some might cynically appreciate having someone above themselves to shoulder the blame when things go awry. That isn't to say they can't make good leaders, but they are best suited to positions where the choices faced are more constrained.

-Marc Maggi

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Effective Leadership and Innovation - Bell Labs

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Effective Leadership and Innovation - Bell Labs

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Just about everyone is familiar with the exploits of Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He held eighteen patents in his own right, and was named as a co-inventor on a further twelve. But his greatest accomplishment, arguably even more important than his invention of the telephone, is one that he was only indirectly responsible for. The institutional framework he helped lay at AT&T, and most importantly its subsidiary Bell Labs, led to an enduring culture of innovation that hasn't been rivaled by any private research institution before or since.

Nine Nobel prizes have been awarded for research undertaken at Bell Labs, and it is no exaggeration to say that Bell Labs ushered in the Information Age. The laser, the transistor, the photovoltaic cell, and Information Theory were all invented by its scientists and researchers. But what led to this one institution's enormous success? What was their "secret sauce?"

Andrew Gelman, who worked at Bell Labs in the 1980s, identifies several elements of its organizational structure and leadership that can give us some idea as to why it was so successful. I have identified a blend of motivational, inspirational, and sometimes autocratic leadership in the way he describes its management. As Gelman tells us, managers at Bell Labs "typically had strong technical track records of their own, appreciated scientific work and paid their staff enough to live comfortably." Elements of transactional leadership also crop up in Gelman's analysis: "In its heyday from the 1940s to the 1970s, a Bell Labs job was said to be just like working at a research university, except the pay was better, the equipment was more up-to-date, the machine shop was available for all your needs and you didn’t have to spend time teaching or applying for research grants." When leaders don't interfere too much and give workers everything they need in order to be motivated and productive, the results tend to be good for everyone.

The fact that scientists and engineers were being managed by other scientists and engineers is important. If they were to be led by, say, MBAs, I suspect that Bell Labs' track record on patents and Nobel Prizes would have been far less impressive. And we can't discount the fact that Bell Labs' success in its heyday was largely built on the monopoly profits of the Bell System, which came to an end after government anti-trust action in 1982. But that doesn't change the fact that for the better part of a century, AT&T took its monopoly profits and did something that most corporate leaders today are loath to do: it invested them into research and development, under prudent management and with great scientific success. It was a happy marriage of capitalism and scientific innovation which is seldom seen in this day and age; today's CEOs are more likely to waste corporate profits on stock buybacks and excessive bonuses for themselves.

-Marc Maggi

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This article touches on a lot of important qualities and skills that are necessary to have in a public sector leader. It discusses how important it is to have a strong understanding of strategic financial management, policy, risk management, and all the other important items that play into the running of a municipality, province or country. Which I agree, is very important for someone in the role of a public sector leader to understand all these crucial aspects of running a government. Although, there's one item that isn't discussed quite so much in the article, as I don't think it's crucial for the leader of a party per se. I think it can be very beneficial for a leader, who is leading a specific department within a government (e.g. Minister of Health, Minister of Education, etc.) to have an understanding and background experience/education regarding the department they are leading. This is solely coming from personal experience in participating in meetings on specific department topics, where it appeared that the Minister of that department did not have a grasp of what was involved within that industry and was unable to effectively speak to the industry members and stakeholders. This can cause a distrust between the public and the government and lead to frustrations on both sides.

The article also speaks about the importance of collaboration. This of course is essential in accomplishing anything within the public sector. Collaborations could be within the government itself, across departments, other government bodies and of course, with external stakeholders. Within my role as an IHPP Coordinator, many of our projects are only able to be worked on effectively and accomplished through our collaborations with provincial and federal governments, consultants, academics and other not-for profit organizations, just to name a few. You need to be able to pull and learn from the expertise of others, and when working with the collaboration with all stakeholders involved, you also have everyone's buy in on a project/idea.

Seonaid MacDonell

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I think a good example of leadership leading to public sector innovation, would be that of the example of Estonia mentioned in the notes. This country has become almost fully digitized, stemming from an investment in technology in the 90's (Roonemaa, 2017). This investment was made as it was thought that the move towards becoming digitized was the way forward, given that the country did not have an abundance of natural resources (Roonemaa, 2017). I believe this was very innovative and an extraordinary decision to make at the time as technology was just starting to become more accessible to the general public. This has put the people of Estonia and the Estonian government miles ahead of say, for example, the Canadian public and government in regards to their technology use and access to technology. I would guess that it would take decades to reach their level of governmental digitization. I believe Estonia is an example of what can happen when a government jumps on-board with an innovative idea early on. This is something our government should be considering when it comes to clean renewable energy, technology and just general climate change mitigation. If these things are fully invested in right now, we might have a hope of mitigating some of the damage caused from our lessons learned.

Seonaid MacDonell

References:

Roonemaa, M. (2017).Global lessons from Estonia’s tech-savvy government. Retrieved from:https://en.unesco.org/courier/2017-april-june/global-lessons-estonia-s-tech-savvy-government

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Tiny Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million, ranks among the most digitally advanced societies in the world. According to Freedom House, this country tucked into the north-eastern corner of Europe also enjoys one of the greatest economic, press and internet freedoms in the world. The secret of this tiny nation's rise to a digital powerhouse lies in the pioneering advances made by its government under its innovative e-Estonia initiative - fostering innovative education, virtual business and digital citizenship.

By Mari Roonemaa

The inspiring story of how Estonia became E-stonia [an apt joke coined by former president Toomas Hendrik Ilves] began in 1996, with the help of the Tiger Leap Foundation, a government-backed technology investment body. Not long after its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country decided that the online economy and massive technological innovation was the way forward for a tiny country with no natural resources to fall back on. Through Tiger Leap, all Estonian schools were online by the late 1990s, and large investments were made in computer networking and infrastructure.

Five years later, ten private and public companies formed a strong public-private partnership, creating the Look@World Foundation. Supported by telecom and banking interests, the project raised digital awareness and popularized the use of the internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), particularly in education, science and culture. The initiative's first project aimed to bridge the country's "digital divide" by providing free computer training to 102,697 participants, or 10% of the adult population. And Estonian children are taught computer programming starting at the age of seven. There's been no looking back. In July 2016, 91.4% of Estonians used the internet; a big jump from 2000, when only 28.6% of the population was connected.

Cooperation is the key

The keys to the success of Estonia's e-revolution have been cooperation and reciprocity. Successive governments have backed e-Estonia since it was launched in the early 1990s. The private sector, academic institutions and citizens have all cooperated to make the initiative a winner. Reciprocity, because the state has gained the confidence of its citizens, who in turn have given the state full access to their personal data. Estonians have a digital identification program that is the envy of much larger countries - they can complete just about every municipal or state service online in a matter of minutes.

To ensure transparency and accountability, citizens are allowed to monitor their own privacy. They can trace anyone who has tried to access their data by logging on to the state portal, eesti.ee. There have been a few cases - among doctors and policemen, for instance - where people have been sentenced for unethically accessing databases. "You cannot bribe a computer," Ilves - Estonia's president between 2006 and 2016, who spearheaded the country's digital revolution - once said.

Land of Skype

Estonia has opened its borders to attract talent and fuel the nation's start-up economy. With over 400 startups, Tallinn, the capital, has been called "a sort of Silicon Valley on the Baltic Sea" by the New York Times. This is the land where Skype, the free video service, was created, revolutionizing how the world communicates. It is a calling card that has put Estonia firmly on the global map. Skype is also now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary! Other notable startups include TransferWise, a foreign exchange service, and Jobbatical, a job website that allows people traveling the world to extend their journeys.

The tertiary, or "free sector" of Estonia has played an active role in shaping open governance and e-democracy. To coordinate public inputs for policy debate, three different portals have been created, funded by taxpayers. According to Secretary of State Heiki Loot, "Estonia is known to be the only country where the drafting of legislation and interministerial coordination processes are so transparent."

