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

4. DETAIL Choose your focus 1. VISION 2. PLANNING 3. ACTION 5. DRAMA What specifically went wrong? How did it happen? Why did this happen? Whose fault is it?

3. ACTION 2. PLANNING Choose your focus 1. VISION 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?

4. DETAIL 5. DRAMA 3. ACTION 2. PLANNING Choose your focus 1. VISION 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 Website: Phone: 021 – Cell phone: