By Andy McCue, 1 November 2005 16:15
NEWS
Fewer than half of council IT staff respect their chief executives because they lack the ability to lead and inspire, according to a new survey.
Only 43 per cent of the 150 local government IT professionals polled by networking community Public Sector Forums said they respected their chief executive.
Leadership skills and the ability to inspire staff came lowest when asked to rate their chief executive's performance, although they scored best on vision and setting high standards.
Overall chief executive performance was rated as 'good' by 38 per cent and 'excellent' by 10 per cent although 16 per cent rated it as 'below average' and five per cent rated it as 'poor'.
The IT staff in the survey also cited directors of finance and social services as those executives in the council who provided the best leadership.
Ian Dunmore of Public Sector Forums said chief executives need to listen to staff more in order to get a better understanding of the organisation and help deliver on key e-government initiatives.
He said in a statement: "Chief execs often have poor understanding of what's happening at ground level and therefore are unable or unwilling to drive through key initiatives that could improve their organisation."
Comments
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1. Jack
It's not just councils, but the public sector in general.
You find senior IT people inthe same role for decades! These people have not idea of the real world!
Any innovation is critized! 'it not what we are used to'
2. Juilette Williams - Enlibra Coaching
CEOs needs to maintain internal trust with the people in the organisation. Trust is proven to be a critical success factor for establishing reliable strategic partners externally, and it must be equally relevant for internal partners, staff with an organisation. If you can't build trust internally, how can you expect to build it externally. CEOs need to communicate both top level and bottom line to main trust, integrity and respect from the people he/she leads, as this will result in the organisation ability to attract the most qualified people that set up the circumstances for productive alliances.
Don't wait until it's too late where staff feel uncertain about their future and leave, in (a crisis situation or time of uncertainty) when there is a lack of trust and respect becomes much harder to regain.
Begin building trust in your organisation, commit to building the highest level of trust within your organisations, understand what trust "looks like", be a great leader measure trust and make it an important corporate indicator for your organisation future.