In 2016, Estonia was recognized as one of countries that has best included NGOs in the process of consulting the open government plan of action. Last year, citizen initiative portal Rahvaalgatus.ee was launched, making it possible to compose and send collective initiatives to the Estonian Parliament.

Estonia has also made some bold moves in experimenting with modern methods of the decision-making process. Rahvakogu or the People's Assembly is a good example. Originally a platform of crowdsourcing ideas to amend electoral laws, three out of fifteen proposals sent to parliament via the online platform have actually become law.

Hungry for IT

How will Estonia ensure the Baltic Tiger keeps on leaping? Ave Lauringson, a leading specialist in the Information Society Unit at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, says it's a good sign that besides the government, the people themselves have become "hungry for IT". Over the years, IT education has spread from schools to communities and hobby education. Recently, over 200 people - many of them parents themselves - were schooled to teach robotics as an extra-curricular activity. "A third of students who have had previous contact with IT-related hobbies, have admitted it has had an effect on their latter career decisions," Lauringson says.

Eesti 2.0, a non-profit organization that aims to inspire young Estonians to embrace a future in technology (with Ilves as its patron), provides students with different technological tools and offers them ideas to apply these technologies. The idea, according to the non-profit's website ( www.eesti2.ee), is "to nourish creative thinking across disciplines and connect science-based theories to real-life phenomena and events."

Robotics, coding clubs and programming enjoy popularity, but the question of a mutual relationship between young people and the e-state remains contentious. "The biggest surprise is that youngsters who possess different digital skills often lack them in giving a digital signature, for example," Lauringson notes. "They haven't had such a necessity for different e-services, but as soon as they are adults, it appears. Until this remains a problem, they cannot enter into a dialogue with the e-state."

Another big challenge is increasing the computer literacy of the older generation, with many people over sixty struggling with elementary skills. With Tiger Leap, Estonian public libraries became centres for the internet, and older people still use libraries to access the e-state. This often turns the librarians into "IT specialists", who are being trained to give advice.

Cap 2020

Security awareness and data protection continue to be important goals in the digital era. Public authorities have been raising awareness and calling for smart behaviour on the internet through different campaigns and actions. For instance, the Estonian Child Welfare Union calls for the prevention of online distribution of material on child sexual abuse. A number of educational programmes are run by The Information Technology Foundation for Education (HITSA), targeted at advancing and intensifying cooperation between the ICT industry, educational institutions and the state.

The most popular of these is the ProgeTiger programme, initiated by Lauringson. This unique public-private partnership programme has launched a nationwide scheme to teach school kids from the age of seven to nineteen how to write code. ProgeTiger combines the teaching of three integrated fields: engineering sciences, design and technology and information and communications technology.

Finding qualified teachers remains a major hurdle. Professor Jaak Vilo from the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Tartu recently claimed that we would not be able to educate enough programming teachers even in the course of the next ten years. He has proposed to arrange online courses for high school graduates. Free online courses (MOOCs) exist for adults, but we critically need to start something similar for the younger generation, Vilo claims.

So far, we don't have enough data to measure digital literacy. The first moment of truth will be in 2018, when ninth graders do their first countrywide test on digital skills. We know people can use the computer, but such skills are not enough to bring innovation - we must be able to create digital and technological content. Though the PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) test results flatteringly put us on top of the world, we shouldn't let ourselves rest on our laurels. Complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management and emotional intelligence will be the most important skills to possess in 2020. We also need to figure out how to keep our students happy, so they continue to enjoy the learning process.

Read more about

Sustainable Development Goals for Communication and InformationAccess to Information Knowledge-driven and context-sensitive media developmentUNESCO and the SDGs SDG 16 SDG 4

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Global lessons from Estonia's tech-savvy government

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Tiny Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million, ranks among the most digitally advanced societies in the world. According to Freedom House, this country tucked into the north-eastern corner of Europe also enjoys one of the greatest economic, press and internet freedoms in the world.

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Thank you for your comments, good observations! Yes, it is interesting that there has been much more focus on collaboration these past few years, as it does form a core of basic leadership competencies. There are some very effective collaboration frameworks which we will be discussing as part of our networked leadership discussion! Martine

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Thank you for your comments, good observations! Yes, it is interesting that there has been much more focus on collaboration these past few years, as it does form a core of basic leadership competencies. There are some very effective collaboration frameworks which we will be discussing as part of our networked leadership discussion! Martine

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A quote from the Tizard article that resonated with me was "leaders need to be prepared to say unpopular things and make unpopular decisions". While certainly not an earth-shattering revelation, this element of leadership is too often overlooked and understated. Moreover, it is absolutely contrary to how most politicians operate. Political leadership is determined by popularity and political leaders are motivated to do and say what they believe to be popular in order to retain power.

Tizard's article however is oriented towards public sector executives and the difficult decisions they need make in advising elected officials and administering departmental operations. These leaders are not out kissing babies and cannot rely on shallow people-pleasing in the face of real economic, environmental and social challenges. Frank and honest messaging from leaders is pivotal to earn the respect of staff and is a component of integrity.

However, this article was written during a time of austerity policies in the UK where public sector leaders were forced to cut staff and social programs. It is a reminder of the lose-lose situations public sector leaders must navigate where achieving results means taking away popular services and leading people who have been demoralized by lay-offs. Tizard's statement is a testament to the arduous reality of leadership.
-Natalie James

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The importance of collaboration in the public sector is what stood out most for me in Tizzard’s article.  Though I have been in the public service for the past 9 years, most of my career has been with non-profit community based organizations.  In my past roles, collaboration between community based organizations was always a priority, it was how we managed to leverage the skills, knowledge and sometimes funding that were necessary to ensure that the needed programs and services were available to the clients we worked with.  From my experience outside of the public service, collaboration was what made the programs and services what they were and helped to inform what was needed, identify gaps and move forward to achieve individual goals of the organization.  Working with community partners required an understanding of their mandates, their goals and respecting the limitations and pressures that each organization worked within.  In many cases collaborating was necessary to ensure that organizations survived and thrived.

When I first began working in the public service I did not see the same collaborative efforts, within the corporation or with outside community based organizations.  Efforts to encourage this, or to emphasize the value this could bring to our organization and the services we were offering did not appear to be of importance.  I am happy to say that in the last couple of years there seems to have been a shift and I am seeing more collaboration within my organization as well as between government departments and community based organizations in the work that I am doing.  There have been fairly significant upper management turn-over due to retirement and for the most part these positions have been filled from outside the organization.  This has brought new ideas, a new openness to change and new approaches.

One thing that I have noticed in this process of collaborating from my perspective as a public servant, is that there seems to be more expectation that as a government body we should bring more “solutions” to the table.  I think that some of this expectation is due to the fact that there is less of an understanding of the pressures that are faced from a public servant perspective.  Community is better situated to be able to pivot, to change direction or approach based on the need that they see whereas government processes and changes take a much longer time, and seem to have more layers of approval needed in order to actually operationalize any changes.
Francine Keough

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Zelensky's leadership is a breath of fresh air in global politics.  He inspires action because he behaves the way he is asking others to behave.  He has personal integrity and leads by example.

He is taking a stand for something bigger than himself and his nation.  Zelensky is bringing attention to human rights violations and the attack on democracy.

Those who are watching the news understand that attacks on democracy are rampant (US- Jan 6, 2021/ 'protest' in Ottawa (Freedom convoy)/China's oppression of economic, social, and cultural rights violations in a variety of countries).
I believe this is why people are impressed with this leader. Zelensky is causing a meaningful change in his country, inspiring global action (governmental, international business) and calling out the hypocrisy of world organizations/ world leaders.

In a world that seems unstable, Zelensky seems stable. He provides encouragement to individuals and serves as a positive role model for political leaders. Against all odds, Ukraine is standing up against Putin and his army, but there is a cost to this war and it is only likely to worsen.

- Lia Renaud

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Dr. Strang is a healthcare leader in Nova Scotia who has been recognized pubically for  his leadership and dedication to health and well-being of this province.

