Cabinet, the Shadow Cabinet and larger local businesses are equally at fault for a lack of leadership in addressing sustained or improved national productivity, the pursuit of excellence in the private and public sectors and the use of productivity and excellence in the promotion of Bermuda’s competitiveness in the international sector.

Further, five planning, measurement and control tools appear not to be in place, they are certainly not in common use. You cannot have accountability and transparency unless you have a business code of conduct, and the required planning, measurement and control tools. Only then can Team Bermuda<$> properly address productivity and excellence.

Leadership skills transcend who forms the government of the day. Within the realm of leadership comes leading by example, team building, team development, keeping the team motivated, the creation of a learning environment, or preferably a teaching organisation, all while planning and operating. Such an atmosphere of leadership for extraordinary performance, if it exists in Bermuda, is in isolated pockets or completely invisible.

The teaching organisation nurtured by Chemical Engineer Jack Welch at GE, who between 1981 and 2001 took the market value of GE stock from $12 billion to $280 billion, or Steven Covey’s Transformational Leadership approach, or ABB’s Percy Barnevik, are examples. It appears that Bermuda has some good managers but few leaders. Leadership is visioning, inspiring, stimulating, coaching (mentoring), team-building and setting an ethical business framework, particularly within corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Why is good leadership so important? Whether the consideration is the Bermuda Regiment, the Civil Service, large private businesses, the construction industry or the elimination of gangs; leadership is critical. This is because we have limited resources and the no decision option, or bad decisions, can have far reaching consequences on ethics, people, institutions and infrastructure. Good leadership creates synergy and results in a superb company, or a great institution. If one considers the government’s Agenda, it is obvious the following planning, measurement and control tools are not included in most of the larger projects:

[bul] A national published list of all standards/codes of practice and common qualifications in use in the private and public sectors;

[bul] A generic list of ten or less performance measures (metrics) applicable to services/projects;

[bul] A Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and accompanying system of quality management/guidelines/control and documentation, such as the ISO9000:2000 group of standards, applicable to large and small organisations and equally applicable to the private and public sectors;

[bul] A Strategic Planning (SP) template for the public sector and NGOs to complement the SP methods used in the private sector and to complement business planning (a subset of a SP);

[bul] Generic and specific project management standards/development for all large or complex projects.

Without the planning, measurement and control tools outlined above, standards, goals and objectives may be either arbitrary, hit or miss, a waste of limited resources, or result in unnecessary disputes. Let’s turn now to the achievement of improved national productivity, excellence and competitiveness.

Few persons realise that quality work; quality standards and improved performance must precede an improvement in productivity. The exact sequence captured by quality guru W. Edwards Deming in his quality reaction chain is: Improve quality to improve productivity, to decrease costs, to stay in business, which leads to increased market share, decreased prices that provides more jobs, generating return-on-investment.

Mr. Joe Babiec of Monitor Company who advised Bermuda in the late 90s on Tourism Strategy, in his Mid-Ocean News, 31 December 1998, Page 9 article entitled “Productivity is the Key” said: “In most parts of the world productivity inspires action and hope, in Bermuda, the word tends to cause fear and suspicion.”

One positive step made in Bermuda some years ago was the introduction of the ‘Investors in People’ international standard. This helps to prepare employees for change in the work place and to improve their work ethic and productivity. However, the standard only covers three of eight aspects of a TQM subsystem such as ISO9001:2000 (Quality Requirements). The ISO 9000 group and similar quality systems are a firm foundation for TQM.

This article suggests that leadership styles in Bermuda often do not embody among other things, the ability to inspire middle level and below staff, nor create synergy with respect to quality services, nor improve national productivity, nor instill self pride in a worker. It is necessary to apply excellence and productivity in order to maintain and drive certain aspects of competitiveness. It follows that improved competitiveness and the groundwork to create the third pillar of the Bermuda economy may remain beyond our grasp.Clyde L. Symonds is a Chartered Electrical Engineer (CEng) registered in the UK, he is a European Engineer (Eur Ing) and is registered in Bermuda. He has worked in the private and public sectors as a Senior Professional Engineer. Mr. Symonds holds a BSc (Hons) in electrical engineering and an MSc in engineering management. His specialities are electric power generation, project management controls, public sector management and Total Quality Management (TQM). He is a member of the UK Association for Project Management (MAPM). He can be contacted at smartinn[AT]ibl.bm.