Executive Leadership Development Training |22 November 2022

Guests and delegates in a souvenir photograph

1000 participants from government, private and parastatal organisations already benefitted

As part of its continuous capacity building and sensitisation campaign on leadership and management with a view to improving productivity and efficiency in the workplace, the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) and The Guy Morel Institute (TGMI) is conducting the last training for 2022. The training, which will end tomorrow, Wednesday November 23, is targeting mainly executive leaders.

In 2022, 1000 participants from the government, private and parastatal organisations have benefited from this training.

The programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs in collaboration with TGMI.

It started in 2018, following one of the main recommendations from the Productivity Study conducted in Seychelles which identified various shortcomings within different structures of government departments, parastatal organisations and private sector on the issue of leadership and productivity.

The objective is to equip leaders and managers with the necessary tools on how to manage their organisations more strategically to be able to make a difference to enhance productivity in workplaces.

It also aims to improve leadership and management qualities and organisational performance in general.

Since 2018 to date, a total of 5000 participants from almost 100 government ministries, agencies, departments, private and parastatal organisations have participated in the programme.

Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Patricia Francourt, stated that “The leadership tools will surely assist the participants on how to manage your organisation strategically and be able to make a positive difference in your workplace”.

Minister Francourt further explained the key strategic objectives of the programme that will assist the country to be resilient and remain sustainable now and beyond such as to ensure strategic planning for air transport development and promotion in Seychelles to expedite the growth of our airport as an international and prominent gateway, facilitating national endeavours in the tourism, trade and investment industries; ensure safe, secure and efficient operations and high standards of facilitation and services in respect of passengers, aircraft and cargo in accordance with ICAO standards, consequently enhancing Seychelles as a safe destination and develop, implement and optimise new business opportunities and innovative ventures that provide profitable and sustainable markets for non-aeronautical revenue growth for the Seychelles airports, with a strategic focus on the customer experience and high level of customer satisfaction for our travelling visitors and airport users.

“Indeed, the executive leadership workshop is an opportunity for you to reflect on how best to utilise institutional resources and human capacities within the organisation to bring the positive change that is needed. It is calling for a positive change in the way we manage our organisation, a positive change in employee’s attitudes and behaviour at work and endless commitment by employers to improve leadership and management style. This is pertinent to make a difference in workplaces in order to foster smarter productivity approaches and to create sustainable organisational performance,” reinforced the minister.

The chief executive of SCAA, Garry Albert, noted that “Leadership looks like many things. It can look like knowledge, triumph, clear direction, and a road to success. At the same time, it can look like struggle, adversity, defeat, and even complete deterrence. What makes a great leader is the ability to be resilient, empathetic, and motivated regardless of the situation”.

The acting executive director of TGMI, Patrick Bristol, added that “our role as TGMI is to help develop capacity in the public and private sector and we help leaders to lead others”.

If so many people have attended the programme since 2018, has the programme been really effective as we keep hearing criticism towards the civil servant? Maryvonne Francis, head of the Productivity Unit, noted that “there is a minority who are still having this problem of negative attitudes and issues of discipline, they are under performing and this is why it is high time to change the attitude and think and work smart. So many work from 8am to 4pm but do not get much accomplished. The pandemic showed us that we can work differently and bring in the quality.”

The training is being held over three days and the newly trained will be evaluated after a few months.

Vidya Gappy

Photos: Louis Toussaint