As Chief Medical Officer of Health, Nova Scotians relied upon his knowledge and expertise to provide recommendations to support health protection.

Frequent updates created a familiar face that many deemed trustworthy.  He provided a set of clear goals and Nova Scotians.  The government websites provided clear information/data that supported care for the common good.
This attitude inspired others to prioritize common good vs. personal beliefs.

Dr. Strang is responsible and I viewed him a positive leader during the global pandemic.

-- Lia Renaud

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Leadership through collaboration is key 

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Leadership through collaboration is key 

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The leaders I have worked with and admired the most are the ones who knew how to lead through collaboration; the ones who didn’t let their egos “get in the way” as Tizard puts it.

I have spent several years working in local government and have seen and experienced greater success with new policies, programs and studies when the municipality collaborated with other relevant organizations and the community at-large. By collaborating, as noted by Tizard, several things happen:

Policies make sense and work for the people affected by them;

There’s not a duplicating efforts and therefore no wasting of staff time and effort;

There’s a buy-in from the affected population; and

Organizations foster long-term partnerships.

Situations where I have seen collaborative leadership fail is when one person (or the organization as a whole) takes credit or ownership over joint successes or bogarts the vision of the project; basically collaborating for the sake of saying you did, which effectively wastes everyone’s time.

It sounds silly, but I think leadership through collaboration is simple: Check-in with stakeholders and work together for common ground.

Kayla Byrne

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I have been a part of several volunteer organizations where no one wants to lead or no one particularly wants to be led. In these situations it can often feel like not much is getting done. Having good leadership is key to success particularly when implementing innovative ideas or programs.

A few years ago, a small volunteer group that I was a part of utilized collaborative leadership to successfully implement a community-wide plastic bag ban.

At first, we, the small group of volunteers, wanted to implement this change all on our own - we were the do-good hippies and we wanted credit for our work! We penned away at some call to actions and hand-delivered them to every business in town. To our disappointment, no one got back to us. Through networking and a little research, we found a few businesses that had already gone plastic-free and asked them to make a presentation to the local chamber of commerce. Through that, the chamber got on board and extended the project’s reach and clout. From there, we were able to make a collaborative presentation to Town Council, which led to the passing of a waste reduction bylaw and the banning of plastic bags at all businesses.

Through collaborative leadership, we were able to experience the numerous benefits of this style of leadership, as described by Tizard.

Kayla Byrne

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Recently the government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced the introduction of Collaborative Health Clinics.  These “clinics may include health care professionals such as physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and other allied health professionals such as social workers, pharmacists and dietitians.” (Collaborative-Team-Based-Care-Clinics.pdf (gov.nl.ca))  These clinics were established to help address the unmet health needs of residents who did not have a family doctor.  As we are seeing across the country, our health care system has many challenges and presents many issues/concerns for those who need access.  There are long waitlists for services, it may take months (and some cases years) to access medical specialists and this could mean the difference between life and death for some.

A more wide spread establishment of these clinics has certainly gotten media attention and with that concerns have been raised about how effective these will be.  Many have highlighted that these clinics have led to some doctors closing their clinics in order to join one of these collaborative clinics, and thereby creating more patients without a family doctor.

I personally think that this is a fantastic idea, I think that it will address some of the issues within our system and provide people with a service that is more suited to what they need in the moment.  A team of health professionals available as a one stop shop can help ensure that you see the right provider that can address your needs while providing a higher quality of care.
Francine Keough

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Denmark provides an example of how public sector leadership can embrace and stimulate innovation. An OECD scan of innovation in Denmark observes that while innovation is prioritized on the Danish political agenda, most government innovation stems from the public sector administration and its drive to achieve results on critical issues, such as meeting ambitious decarbonization targets (OECD 2021). The report goes on to demonstrate how Denmark's public sector has created a culture of innovation that is supportive of experimentation and open to digital solutions by focusing on efficiently creating value for citizens. In Denmark's public administration, decentralized innovation is a deliberate choice that is supported and steered by leaders through frontline capacity-building.

An interesting practical implementation is the Free Municipality Experiments program, that was launched in 2012. Municipalities that participate in this program are exempt from national regulations, which means they have the autonomy to test out new solutions and pilot innovative approaches. Municipal and regional leaders can then share their lessons learned to inform broader policymaking. Denmark has also implemented an Innovation Barometer and developed the Copenhagen Manuel to serve as a guide for countries to measure public sector innovation.

By prioritizing citizen-centred results and recognizing that challenging problems need new ideas, Denmark's public sector leaders have cultivated an environment for bottom-up innovation.

OECD. 2021. Public Sector Innovation Scan of Denmark. https://oecd-opsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Public-Sector-Innovation-Scan-of-Denmark.pdf

Natalie James

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The concept of "leadership through collaboration" resonated with me. Tizard noted that it is becoming increasingly important to possess the skills, attitudes, and behaviour necessary to collaborate with other in the business whether that be in house or outside the organization. From my experience, I find that collaboration with others enables a relationship of respect and one that benefits all parties because everyone brings something different to the table. However, I think some of these skills may not come easy to some leaders because from an outside perspective, it seems like some leaders are not willing to ask for a helping hand. I think this could because it can seem threatening to their role and position in the business. Nevertheless, I think collaboration create a strong team and that this is something to consider when taking on a leadership role.

Written by Jessica MacKeen

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I work in finance so of course one of the themes of the article that resonated with me was leading through tough economic times. I 100% support Tizard's assertion that it is really easy to lead when you have access to funds. True leadership is really required when you have to make tough decisions and continue to rally your teams in the thereafter. One of the toughest leadership situations in public sector that I experienced was when we faced a tough budget situation and were asked to find efficiencies which led to a reduction in staff. I was very new to the organization so had not yet built the credibility and trust of those around me. To walk into an organization and basically eliminate positions, when staff had worked together for many, many years was so hard. To have to let someone go in any situation leaves a mark on the heart to begin with, but this was even worse. I approached it earnestly, honestly, and had to get them to understand why it was the best worst decision. I have seen folks let go in industry, and it is tough and awful. Why it was different in public sector was we were often insulated from it before so it really shocked many and created a culture of worry for quite some time after.
Also, in the same vein of the money track, there is never any money for "little extras" for staff. So many of the things that happen in industry and no one would blink an eye (a lunch on the corporate card or flowers for administrative assistants day or drinks on a Friday) do not happen as we are accountable for public funds. I pay for a lot of little things on my own when I can and I am strong advocate for budget dollars (a reasonable allotment) for team building activities that can be justified as enhancing success. So little means so much to people as salaries are set by grids, there are no bonuses for those who excel, etc. We are finding innovative ways to do what we can with what we have.
The second theme that really resonated with me was the importance of relationships in public sector. You cannot move along ANY initiative, regardless of how big or how small, without getting support from other departments or areas. You need to socialize the idea, state the what's in it for them, and then once you have the "nod", move forward. And if the idea is really novel, you need some good political capital with other leaders to make it happen. Everything is a steering committee. While collaboration is wonderful, and as one of you pointed out in your write up, necessary to gain the expertise and insights of others, sometimes it is a curse - i.e. you collaborate to the point you become unable to act (i.e. things move too slowly trying to gain consensus). Likewise, when other areas are leading an initiative, you need to have strong political capital to get a stake in the outcome and a voice at the table.
I never led in industry when I worked in it, but I watched industry leaders - and while they may have had a few "duke it out" moments, they never had the challenges of access to funds or moving initiatives forward that I have witnessed in public sector. I have worked with some pretty exceptional leaders in public sector, and some not so much. We still have a tendency, like industry, to promote those who are strong in their craft, but are not necessarily strong or effective with people. That is an interesting phenomenon to me that I hope comes up in some of the readings - the only way it seems to reward those that are good at what they do is to promote them to leadership - where all of a sudden there is a whole new set of skills required that they actually may not be good at or have wanted.

