Public sector managers are a lot more negative about those who lead their organisation than their counterparts in the private sector, a recent survey carried out by Roffey Park has revealed.

This is a stark criticism of the leadership in the public sector organisations and an indictment of the leadership development programmes that the public sector has invested in so heavily. Why are we seeing so little benefit from this investment in leadership development?

Could it be that the emphasis has been on the wrong place? Too much time and money on a few leaders and not enough on developing the leadership qualities of all managers?

Too much emphases on transforming services and the big picture and too little on improving people management?

To preoccupied with improving performance and too little concerned about values?

Put another way are we discovering that Public sector staff do not believe the end justifies the means?

The traditional view of leadership is a charismatic, heroic figure individual who by sheer force of personality and will drives through change and makes things happen. .

An organisation can only have one such leader. This approach to leadership does not encourage partnership working and cooperation.

Shifting power

Yet increasingly it is recognised that transforming the NHS, that is, shifting power from the acute sector, tackling health inequalities, promoting wellbeing, contributing to social inclusion and playing a full part in the economic and social regeneration of a deprived area requires collaboration and cooperation.

Working with others through partnerships to co-ordinate efforts and pool resources requires a different type of leadership, one in which all managers are leaders.

They inspire their staff, they take responsibility, they understand the impact their behaviour has on others and they have good people skills.

This requires a management development programme that views all managers as leaders. This view of leadership reflects a new type of public sector organisation, one that works in partnership with others and where senior managers model the type of management behaviour they want to encourage across the organisation.

An example of this type of public sector management development programme was developed in Lancashire county council and is described below.

Most management consultants come in to do a quick piece of work and then go. This arrangement was about building up a long term relationship between two consultants over four years as part of an experiment in organisational development.

The two consultants became almost become additional members of the senior management team. They have had a unique insight into the team dynamics and they have had unique access to the thoughts of individuals who make up the top 30 managers in the directorate. They helped us shape our early thinking about what type of team we wanted to be and what type of directorate we wanted to be.

Consistent message

They took a consistent message about all managers as leaders into their coaching session and learning sets. Throughout they offered a challenge. They probably know more about us individually and collectively than we're comfortable with but their professionalism means that we have been able to trust them with this information.

There are 500 managers in this directorate. The management development programme is based around executive coaching, leadership development groups, mentoring, shadowing and the aspiring managers' programme. The origins of the programme arose from the corporate management development initiative which sought to emphasise that all managers, irrespective of their areas of responsibility or professional background, required the same management competencies - including good people management skills.

The corporate management programme was a "sheep dip" approach in which during a residential week, all managers were exposed to the same experiences, encouraged to recognise that they shared common challenges and had common skills and to promote more cross-cutting work across directorates.

The aim was to provide the top 30 managers in the directorate with the opportunity of having detailed feedback on their performance as a way of helping them gain insight into the impact of their behaviour and then specific guidance or coaching to improve their performance.

The detailed feedback was provided by one of two management consultants who would observe the individual in a range of management settings and activities over the equivalent of two working days. After each observation session one-to-one feedback was provided. The information from these sessions was supplemented by 360 degree feedback questionnaires completed by the individual's manager, colleagues and the staff they manage. For most senior managers this type of direct feedback was not something they had experienced since they first started out in their professional career.

Despite some initial anxieties the evaluation showed that people found the experience positive and helpful.

The executive coaching initiative was considered a success. The next challenge was how to roll out this programme to the next tier of management.

The numbers of managers at the next tier (seventy plus) meant that for reasons of cost and logistics it was neither affordable nor practical to offer the one-to-one approach. Instead we used learning sets or management development groups facilitated by the two management consultants.

An evaluation event was held to mark the completion of the executive coaching programme and the management development group sessions.

Investors in People

The event was an opportunity to recognise how far we had come as a directorate during the previous two years, examples of which were obtaining Investors in People accreditation and achieving three star status.

The event was also used to identify lessons learned and agree how we would roll out the management development programme to first line managers.

We agreed that the Management Development Programme would now focus on the three hundred plus first line managers and that we would take this forward through the management development groups, this time facilitated by volunteers from the top thirty managers working in pairs. Fourteen volunteers came forward and the aim is to run seven groups within this financial year. We recognise that it will take us two or three years to complete this programme for all first line managers.

The evaluation event was used as an opportunity to reinforce the message that management development was not a one off exercise and that we would build on these initiatives by further developing management mentoring with the aim of offering every manager the opportunity of a mentor.

Blair McPherson is author of People management in a harsh financial climate due to be published by russellhouse.co.uk in March