By MaryAnn Chukwuma
The Anambra Head of Service, Barr. Okwy Igwegbe, has charged workers to see the need for Mentorship and Transformational Leadership.
This admonition was given during a meeting with the staff of the office of Head of Service at Jerome Udorji Secretariat Complex, Awka.
The meeting was a wake up call on workers at large to reawaken the good culture of stepping down the knowledge they have acquired as Senior Officers to the upcoming ones.
Barr. Igwegbe explained that mentorship remains the only vehicle which carries a persons vision beyond them. She highlighted this during her presentation captioned ‘Igniting the Flame of Change: The Imperative of Transformational Leadership and Mentorship in the Anambra State Civil Service’, saying that mentorship has a two way benefit as both the mentor and mentee stands to benefit from the deliberate action and gains of mentorship.
She likened mentorship to the Igbo business culture of ‘Igba Boi’ (apprenticeship), affirming it as the bedrock upon which businesses thrive amongst Igbos. She advised that Senior Civil Servants must transfer their knowledge unto their subordinates to ensure the continuity of a healthy Civil Service.
The Civil Service boss equally noted that without effective mentorship, expertise would continue to dwindle within the service because when people fail to pass on their expertise, they laden themselves unnecessarily because of the shortage of skilled personnel; then end up burning out themselves with workload which ought to have been shared.
The foremost Anambra Civil Servant while sharing the benefits of bureaucracy and reasons it should be maintained to avoid arbitrary actions, however, kicked against red tapism and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
She clamoured for transformational leadership while kicking strongly against transactional leadership. Transformational leadership leads to inventive and proactive progressivism whereas, transactional leadership only encourages bottlenecks which may lead to redundancy, she said.
Barr. Igwegbe further noted that she expected everyone to mentor firstly by example just as she endeavours to lead not just by her words but equally with visible actions which are obvious in her culture of clearing her desk daily without spill overs, forthrightness in decisions and her creativity in inventing new and effective ways of handling issues daily.
The Head of Service, then, reiterated that she continues to think outside the box and would not remain monotonous but continually dynamic in approach to ensure that her goals are met. She encouraged every leader to emulate her mentorship and leadership pattern to help them build better departments and the units they head.
She equally seized the opportunity to officially introduce the new Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Head of Service, Mrs. Jessy Nwankwo Esq.
In her vote of thanks, the new Permanent Secretary thanked the Head of Service for the exposition and teaching while promising on behalf of the heads of department present to imbibe mentorship and transformational leadership.
MaryAnn is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State