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Innovative leadership is a new concept for me, but I find it especially captivating. Innovative leaders seem to possess the skill and demeanour to uplift their team and make them believe in a concept. Something I read that really resonated with me is from an interview with Mark Zuckerberg. One thing he believes is a key to success is hiring for passion over skill, where that passion fuels employee motivation and that sparks innovation. This type of leadership has led to advancements in his business.

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A great leader within my organization is our Director of IT. He is innovative, strategic, politically savvy, understands the value of relationships and uses his political capital to drive change.
One of the biggest innovations that occurred within our organization (which is a school division) was the creation of a service portal. When you have over 5,000 employees, most of them based in schools, it becomes really challenging to manage requests for HR, facilities, IT and financial services. Where do you access information on things like: parental leave, performance management, requesting a purchasing card, access to a software?
He worked with partners in the areas of HR, facilities, senior leadership, to name a few, and he was able to "sell" them on why a centralized software solution that encapsulated all requests for services, with automated workflow approvals, and "how to" knowledge articles on business processes, was critical to success in the classroom. If staff spent less time chasing and worrying about how to access key functionalities that affected them personally and professionally, they could focus on educating our kids.
This was no small feat as dollars were required as well as buy in from schools and leaders in central administration.
Flash forward a few years and we now have a system called "ASK", which basically means ask anything. The goal was simple: to make it easier for principals, teachers, and other school based staff to get what they needed without having to make 100 phone calls to central office (I am being a tad facetious but it was almost that hard).
Did it have hiccups? Yes. Some resistance? Absolutely. But why the platform continues to grow in usage and popularity and bring on further enhancements and continued budgetary support is because of his passion and commitment to the cause. He has laid out a vision and the organization supports that vision. When passion for it wanes, he is out there presenting and advocating and explaining.
He also recognized and valued the critical importance of change management - and I think that is often where leadership falls down with new innovations. Change is hard and stressful - complaining about things that don't work is easy. When you try to change the very process that makes people frustrated, suddenly they panic.
This was a huge organizational shift and is important as the new tech savvy generation enter our district.

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The Challenges and Opportunities of Leadership. 

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The Challenges and Opportunities of Leadership. 

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I found myself agreeing with Tizard as I read through the article.  It's a timely piece with arguments that may be more relevant today than when he wrote it ten years ago.  His points regarding the growing importance of community empowerment and the role of leadership were particularly accurate.

"There is also a policy drive to change the relationship between the state and the citizen; including a greater emphasis on co-design and co-production of services, which requires collaboration between service commissioners, providers and users."

I would agree that economic challenges caused by the pandemic and environmental concerns have resulted in tighter budgets and greater public scrutiny concerning how tax dollars are being used.  The resulting expectation of increased government transparency is also evident in greater levels of engagement and consultation between public, private and social sectors.

In my experience, the past five years has witnessed a growing interest in exploring new licensing and sponsorship agreements of government owned intellectual properties to various private sector businesses in exchange for royalties that might be used to ease the financial burden on the tax payer.

The development of such fair and effective  collaborations depends on the innovation and leadership of government.

Mark Sajatovich

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The statement that resonated most with me was around good leadership includes investing in their teams. Specifically, the document read, “Good leaders will recognize that it is absurd not to invest in and develop their organization’s people. A failure to do so is a waste of resource; risks top talent and knowledge leaving as soon as they can find a better opportunity; can reduce staff motivation and productivity; and means that the organization misses huge opportunities.”

Just over a year ago, I made the decision to go back to school in an effort to advance my career with the city. I met with human resources and was informed that the city would assist me with partially funding the academic exams and programs I was considering, under the city’s professional development policy. Firstly, the city paid for my Journeyperson exam, which allowed me to receive a provincial seal in my trade. The passing of this exam, in turn benefitted the city, as I was qualified to train others in my field on city equipment, including all new hires and those needing to upgrade their skillsets. Following the completion of this certificate, I enrolled both in this public policy certificate program and a horticultural program through another university, which positioned me for advancement. The steps taken in advancing both hard and soft skills, demonstrated to the city how interested I was in advancing. In under a year, I have moved into a management position, now overseeing teams of people within my organization. The city has offered additional training opportunities to me, which I look forward to completing in the coming years. This investment has been mutually beneficial, and from my personal perspective, has created a loyalty for me with the organization. From the city’s perspective, I believe this supports a healthy talent management strategy, which promotes internal hiring, and has the opportunity to save both time and money in external hiring processes, when they are able to train and promote from within. Lastly, while I have to adjust to my new positions, I do not have a learning curve in adjusting to the city, which must be a benefit to them as well. Overall, investing in your own people as leaders, helps promote an engaged, loyal, and skilled workforce. And personally, it has made me feel like a valued employee.

Jamie Rideout

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Public sector and innovation are not always synonymous, or at least, the perception is they are not. However, I see many examples where leadership has led to innovation in the City of St. John’s. As new leaders are introduced to the workforce, they are encouraged to think outside the box, and are given the autonomy in their positions to try new ways to solve standard problems. Senior management regularly meet with middle managers, and the groups collaborate to come up with new methods and pilot projects. One area I have seen this is the city’s fleet management system. Years ago, the fleet management system was an excel spreadsheet and a phone call. It was an antiquated process, where there was no ability to effectively track vehicles going to or coming back from the garage internally. Priority was done based on who had the best relationships with the fleet team, and you were not able to see when you could expect a vehicle back in service, or how long it would be out, which didn’t help in managing your team or workplan for the week. However, through discussion and collaboration, a new software was installed and is now supported across the board for these services – I can see at any given moment where my vehicles are in the que, which helps me manage my team more effectively. It also helps fleet understand their workload and manage resourcing. Additionally, it helps the city review important metrics like cost to service, downtime, etc. This may not be revolutionary, but it was the result of good leadership, listening to their team, and working together to solve a problem with a new way of thinking. In the public sector, the public expect to see their tax dollars spent appropriately so any effort to be innovative, creating efficiency and savings, is part of the mandate of Council.

Jamie Rideout

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I think one of the things that got me about this article was that it was ten years old (and was written before the pandemic) as well as coming out of the UK.

I fully agree with pretty much every statement in this article, which I think is beautifully summed up in the conclusion: "This is not the time for timid leaders and even less managers masquerading as leaders. The opportunity beckons for the bold, imaginative and innovative public sector leaders!”

I would like to really explore the difference between managers masquerading as leader and this idea of collaborative and innovative leaders, but I think it is a difference of "getting by" and "moving things forward".

I do also believe that in the next few years, coming out of the past few years, these difference will be very apparent.

The only thing that might mix things up is more collaborations between parties ,which I support, but might muddy the waters on what the actual goals are and whom is the true voice "from the top".

- Laura C

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Here is an interesting site/article I found aboout innovation and leadership during Covid-19. (I know, opening up more reading )
https://ppforum.ca/publications/public-service-innovation-and-leadership-during-covid-19-what-can-we-learn/

Some of the online tools and shifts in booking appointments and giving individuals a needed set of tools as they isolated themselves from community were quite innovative and adapted quickly. I am imagining however that many of the people who were developing these tools were not long term leaders; but rather upcoming thinkers and innovators that were given the task of changing the way things were done and changing it quickly and efficiently.
I wondered if long-term leadership will be an achievable goal in the future, or if we will see a more rotating door effect in lines with the ebb and flow of the the key activities in society.

- Laura C

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A Retrospective Report | from the COVID-19 Vaccine Skepticism in Canada Series

Members of Canada's political class should on balance receive at least a passing grade for their management of the pandemic, and Canadians should be both proud and worried about policymakers' performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The three areas in which they could have done better include: keeping schools open, using technology to combat the pandemic, and prioritizing vaccine targeting.

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Public Service Innovation and Leadership During COVID-19: What Can We Learn? - Public Policy Forum

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In March 2020, Canada entered into its worst pandemic in a century. The country had not faced a multidimensional challenge of this magnitude since the two world wars. However, this time, Canada would be part of the combat theatre and, like most of the planet, ill equipped against a silent...

