Ethos Issue 6, Jul 2009

Leadership at a Time of Crisis
Peter Shergold

Five key qualities are demanded of civil servants at a time of crisis, argues Professor Peter Shergold, a distinguished public service veteran and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Civil Service College.

For civil servants, crises come in various guises. Often they are political, born of the heady swirl of public policy debate, governance and individual intrigue played out in the harsh glare of the media spotlight. Sometimes they take the form of cyclones or hurricanes, raging forest fires or rising floods. Unfortunately, in the modern era, crises can also come unexpectedly and brutally in the form of a terrorist attack.

To a significant extent, public perceptions of the capability of governments, and of the capacity of the civil servants who support them, are forged in the crucible of disaster. The faltering response to Hurricane Katrina, as much as an unpopular war in Iraq, undermined support for the presidency of George W. Bush.

On occasion, crises are more profound and long-term in their nature. The global financial collapse, and the worldwide economic recession that has followed, represents just such a moment. For Singapore, whose extraordinary prosperity has been founded on globalisation, the implications are particularly confronting. As Singapore’s export markets plummet, and property prices slump, the challenges to government will increase. The repatriation of large numbers of overseas workers will afford some protection, but there can be no doubt that unemployment will rise and the pressure on social services increase.

Economic downturn—of a dimension, depth and length that was unforeseen— will call for new responses. Around the world, it will be a testing time for governments and for the civil servants who serve them. It will demand public administrations with innovative ideas, responsive to new directions and committed to their effective implementation.

What are the qualities of leadership that will be called for at such a time? My reflections are informed, in part, by my readings; in large measure, they reflect my own experience during the five years I was the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Canberra, and in particular my involvement in the Australian government’s response to the Asian tsunami, the Bali and Jakarta bombings and Queensland’s Cyclone Larry.

The first quality is collegiality. The great challenges of contemporary public policy—from the immediacy of economic crisis to the prospect of long-term environmental catastrophe—inevitably cross the constrictive structures of government administration. Indeed, a hallmark of the response to crisis is the need to ensure that central, line and operational agencies are working harmoniously. Bureaucratic territoriality reduces timeliness, complicates process and weakens collective ownership of decisions.

Of course, the qualities of teamwork (empathic listening, treating all participants with respect and ensuring that a diversity of views and perspectives are considered) can actually serve to impede the decisive action called for at a time of crisis. This must be avoided. Speed is essential. The goal is to work openly together, across horizontal demarcations, in the search for the best whole-ofgovernment outcomes.

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