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Huge cuts in public expenditure are widely predicted after the general election, which ever party wins power. Cuts mean change, with potential redundancies, early retirements, restrictions on recruitment and doing more with smaller budgets. The potential for strikes among public sector workers delivering services is also on the horizon. How the public sector manages and leads through these years of momentous change will have a major impact not just on the leaders and staff of councils, but on our residents and local businesses. Stephen Weigel is chief executive at Tandridge DC At Tandridge, we began preparing for change early in 2008, little realising just how relevant and timely this would be. We engaged an organisation, ClearWay Coaching, to design and deliver a leadership development and change management programme for our senior managers. The programme was to focus specifically on officer responsibilities and attitudes, to engender and secure a culture of collective responsibility. Other key areas were stress management as a result of change, identifying talent, effective team working and innovation. The first stage was to engage each of the participants in understanding their own leadership role, and to identify what values, talents and problem-solving styles each brought to the leadership team. During the course, team members had the opportunity to really examine what drove them, what their professional goals were in the wider context of their lives, and were supported in developing themselves professionally as leaders and communicators. As a result of our leadership development and change management programme, the team members are more confident in taking collective responsibility for their work. As leaders, they are better coaches to their staff, more confident in leading change and less likely to resist it, and try to maintain the status quo. In general, communication has improved and the team is more effective. There are difficult times ahead, but the coaching we have received will help make any change as collective, painless and productive as possible.

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WHITEHALL

District View

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