‘Don’t be afraid to send incomplete work back ’ – Gov John S. Duncan
This is according to Governor of the Virgin Islands His Excellency John S. Duncan OBE. He was speaking at the launch of a three-day training programme last Wednesday September 30, 2015 entitled ‘Developing Effective Policy: Analysis and Use of Evidence Workshop.’
“Do not be afraid to send work back that is incomplete or inadequate,” charged the Governor to the participants of the training who hold supervisory and management positions in Government.
“You need to delegate properly and exercise quality control. Do not allow work to creep up the decision and management chain,” Governor Duncan, who is also the Chairman of the Cabinet, said.
He said public servants are not consultants. “You will not be judged on the length of what you write but by the conciseness of your arguments.
“Sadly the word processor and email have allowed people to ignore the skills of being concise,” he said.
Senior managers shouldn’t have to do it themselves
Governor Duncan noted too that both in the UK and in the VI senior managers are not delegating properly and as such they end up having to work long hours and do too much of the work themselves.
“Too often one hears the words ‘if you want a job done properly do it yourself’ but in reality this is a waste of the senior officer’s time. It is not what we pay them for as senior decision makers to do and it means that more junior staff are not encouraged to improve.”
According to the Governor, on the job training is as important if not more important than training courses and urged that persons take advantage of any opportunities to learn on the job.
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