The 2011 – 2016 National Skills Development Strategy provides a blueprint for leadership and management interventions in South Africa. Most, if not all curricula for formal or non-formal educational plans are structured around this Strategy. A number of such programmes exist in institutions of higher learning, in-service training service providers, Department of Education, etc. Aspirant leaders and managers, as well as the highly experienced who need to upgrade their knowledge and skills in the field, can approach education and training institutions registered with the Department of Education and other relevant educational authorities to access such programmes.

Business leadership or entrepreneurship is arguably the most challenging responsibility any leader can wish for. In this responsibility a leader is judged on the basis of commercial viability and sustainability of that particular business venture. In business leadership and or entrepreneurship a leader must be able to meet multiple stakeholder needs. Sustainable business contributes immensely to the national programme to address unemployment amongst other social ills tearing South Africa apart. The economic recession that has hit the world in the recent past makes every country in the world vulnerable to global challenges affecting business. Every leader should therefore be equipped with effective business leadership and/or entrepreneurship skills.

Communication is a foundational requirement for effective leadership and management. Any leader or manager that lacks interpersonal communication skills is bound to fail, in one way or the other. An ability to communicate well makes sure that team members understand very well what is expected of them and their job expectations. Leaders and/or managers must facilitate interactive communication and an open door policy to ensure that subordinates engage them with ease. The communication skills alluded to here combines verbal and technological means of communication. The success in this regard is also based on strategic use of new media platforms to engage internal and external stakeholders.

One cannot be wholly chastised for thinking that arts and culture is not supposed to be academic. Such a perception could be due to the notion that arts and culture are inherently talent-based, and as long as an artist can perform to the delight of the audiences nothing else matters. Well, not in the South African arts and culture industry. A number of academic programmes have been developed not only to polish performing art skills but to advance leadership and management for sustainable arts and culture ventures. UNISA has the African Centre for Arts, Wits University runs Arts and Culture Management programmes, to mention just these two.

Being “defective” does not only relate to faulty electronics and related devices. In Leadership Platform speak, such leadership is also referred to as flawed leadership (www.leadershipplatform.com). A flawed leadership is the kind of leadership where critical areas like decisiveness and confidence-building are often ignored. It is the leadership that is compromised in that the person given the responsibility has many “loyalty debts” to repay using the leadership power. This could also be the kind of leadership that had to do lots of horse-trading to assume the leadership position. “Faulty” leaderships fail to take decisive actions when called upon to do.

No matter how progressive constitutional democracy can be, the evil of patriarchy still shows its ugly head now and again when it comes to acknowledging woman leadership in society. South Africa is relatively progressive when it comes to being gender aware in leadership and management roles. Women leaders have been assigned critical responsibilities, and these include being Premiers and heading critical institutions like the Reserve Bank. In 2011 UNDP and the SA government gender focal point commissioned Gender Links to facilitate a nationwide training programme for women councillors to prepare them for leadership and management tasks before the 2011 local government elections. A noble programme indeed. (106 words)

Arrogance. Disrespectful. Cocky. Self-centred. Posturing...these words, and many others like them, are often associated with debutants in the business world, i.e. young people who have just been appointed into leadership and management positions. Such people have high qualifications and have just ascended into high positions with powers to lead and manage people less educated than them. When analysing the human factor, Leadership Platform (www.leadershipplatform.co.za) argues that “attitude towards people is a major component of (our) make-up and performance as leaders”. Young leaders/managers should guard against attitudes that fail to build affinity with people. Effective leadership and management is about positive relationships with subordinates.

The General Manager, Chairperson, Director, Senior/Junior Manager, President, Premier, MEC titles matter less in leadership and management performance. The actual style that is applied in these leadership and management roles is the one that matter most. A number of approaches characterise leadership and management in public and private sectors. “Charismatic/transformational” leadership vis-a-vis “authoritarian/transactional” management style is the focus in this regard. The former has to do with an art of persuasion whereby people follow more for their transformational benefits than extrinsic rewards; and the latter uses monetary attraction for people to follow. Leadership and management under these circumstances should apply a style that balances both these approaches.

South Africa has a way of bringing public and private sector together for governance efficiency through public-private sector partnership to unlock maximum potential in essential areas of service delivery. A number of government departments collaborate with institutions of higher learning for capacity building and training programmes to upgrade governance skills, especially for local government efficiency. In 2009/10 the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs collaborated with Batseta Consulting for a model for skills deployment for efficiency at local government. DBSA, in partnership with CoGTA set-up Vulindela Academy to support the Turnaround Strategy for Local Government through finance management and other scarce skills programmes.

Leadership and/or management is about instilling confidence. It is about giving assurance that success is certain; that the future is indeed imminent. No matter how good the strategy can be, it will not yield desirable outcome if a leader and/or manager does not inspire confidence Leading and/or managing with confidence certainly invites followership. People can only choose to follow a leader or manager that shows confidence. Such confidence is demonstrated through being decisive in difficult times. Teams often look up to leaders and/or managers for assurance in challenging times. Leaders and/or managers with confidence always make themselves available for the team to bounce off ideas.

South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is characterised by multiparty engagement on any major legislative and related decisions made. The opposition party, the second largest in terms of the mandate from the electorate, has powers – by law – to challenge decisions taken by the majority party. The majority party might use its numerical power in legislative and administrative houses to ram decisions through. However the constitutional democratic powers give authority to the opposition leadership to challenge the ruling party leadership to rescind the decision. This is leading within the confines of the law in a democratic state.

Personality cult and leadership charisma are ingredients of effective leadership under any circumstances. With these ingredients a leader is able to make a difference in his/her leadership roles and responsibilities. It doesn’t really matter whether one was born to leadership position (like in hereditary traditional leadership) or made by circumstances (like in politically contested leadership). What matters is that it’s difficult to separate a leader’s personality cult and leadership appeal. The concept of personality cult and leadership charisma is embodied in leadership standing of Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela in society. There is an element of symbolic leadership in both Ghandi and Mandela approaches.

Local government is the most challenging tier in SA government with service delivery issues being always on its door steps (whether issues in question are national or provincial competencies). Most of the governance system paralysis is at local government level. The main reason for this is leadership squabbles. Traditional authority is of the view that local community leadership is an innate right and the buck should stop with them while the political leadership argues electorate mandate as mandatory power for them to lead. There is a need to realign these leadership axis at local government level to make local government more functional.