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Martine replies: Thank you, all, for the great examples!As you all pointed out strong leadership provides for experimentation, risk-taking and innovation, by enabling people, who feel valued and trusted, to be productive and creative. A culture of innovation is created when leaders model, promote and foster the types of behaviours and actions which lead to organisational learning and exploration.

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Martine replies: Thank you, all, for the great examples!As you all pointed out strong leadership provides for experimentation, risk-taking and innovation, by enabling people, who feel valued and trusted, to be productive and creative. A culture of innovation is created when leaders model, promote and foster the types of behaviours and actions which lead to organisational learning and exploration.

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Governments working in partnership to achieve the highest level of environmental quality for all Canadians

-Natalie James

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A claim made in the Tizard article that good leaders recognize the absurdity in not investing in and developing their organizations people. In large part, I agree, but would argue that there are some leaders who are equipped to lead through certain circumstances, yet themselves may not be great teachers/developers. I think the developmental approach is necessary, and particularly valuable in a public sector setting, in other lines of work it is almost entirely foreign. In my previous work in bars and restaurants, I worked with many people who were great situational leaders, the backbone of our team, but were not invested in developing those with less experience. They treated those folks with a sink or swim mentality. I have been treated like that myself, but have been able to swim. My previous employment history has left me feeling shocked by the amount of training and development I have been able to receive or have access to in my short time with the provincial government.

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I think a good example of public sector leadership leading to innovation could be the push of the Estonian government upon its citizens to become digitally versed and trained to embrace technology. As a former Soviet state, always under threat by their aggressive neighbor (perhaps now as much as ever, despite being a NATO ally), their state survival depended on becoming not just literate, but savvy with technological trends. This action developed a citizenry who is fluent in computer and internet usage, as well as a push towards a more digitized governmental service, increasing not just state security, but the efficiency by which governmental services can be provided for citizens, leading to a model that has been adapted by governments the world over, including our own. Rob Silver.

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Leadership is not just a characteristic!

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Leadership is not just a characteristic!

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One thing I cannot agree enough is the need for Public Innovation. This aspect of policy is often underrepresented and I am surprised to now see it as an aspect of 'leadership'. I have always viewed leadership as almost a human resource concern. The article, on the other hand, almost presents good leadership as part of the policy process. A process defined by collaboration. I resonate with this because I have seen how SMEs (an entity I view to be a representation of the public sphere) crumble under covid-19 pressures and subsequently how governments, especially in countries that focus in manufacturing and service provision had focused their leadership strategy on uplifting and investing in SMEs, expanding into public innovation as a form of pandemic recovery. The author also states that most people will find it wise to invest in human resource. I think this fact is most apparent during this time of pandemic recovery. Kudos to Governments that have embarked on this route.

-nicole ng

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I see a strong relationship between leadership in digitalization, often derived by public innovation, and success in the overall economy. There are many countries these days that have bought into the benefits of a digital economy. Estonia is one of them. There are others like Singapore that is nurturing a platform for complete e-governance. Both Estonia and Singapore, and other countries on this track, have seemingly found success in advancing themselves whilst capitalizing and investing into local human resource in this sense. Based on these cases, though I do not think that it's certainly a one size fits all model, I do believe that there is strong value in collaboration and fostering a strong relationship between state and public. -Nicole Ng

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To create a platform where all can exercise their expertise to improve the overall quality of life

-Nicole Ng

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Ensuring human-animal relationships are mutually beneficial. - Linzi Williamson

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Ensuring human-animal relationships are mutually beneficial. - Linzi Williamson

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I haven't worked in the government sector yet, but have applied for and received federal research funds and have heard from close friends about their experiences in government. The bureaucracy of government seems incredibly stifling and limiting in terms of visioning in many ways, but the way it operates makes sense when you (try to) consider all of the interests that must be considered and addressed when possible. It's enough to make one's head spin, trying to imagine it all. Strategic thinking/planning often requires some sense of stability and predictability, which is not something I think is always possible within government, especially when you have a back and forth with Liberals-Conservatives entering and leaving office. In the end, I'm an optimist and believe that ultimately anything is possible, but with time and direct and continuous effort. Shared visions help, too. - Linzi Williamson

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I haven't worked in the government sector yet, but have applied for and received federal research funds and have heard from close friends about their experiences in government. The bureaucracy of government seems incredibly stifling and limiting in terms of visioning in many ways, but the way it operates makes sense when you (try to) consider all of the interests that must be considered and addressed when possible. It's enough to make one's head spin, trying to imagine it all. Strategic thinking/planning often requires some sense of stability and predictability, which is not something I think is always possible within government, especially when you have a back and forth with Liberals-Conservatives entering and leaving office. In the end, I'm an optimist and believe that ultimately anything is possible, but with time and direct and continuous effort. Shared visions help, too. - Linzi Williamson

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Our organization provides services and the future I envision for those that we serve would continue that service provision, while maintaining and improving on programs to continue to help those most in need. Rob Silver

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I think strategic thinking, or vision planning, really require an understanding of the individuals who comprise a base of customers or clients. It is much easier for the private sector to accomplish this, because as much as every business would love to sell their stuff to everybody, its more often the case that companies fall into a niche. You might go to IHOP for pancakes and Nike for sneakers, for example. Those companies serve specific people, who have specific needs at specific times. Whereas the client base for government is everybody who comprises the citizenry. I think it would be impossible to account for any possible need or request that every citizen could end up demanding, more so than it would be for a sneaker company to latch onto a trend, or a pancake joint to do a seasonal menu. Furthermore, the private sector engages in brand marketing, which develops relationships and trust with clients. Alternatively, the government begins with a sizeable portion of the population who doesn't trust them, yet everybody has to use governmental services at one time or another. How would one strategically plan an effective vision for everyone, keeping in mind many people aren't going to trust the service or information they receive? I'm not saying its impossible, but its at least an up-mountain battle. Rob Silver

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Provide housing assistance and policy to address social systemic barriers related to homelessness.
Francine Keough

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To offer accessible services and cultural amenities, lifelong learning opportunities, affordable housing and a safe and supportive living environment for all residents.

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Does local government reflect your vision? 

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Does local government reflect your vision? 

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Local government is an excellent example of visioning (although, perhaps not always effective) and strategic thinking. Councils are made up of community members who, for the most part, do not have much experience with municipal budgets, facility management and emergency services, but these community members do have vision!

In my experience, when a Council is elected, they develop their strategic priorities for the term. These priorities are typically high level and include items like community safety, affordable housing and environmental stewardship. As the level of government closest to residents, councillors often have a good idea of what residents envision for their community. By working with municipal staff, community committees and other local stakeholders, local governments are able to plan, implement and evaluate effective and strategic programs, services and solutions to community problems.

An example from my past is when Council set environmental stewardship as a priority accompanied with high-level ideas of what success looks like with respect to achieving this priority. Through collaboration, the municipality introduced new programs like a studded bike tire rebate program to increase active transportation in the winter; introduced a waste reduction bylaw and supported local not for profit initiatives with respect to food security.

Kayla Byrne

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To "create positive environmental and social change."

-Marc Maggi

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I would argue that both the public and private sectors are hampered in their capability for creating strategic visions each in their own unique ways. The private sector, as we all know, is driven by the quest for profits. This can drive it towards effective strategic thinking and longterm planning, or it can push it towards reckless, short term decisions that are harmful to a company's brand, reputation, and profits over the long term. This is especially true in publicly traded corporations, who are beholden only to shareholders, many of whom aren't incentivized to care about a company's longterm profits if they intend to sell their shares and turn a quick profit.

The government sector, meanwhile, is hampered by a different weakness in its strategic visioning. The government can be very susceptible to the vicissitudes of public opinion. Elected officials, who care about getting re-elected, are constantly concerned with polling figures and the majority opinion on policies. They can be forced to backtrack or change policy on a dime, issuing directives to public servants to reverse course on policies. It's just the nature of democracy, that stable, longterm policy goals are hard to achieve when new politicians with different outlooks and priorities are constantly being voted into office. And although I called it a "weakness," it is also a strength in many ways, since responsiveness to public opinion is a crucial pillar of any elected government's mandate. It does certainly complicate maintaining any sort of unified, longterm strategic planning across different successive governments.

