Department of Social
Development
South African ECD Conference
March 2012
‘Tshwaragano Ka Bana: Building
Future Leaders through Early
Childhood Development
LEADERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE
OF ECD
ASSOCIATES
Pam Picken
Anne Heslop
THE CHALLENGE
• Leaders need to be willing to confront the
unknown!
• We live in uncertain times with momentous
change in every aspect of our work.
• Old thinking, old ideas & old ways are no longer
effective.
• We [and our organisations] can only survive if
we think more strategically & effectively to
initiate change & address the considerable
challenges we face daily.
WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES FOR
LEADERS IN ECD?
• GOVERNMENT – How do we implement good
policies to scale up & ensure quality service
delivery?
• DONORS – How do we ensure Return on
Investment on our funds?
• NGO’s – How do we ensure adequate funds to
sustain our work? How do we demonstrate the
impact of our work to government & donors?
• LEADERS – leaders in each sector play a key role
in leading strategic & effective thinking in their
organisations around such challenges!
Why most fail & how you can
succeed!
A Harvard Business Review study reveals a
disturbing insight in tough financial times:
• Research shows that CEO’s ‘choke’ & close their
minds to new ideas when they are under stress,
thus almost guaranteeing failure.
• That same study revealed that in the tough
times, ‘rigorous’ training is the key strategy in
strengthening your organisation – BUT – it’s not
enough!
Why most fail & how you can
succeed!
• An extensive study of executives who
used a COACH to help with training saw
a 400% increase in utilisation of the
concepts they learned, and a 6 to 1
Return on Investment! Make sense?
• Coaches only work WITH the leader &
organisation, NOT in it. That’s why they
get such great results.
WHO ARE WE?
• PAM PICKEN & ANNE HESLOP bring a unique blend of
expertise & experience to support leaders think more
effectively & navigate change.
• PAM PICKEN – 22 years experience in development
sector; ex-Director of TREE [Training & Resources in
Early Education]; 13 years’ experience leading a large
NGO [staff 200; budget R20m] from point of collapse to
becoming one of the leading ECD NGO’s in South Africa.
• She started with little more than a passion for young
children & a willingness to learn! No leadership
experience! No management experience!
• She now has13 years of hard-earned experience to
share with today’s leaders.
WHO ARE WE?
• ANNE HESLOP has 21 years’ experience,
nationally & internationally, of developing
thinking leaders in the corporate sector.
• She has worked with leaders & leadership
teams in a number of multi-national
companies to support them achieve better
results.
• She wants to use her expertise to support
leadership development in the children’s
sector.
A TYPICAL ECD NGO CASE STUDY!
• NGO’s face challenging times of momentous change in many areas of
their work:
• NGO A has a staff of 10 and works training ECD practitioners from
community based ECD sites to run pre-school programmes.
• FUNDING – its overseas funding has dried up; CSI funding has reduced;
there have been no new ETDP SETA learnerships & who knows what’s
happened to Lotteries! It only has 2 months of funding left!
• FET COLLEGE – it is now required to comply & register as an FET College
with the Dept of Higher Education & Training.
• LEGAL REGISTRATION – in order to comply, its legal structure must
change, but so has South Africa’s Companies Act!
• QUALIFICATIONS have changed & staff need to upgrade their skills.
• M & E & REPORTING – donors are requiring rigorous reporting to
demonstrate impact.
• WHAT STYLE OF LEADERSHIP CAN INITIATE CHANGE & MEET THESE
CHALLENGES?
THE BENEFITS OF THINKING LEADERSHIP OF
THINKING ORGANISATIONS!
THINKING LEADERS
• Build high levels of responsibility and ownership
amongst staff members
• Empower staff members to find solutions
appropriately and timeously
• Challenge staff members to boost performance
by changing the way they think
• Escalate initiative taking, built on skillful
conversations and increased participation
Choose your focus
1. VISION
2. PLANNING
3. ACTION
4. DETAIL
5. DRAMA
Ref: Rock, D (2007) Quiet Leadership
Choose your focus
1. VISION
2. PLANNING
3. ACTION
4. DETAIL
5. DRAMA
What specifically went wrong?
How did it happen?
Why did this happen?
Whose fault is it?
Choose your focus
1. VISION
2. PLANNING
3. ACTION
4. DETAIL
5. DRAMA
What outcome do you want to achieve?
What factors do you need to consider
to achieve the outcome?
So now, what are the 3 most important
actions you need to take?
Choose your focus
1. VISION
2. PLANNING
3. ACTION
4. DETAIL
5. DRAMA
What outcome do you want to achieve?
What factors do you need to consider
to achieve the outcome?
So now, what are the 3 most important
actions you need to take?
What specifically went wrong?
How did it happen?
Why did this happen?
Whose fault is it?
HOW I CHANGED AS A LEADER
• I know from experience that leadership development
& coaching works!
• Instead of focusing on the drama & detail, we
consciously focused on what we wanted to achieve &
what needed to be done to reach that outcome.
• We became pro-active rather than re-active.
• As a team, we started to ask the right questions to
generate the right type of thinking.
• Our work became better focused & more productive,
leading to a more effective organisation.
• I wished I had known these strategies when I started
as leader!
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
• PAM & ANNE want to create that learning/thinking
opportunity to support leaders in the children’s
sector, so that they can lead great organisations doing
great work for young children! SEE OUR FLYER
CONTACT DETAILS
• LEADERSHIP IN DEVELOPMENT
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Email: pam@leadershipindevelopment.co.za
Website: www.leadershipindevelopment.co.za
Phone: 021 – 671 5034
Cell phone: 083 292 0396