25 Nov 2018

Molepolole and Lentsweletau sub-council employees have been urged to inculcate a productive culture and take pride in serving their purpose, which is to selflessly help Batswana.

Giving a keynote address during the annual staff awards in Molepolole, director in the Department of Social and Community Development Mr Steven Ludick said it was essential for the employees to amend their thoughts, emotions, beliefs and reinforce in their minds to meet the challenges presented in the workplace with a refreshed mindset and positive approach prior to producing good results.

He encouraged employees to eliminate the stereotypes associated with being a ‘servant’ saying it does not mean they were less significant as the word is commonly related.

“Being a public servant does not mean you are a slave, but means you serve in the interest of the citizens, therefore don’t wake up to go to work, go to work to help people,” he said.

Mr Ludick motivated the staff that success was determined by what they constantly applied their minds to, therefore they should be mindful of their general life thoughts and habits; change the way they do things and challenge their abilities as anyone could reach success if they constantly do the right things.

He said it could also be detrimental to reinforce negative habits such as holding resentment between colleagues as service delivery gets impacted in the process. He challenged public servants to discover their negative subconscious mind and come to terms with it to create a new frame of mind, hence improving the positive organisational outlook.

“Grudges we hold are dangerous to health, it is like drinking poison and expect a different person to die. Once you have high levels of stress in your body, its immune system automatically shuts down, therefore how do you expect to produce results, and perform in your workplace,” remarked Mr Ludick.

He went on to invigorate public employees to strive for excellence fundamentals when delivering service to clients in their respective departments through taking initiatives and creating innovative actions, approaching problems as opportunities, taking accountability, inspiring and elevating one another by being role models to one another as work mates.

Mr Ludick further outlined that excellence was a habit, not an act and that it could be achieved by continuously doing the right things and improvising with sound customer service attitude without seizing.

In an interview with BOPA, senior assistant council secretary Mr Gofaone  Kgabanyane stated that the annual staff awards started in 2016 and that they were mandated to address one of their of objectives of consistency, whereby they serve people with the same standards.

Mr Kgabanyane said it was crucial to motivating staff as the basic idea was for them to be happy and be independent, also to encourage maturity and competition among them, saying this would instill in them the spirit of diligence, hence a sound approach to challenges they faced in the workplace.

“Most of the staff depends on being assigned to perform certain duties and on salary, so the goal is to instill self-development among staff, to empower them to be initiative creators, collaborators and team players under minimum supervision,” he said.

“Awards motivation has been able to transform our staff, ever since we started them in 2016.

We are also offering training to our staff in a form of refresher workshops and there has been a significant difference as the way they perform is very impressive.

I believe it is because of this motivation,” said Mr Kgabanyane. Ends