-Marc Maggi

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To be inspired by innovation in the marketplace, create excellence in customer service, and uphold integrity and respect in our actions.

- Jessica MacKeen

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To serve our Mi'kmaw member communities by focusing on projects and areas of interest and assisting them in building capacity.

Seonaid MacDonell

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I would have to agree with this. I can only speak from my limited government experience of working once as a Summer Assistant for the NS Department of Agriculture, but in that short time, I noticed how restrictive government could be when trying to accomplish something. For example, the NSDA was updating their website while I was working there, and even a year later, when I went back to look at their website, it still hadn’t been fully updated. It just seems like any steps that were made throughout the government had to go through so much red tape. This slowed things down so much that it was hard to get even the smallest thing approved and accomplished. Therefore, I can only imagine how slow the process would be when looking at revising something as complicated as a strategic plan. Now, I have worked for different private sector organizations or NGOs, and I don’t believe they have the option to delay important items such as a strategic plan for their organizations/businesses. This is essential to have within your business today. Depending on your industry/sector you need to quickly grow and move with the times to stay relevant and accomplish your missions and goals. That being said, I believe this can be more easily accomplished in the private sector or even within not-for-profits with a Board of Directors. A government on the other hand is responsible to the public and therefore, is very heavily scrutinized on every decision that’s made.

Seonaid MacDonell

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The provincial Archives, Museums and Libraries will inspire every Nova Scotian to build a better future by sharing stories from their past.

-Mark Sajatovich

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As a former federal government public servant and a current provincial government public servant, I'd agree that visioning is one of the most difficult things to facilitate.  What's sometimes overlooked is that effective visioning and strategic planning in general, should involve time, consultations, engagement and a great deal of jurisdictional scanning.  In many instances, the public service is required to be more reactive than proactive and this can limit such resources and result in serious challenges to the entire planning process.

While not impossible to remedy, it generally requires a leader with a great deal of first-hand experience in project/program development as well as the confidence (and time management skills) to devote the appropriate time to Visualization (Mumford Strategic Skill #1) and Systems Evaluation (Mumford Strategic Skill #3).  In several cases, I've seen leaders with a solid working knowledge of these two skills use them as a springboard into Bryson's 10 Steps of Strategic Planning.

-Mark Sajatovich

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I'd also have to agree that visioning is difficult for the government. I think this primarily has to do with public scrutiny and having to make decisions that do not jeopardize political standing/identities. While I have not worked in government, in the past, my father tried to receive funding for an initiative to bring a new type of wind turbine up to Canada from the South. He was bounced all over government sectors because everyone thought "it was not their responsibility." Once they found someone willing to help, there were many more hoops to be jumped through that ultimately led to a dead end. The government says they have a vision of supporting green initiatives, but they have made it impossible to get anything done.

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I think there are less bureaucratic and administrative obstacles to strategic thinking. However, I do believe that the culture of government sectors are still more inclined to 'traditional ways' of visioning which might be the follow cookie cutter models. Not in terms of how information or vision is communicated but the substance of how things should run i.e. the solutions appraisal process. Personally, I think a model like such is outdated and needs reform.
I do however understand the limitations of government- which is that unlike private sectors that may allow for more entrepreneurial thinking, and innovative approaches, government "innovations" and "strategy" might involve more intergovernmental conversations, with the need to represent not just private but personal interests of people from diverse backgrounds. This I think is the nature of policy and government operations that may serve as a hindrance to strategic visioning.
-Nicole Ng

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I work for a faith based school district and we have recently updated our mission. Living and Learning in our Catholic Faith, so that students, centred in Christ, realize their full potential. Vanessa Klettke

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I recently reviewed a strategic plan for a private sector business who released a new vision related to employee engagement. Their vision was to transform service through investing millions of dollars in employee training and development. Fundamentally, I believe in investing in the workforce, however, funding this strategic direction with public funds makes it subject to public opinion. And public opinion can be challenging to maneuver. With that said, I agree that the dynamics of government would make it hard for effective visioning and strategic thinking.

Governments have accountability to the public, and the public’s understanding of the benefits of strategic visioning can be limited (i.e., not everyone is an expert on every strategy/vision). So, when the government conducts public engagement on strategy and visioning, they will not always receive the support they feel they need to advance or to think outside the box in driving real transformation. On the flip side of that, if the government doesn’t engage the public they are accused of not being transparent and open. To further complicate the matter, politicians making the decisions are often hoping to get re-elected, so moving forward against the public opinion has the potential to impact them personally.

It is very common in the public sector to have strategic plans and visions, however, the question is does the dynamic of government allow for effective visioning or strategic thinking – and to that, I say there is a ways to go yet.

Jamie Rideout

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My employer, the City of St. John’s, states its vision statement as:

“The City of St John’s vision is of a colorful, exciting, lively and busy city with a growing diversity. There is a growing optimism. It is a city where we want to live and work and a city of opportunities. We are cosmopolitan yet family friendly with a range of amenities all contributing to an enviable quality of life”

I believe St. John’s is going in the direction it has set. The city has focused on its rich culture and tourism market in recent years and has been consistent in its efforts to communicate the unique attributes of our community. St. John’s is working to drive economic development and support businesses who were severely impacted by COVID-19 related to changes to their operational matters. In addition, recreation programs are resuming for residents, including children and seniors.

Based on my organization/city’s vision, I see a preferred future for St. John’s:

St. John’s is the most diverse community, and employer, in the province, led by a community of employees who drive commercial and residential growth through a business-friendly approach to economic development, and a tier one service level for residents.

Jamie Rideout

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I don't think it is impossible to effectively vision or think strategically in the public sector. But do I believe it is a lot more challenging than in private industry? You bet.
As a CEO in private, you have a vision, you sell it, you invest in it, you make it profitable, everyone is happy. I know I am underselling the complexities of dealing with a board and shareholders, but dealing in politics is always harder.
In public sector, your first hurdle is going to be resources: both of the human and monetary variety. You will only have a limited number of full time equivalents allotted to your area, and you will have to ask/beg/borrow (which is unlikely) for money. Budget dollars are hard to come by and the minister will have to buy in to get you the dollars you need.
Even then, once you are successful in procuring resources, you may or may not have the expertise on hand. In industry? You bring in a consultant. In government, you go to tender/request for proposals, to get the best bid as accountability, transparency and equal opportunity for industry to compete must be adhered to.
At that point, if you have procured what you need, you have to hope that an election has not occurred (i.e. your world revolves in four year cycles) as the mandates and visions that once supported your strategies and policies may have shifted. So many times when I worked in government I would see colleagues invest their heart and soul into an initiative only to have it scrapped/shelved shortly thereafter because of a cabinet shuffle or a change at the top.
You have to sell the vision a lot better in government, you have to get buy in across multiple stakeholders in government and you have to ride the wave of politics at all times. So I actually think you have to be an even more dynamic leader in government to get initiatives moved forward. The problem is I think a lot of leaders are not these types. Or if they are, you also need an element of bravery as sometimes you may be stepping outside of the political norms.
When looking at Bryson's 10 Steps in Strategic Planning, I think because of the bureacratic cycle in government, in can take an inordinate amount of time just to get to the organizational mandate, let alone start to identify and tackle the issues.
And what if you are having to sell a vision or a strategy to a vision that you fundamentally do not believe in? I know that civil servants are supposed to be non-partisan in their work, but politics has become so divisive as of late and I wonder how many civil servants are feeling they are pushing forward ideologies and policies that are misaligned with their core values. In industry, I am confident this happens as well, but your mission is often not the same as serving the public good in some capacity.
At the local level, we often operationalize these decisions but local politics is so very different than provincial or federal - Vanessa Croswell-Klettke

P.S. - I am so, so sorry to have missed two live classes in a row. In my time zone I will always be at work when our class is on and sometimes I have commitments that I just cannot get out of. The next couple of weeks should work a lot better!

