15 Jun 2016

Leaders in all spheres of Botswana’s economy have the responsibility to create work environment that enable innovation, productivity and accountability, Debswana Diamond Company managing director, Mr Balisi Bonyongo, has said.

Mr Bonyongo was delivering keynote address at the Public Service Day Convention in Gaborone on Tuesday.

“Leaders must, with simplicity, explain to their colleagues, followers and subordinates the purpose or the reason for the existence of their organisations. If a ministry or department has not been clear on the reason why it exists, I do not understand how then it can communicate anything to its employees,” he said.

Fifty years, he said was a long time in a nation’s existence ‘and what worked well in the past and in those years of yeastier may not be relevant in the future.’

For that reason, he said leaders should ensure their employees were very clear on the reason for their organisations’ existence or purpose and the vision for getting them to achieving that purpose.

“Until that is very articulated do not be surprised if there is no connection with an employee, between what an employee does and what the organisation is expecting from them,” he said.  

In this century, he said leaders should  live organisational values and work at ensuring that each employee connected and associated with these values, as they provided a glue that brought people together to create an identity and a shared culture.

“If those values are simply transparency on the wall and accountability feels like a distant song. It’s a waste of time and needs to be challenged,” said Mr Bonyongo.

Leaders, he said should  be able to challenge themselves, around whether they were living their organisational values themselves, so that employees could connect with the environment, adding that ‘the environment should  be led, it can’t lead itself.’

Further, for innovation to flourish, Debswana Diamond Company managing director said leaders should  create an engaging climate that provided forums for the organisation to allow for connections and conversations to take place inside the organisation. 

 “Our national imperatives must be to transform ourselves into a highly innovative, productive and resilient nation,” he said.

This, Mr Bonyongo said, called for citizens who were prepared to selflessly share their skills and knowledge with others- collaborating within and outside their normal working environments. 

Setting the tone for discussions at the Convention, Deputy Permanent Secretary to the President, Ms Botshelo Mathuba said the 2016 Public Service Convention was special as it was being held in the year of Botswana’s Golden Jubilee and the time ‘when the public service was expected to show maturity and experience in its delivery of services.’

“This convention is crucial as it emphasises the need for the public service to continuously strive to execute government programmes in an innovative manner,” she said. ENDS