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Thank you for sharing your organisations' vision statements with us. If you have scrolled through these entries, you will have found a mix of mandate, mission, values and vision..I hope that having worked your way through Module 3, you will now have a better appreciation for the differences between all of these dimensions - missions are not values, are not mandates and are not visions. Impact vision is even more specific! What is your organisation's vision of what it hopes to achieve for its constitutency(ies)? What impact does it desire to achieve? That is the focus of the vision statement. Perhaps you can (gently and diplomatically) assist your organisation in reframing?😁

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Savoie is saying that transparency is a barrier with people "looking over your shoulder all the time".
I have a quote of my own that says "If you are not transparent, people can see right through it".
Personally I do not believe transparency can be brushed off as a burden and it is really accountability.
In a time of "cancel culture" it can be frightening to make mistakes and be called out on them, but many communities and people outside government had to live with this burden and punishment for hundreds of years.
To me true leadership is admitting and learning from mistakes and reconciling with those mistakes as much as possible.

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To create an environment where permanent and contract employees are treated equally.

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To create an environment where permanent and contract employees are treated equally.

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As Mintzberg and Savoie indicate, not much has changed with respect to the foundations of government or management. Both are a practice and the people involved are humans with flaws. As Mintzberg says “management is a human activity”.

While the foundation hasn’t changed much, based on the amount of books written on leadership in these past two decades and videos like the two we watched for this module, we know that the practice (or the idea of practicing) is changing — managers and governments are acknowledging their flaws and practicing ways to improve them.

Both Mintzberg and Savoie draw our attention to one of the common conundrums of managing: Being a manager disconnects you from what you are managing.

While I have experienced this, I’ve never put the experience into words or acknowledged that this is something that can be practiced. As discussed at last Tuesday’s class, managers (or at least good ones) are practicing connecting with their team through regular check-ins and open communication — a big improvement from the singular annual performance review of the recent past.

Kayla Byrne

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Response to Student Post #1: Fighting a War

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Response to Student Post #1: Fighting a War

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For me, Savoie's interview highlighted that governments' moves towards greater transparency over the last four or five have not received the credit they likely deserve. Nowadays, thanks to open government and digital technology, every new policy and regulation is released for public comment, and hundreds of thousands of responses are received. This is not only a challenge in terms of government capacity to review and analyze the sheer volume of responses but also to reconcile the vast differences in interests (from those saying the government is going too far, to those saying the government is not going far enough). However how a government actually takes the feedback into account and modifies the proposed policy or regulation, and the degree to which citizens and organizations that provided feedback perceive they have been heard, is a measure of transparency.

From personal experience as a citizen, I have found completing a government engagement survey can be infuriating, especially when the questions are very leading and none of the multiple choice responses reflect my beliefs or interests on the issue at hand. The original poster's quote: "if you  are not transparent, people can see right through it" perfectly describes the situation as I often think about the public servants who wrote the survey and what pressures they faced, both partisan and from within the public service and who's interest is really being served by the less-than-transparent survey. Often public engagement can be viewed as step in the process, a checkbox that must be completed regardless of the results, which decreases public perception of transparency.

Because of the high expectations of citizens for transparency and the high costs of doing it well at the expense of other services, another phrase that might describe transparency in government is "damned if you do, damned if you don't".

-Natalie James

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What happens if government is good at it but others are better? 

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What happens if government is good at it but others are better? 

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Savoie discusses "the good old days" when politicians sought expertise, advise and draft policies from public servants, but acknowledges that the process has changed substantially with more players having access to the ears of politicians. He also says that "no one is going to worry about wicked problems other than government." I wonder about the merit of this statement with the rise of think tanks specializing on wicked problems and producing a wealth of research reports, policy analysis and recommendations. While policy research may be something governments are good at, are non-governmental think tanks and academics better at it? Especially, while governments are busy delivering services, to what degree should leaders in the public sector be looking outside of government for efficiencies in policy development or analysis? If the core competencies of a manager in the public administration are to promote innovation, achieve results and collaborate with partners, is this an acceptable solution? One could argue that privately funded think tanks may only serve the interests of a particular segment of society and not the broader the common good, so what are the risks in terms of accountability and transparency?

-Natalie James

Some examples of think tanks in Canada are:
Smart Prosperity Institute: to advance practical policies and market solutions for a stronger, cleaner economy.

Fraser Institute: to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families, and future generations by studying, measuring, and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship, and choice on their well-being.

Institute for Research on Public Policy: to improve public policy in Canada by generating research, providing insight and influencing debate on current and emerging policy issues facing Canadians and their governments.

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I couldn't agree more with my fellow classmates-- personally, I find that transparency is necessary in Policy and in governments in general. The intuition behind democratic governments and policies is service to the people and if transparency is not ensured, it may suggest that there is room for private interests within government. The video mentioned that it is increasingly difficult for ordinary folks to gain access to politicians. I understand this as for ordinary folks to be able to communicate and voice concerns to politicians and that public servants need to remain 'close' to the people, investing time and effort to understand their needs. Besides this, I have possibly a controversial view that government entities to begin with are often filled by people of specific, borderline elite, higher socio-economic status individuals which makes dialogue between government and the public a little less relatable for some., which subsequently leads to accountability, transparency controversies.

-nicole

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I'm just adding to this post because no one has posted anything here yet. I'm convinced-- Mintzberg has officially redefined the idea of leadership.  I used to view leadership as something that cannot be fully grasped/learnt if one didn't have the charisma or leadership 'gifts' we traditionally think leaders should have. The way he describes leadership to me, is management but almost in a way of what would be the most economical way of allocating and organizing human resource for the better of the overall organization. Through this lens, it seems that leadership can be dissected in a technical sense, in terms of plus and minuses, which might make it more learnable, like math.
-nicole ng

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Response to Student Post #2: We're all flawed humans

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Response to Student Post #2: We're all flawed humans

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I tend to agree with Kayla and Ed that managers must make the effort to stay connected and informed about what they are managing. Deborah Blackman's article advises that managers should not conduct annual performance appraisals merely because it is a step in an organizational framework, but to think about  performance management in terms of how it will help the organization meet its strategic goals. This makes a lot of sense to me. A good manager therefore would view their employees are useful resources with knowledge of the situation that they as manager do not have, and would take time to listen to their employee's insights and observations. This can be vital to finding ideas that will work and achieving results but has the added benefit of empowering the employees and ensuring they feel heard.
-Natalie James

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Response to Student Post #4: Economical Management = Leadership?

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Response to Student Post #4: Economical Management = Leadership?

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Thanks Nicole, your post forced me to think a bit more about the nuances of management versus leadership as I sip my Sunday morning coffee. It does seem as though management covers many of the technical aspects of coordinating human, financial and technological resources to achieve goals. These are all concrete skills that can be studied and learned. Leadership encompasses some of the softer skills such as ability to influence, motivate and inspire. These may manifest naturally as traits for some people but need to be learned, practiced and honed for others. I'm wary to fully separate leadership from management, as Mintzberg says they are part and parcel of the same thing. However, one of my key takeaways from the Van Wart reading in Module 1 is that leadership is a subjective social construction that is constantly evolving depending on what a society values, whereas Mintzberg argues that management is more static and has not changed in the last 40 years.

-Natalie James

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Some of the challenges for strategic thinking and visioning in the public sector include frequent changes in leadership driven by elections, the rigidity of the bureaucratic model, and low tolerance for risk-taking when it comes to public goods and the public good. While these dynamics may hinder the efficacy of strategic approaches to planning and implementation in the public sector, they are challenges to be overcome. The fact that governments must operate in a world that is increasingly complex, connected and unpredictable provides a justification in favour of strategic management. This means anticipating and planning for future needs and challenges by creating agile, iterative processes.

-Natalie James

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My thoughts echo those that have already been addressed by my fellow classmates. I believe while, it can feel like a burden and stressful at times to be in the role of a public servant and to potentially feel like you are "looking over your shoulder all the time" as stated by Savoie, the move to be more open and transparent within government is a necessary feat that needs to be undertaken to have and hold the trust of the Canadian citizens. When the public does not have trust in what the government is doing and what they're saying, and does not see accountability being taken when something unethical or irresponsible takes place, then you lose support from citizens. I also agree, that since cancel culture is such a huge topic and has been the last several years (where we have seen people who have made a spectrum of mistakes and lose their livelihoods) that it can be terrifying for those in public servant roles to  have eyes on their every move and fear the repercussions of potential mistakes. Depending on the mistakes made, it can be very refreshing for the public to see their public servants take accountability for errors made and show how they have learned from these instances and improve moving forward.

- Seonaid MacDonell

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I personally have never been in the position where I had to manage employees but I have had managers that I've answered to. Something I had not considered through those experiences is the conundrum mentioned by Kayla where she states "Being a manager disconnects you from what you are managing". Now this to me, coming from my work experience in not-for-profit organizations, can mean a couple of different things. I feel in some instances, a manager may be managing a project or a program which can also include several employees under their supervision. So, while they are responsible for several non-personnel aspects of their responsibilities (project budgets, logistics, stakeholder engagement, etc.) to complete their deliverables they need to also be managing their team. And again, echoing what has already been mentioned above, it's crucial for a manager to stay in tune with their employees through regular check-ins and meetings. This not only can assist their employees with any issues they may be having within their roles, it can open up communication, and also, make sure everything is on track to completed by any fiscal deadlines for the projects.

- Seonaid MacDonell

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I think there might be some difficulty arising from government outsourcing their policy research and analysis to private organizations. The issues with this being, what bias or affiliations might these organizations have, and where might their funding be coming from? That being said, I do agree that there might be an opportunity for more in-depth research and analysis by allocating these efforts to say, academic organizations, but that is why I believe the people in the Policy Analyst roles, should have adequate education and experience. With having the policy analysis taking place within the government, you are then leaving the efforts up to those who were voted in power to hire those individuals to assist in this process (or at least their staff) in the form of Policy Analysts within the government. I also think, there has already been services that were previously offered by the government that have been outsourced (specifically thinking of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture (NSDA) and how different programs and technical services previously offered by NSDA are now offered by the NSFA and Perennia). How much do we want to outsource from our public service?

- Seonaid MacDonell

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Thanks Nicole and Natalie for touching on leadership versus management. I have always thought of management and leadership going hand in hand. The main difference between the two being that a strong leader has that skill innately while management skills could be learned and honed over time through experience. I also found the point where Mintzberg discusses how management hasn't changed over the last 100 years interesting. Basically he states that you are still addressing the same three activities which are "acting through information, working through people, and managing action directly". That being said, I do believe that the tools that are used in management have drastically changed over the years due to technology, and the ways these tools are utilized have changed as well. This can be seen more recently where managers are facing more obstacles because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of this, managers are having to figure out new methods of managing their staff and completing deliverables. So, while the goals of managing may not have changed, the way these goals are achieved certainly have.

-Seonaid MacDonell

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I completely agree that even through transparency can be frustrating, it is one of the pillars of democratic governance so it is necessary to uphold trust between the public. Unfortunately, this is something the Canadian government is not great at doing. Just last year there was a Globe and Mail article about the Canadian government continuously lacking in the transparency department. It was said that there is a culture in our government that has honed the instinct to withhold information and processes rather than to reveal them (The Editorial Board, 2021). There is even a case in BC where they are looking at charging fees for access to information. Even though we are in an era of "cancel culture", I personally think it is part of the government's job to answer to the concerns of the people and its important to give people a voice.

-Jessica MacKeen

References: The Editorial Board. (2021). Transparency is a pillar of democratic governance. Canada is continually falling short. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-transparency-is-a-pillar-of-democratic-governance-canada-is/

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In October, a University of Toronto history professor tweeted part of the result of an Access to Information request. The information, of course, was littered with the usual redacted sections, pretty much a universal experience in such endeavours.

What was peculiar in this case was what the Privy Council Office believed had to be hidden from public view. It was sections of a 1959 speech in the House of Commons by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker about the Avro Arrow.

The episode is surreal - the PCO redacted Hansard - yet it also crystallizes Canada's widespread and continuing failings in access to information. Governments in Canada claim to believe in openness when in fact the opposite is the case. The problems run the gamut, from a recent unjustified tightening of the Freedom of Information law in British Columbia to the day-to-day workings of governments at all levels.

These problems aren't new, but appear to be worsening. All Canadians pay the cost. A fundamental tenet of democratic governance is to be as open and transparent as possible. In Canada, only lip service is paid to this ideal. The PCO-Hansard dust-up is an extreme example but, in practice, and across the political spectrum, a culture in much of government has honed the instinct to withhold rather than to reveal.

The United States provides a ready comparison with Canada. Two stories of the mechanics of journalism in 2021 illustrate the stark divide.

Last winter, a reporter at the Fraser Valley Current sought to understand an eruption of Mount Baker, south of B.C.'s Fraser Valley in Washington State, and risks it could pose to the Canadian side. The reporter asked for comment from a relevant expert with the B.C. government, but was rejected by PR staff. Instead, several points of already public facts were sent by e-mail. The reporter at the same time easily got direct access to an official expert on the U.S. side.

The Globe and Mail found the same problems in researching the Canadian developers of the condo building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Fla., in June. Almost 100 people died. The developers had also been active in Canada, and The Globe tried to uncover possible dangers here. Records easily obtained in the U.S. took a months-long battle to dig up in Canada.

Seeking information is not just about journalism. While one can actually laugh at the PCO redacting a prime minister's speech in the Commons, academics who work to better illuminate our history are being stymied by a system that could more accurately be called Restricting Access to Information. "This secrecy about historical events is damaging to Canadians," argued the U of T history prof and a colleague.

In B.C. in November, while the province was beset by calamitous flooding and landslides, the NDP government rammed through changes to the province's FOI law that were widely criticized, from journalists to Indigenous leaders. The issues included charging for access and seeming to restrict access to information from the Premier's Office.

Some of the most trenchant criticism came from the government's own Information and Privacy Commissioner. In an open letter to the government, the Commissioner urged numerous changes, including the plan to charge fees.

"To add another barrier of access at a time when transparency is critical is deeply troubling," the commissioner wrote. The NDP, with a majority, were undeterred, and their changes became law.

Various governments of all stripes may believe they benefit from saying less than more, seeking to cloister information they fear could be politically damaging, even if the information really belongs to all of us. Calls for greater freedom of information don't mean no restrictions; some information has to be redacted. But the interpretation of what should be hidden has become overly broad. Freedom of information is about making public information, on matters of public policy, public - and in a timely matter, another front on which governments across Canada fail.

Most of all, the law is only one thing. The deeper problem, and one that is more pernicious, is how government officials are operating, whether it is not allowing expert civil servants to speak with the press, or redacting reams of information that should not be redacted. It's a culture across governments in Canada that erodes transparency in democracy. It needs a wholesale reset.
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Globe editorial: Transparency is a pillar of democratic governance. Canada is continually falling short

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In October, a University of Toronto history professor tweeted part of the result of an Access to Information request. The information, of course, was littered with the usual redacted sections, pretty much a universal experience in such endeavours. What was peculiar in this case was what the Privy Council Office believed had to be hidden from public view.

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This is a really interesting thread and makes one ponder about why management is seemingly put in a different category than leadership. I hadn't put too much thought into  them separately but looking up the definitions was very eye opening. Management can be defined as the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. Leadership can be defined as the ability of an individual or a group to influence and guide followers or other members of an organization. I think great managers do both, and that both can be learned throughout time. Managers who are good at managing groups of people and tasks also possess the ability to influence a group whether they acknowledge it or not.

- Jessica MacKeen