Leading Questions

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From COVID-19 to Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Estonia’s top public servant Taimar Peterkop's tips for dealing with crises Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

Estonia’s most senior civil servant, secretary of state Taimar Peterkop, shares his insights into leading through crises.

From dealing with a vulnerability in the country’s digital ID system – which involved updating thousands of digital services – to the country’s response to the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this is an episode packed with lessons on what to do when government is faced with emergency.

Taimar’s main learning from the digital ID crisis was the importance of building relationships with the private sector, academia and civil society – so that they can be called upon when the government lacks the internal capabilities to deal with crises on its own.

“You need all the different players in these situations to talk the same talk and to have the same message: ‘This is the problem, this is the solution, and don't worry’,” Taimar says.

Through clear and consistent communication with citizens, the Information System Authority, which led the work to secure the IDs and which Taimar headed up at the time, managed not only to retain trust in the digital ID system but to actually increase it. Indeed, following the incident, use of the cards actually began to rise.

When COVID hit, by which time Taimar had been appointed secretary of state, he took the lessons from that crisis and applied it to his leadership through the pandemic, not least in looking after the wellbeing of public servants, many of whom were having to work 16-hour days. He brought in mental health advisers and gave officials who had done exceptionally well gifts to boost morale.

Also describing his part in moving management of the pandemic response from the health department to the prime minister’s office and establishing a COVID taskforce; Estonia’s readiness for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; his background as a lawyer and technologist; and why he has decided to work for two years in his second term rather than the usual five, this is a not-to-miss episode for any public servant interested in how government can prepare in the era of permacrisis.

‘I always knew that my anchor was health’ – Dame Una O’Brien Aug 10, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of Leading Questions Dame Una O’Brien, who was permanent secretary of the UK Department of Health between 2010 and 2016, joins podcast host Siobhan Benita for a chat about her unconventional route into the civil service, and what she learned along the way.

Having been appointed health department permanent secretary just as a coalition government was formed, and responsible for implementing sweeping and controversial healthcare reforms, Una was right in the thick of it – being scrutinised before a parliamentary committee no less than 28 times.

It was a “bumpy” ride, she admits, but one she was absolutely ready for – not least because a breadth of experience acquired outside the civil service in her 20s stood her in good stead for the challenges to come.

The daughter of Irish immigrants who were “firm believers in giving back”, with a love of history and having received teaching on the British Constitution, Una decided to pursue a career in either politics or the civil service.

She soon realised she wasn’t cut out for the misogynistic political environment in the UK at the time – “I wasn’t prepared to fight that fight”, she says, acknowledging that other women had “much more moral courage than I did”.

So, when viral meningitis struck leading to months in hospital, Una re-evaluated her career path, and after 10 years in politics and parliamentary and academic research, moved into the health sector and later the civil service Fast Stream, landing first in the Department of Health.

Though she went on spend time at the Cabinet Office and transport department, she always returned to health. As she describes, the experience prior to joining the civil service that had “the most profound effect on me” in the decades afterwards, was the three years she spent working to set up a hospice and care centre for people with AIDS and HIV “right in the white heat of the controversy about that disease, as it started to really hit communities in London in the late 1980s”.

She saw first-hand the people who were on the receiving end of poor care and discrimination and who felt excluded from public services – something that “gave health a centrepiece in my inner world” and spurred her on in subsequent work.

She shares the part she played in the Bristol/Kennedy Inquiry into the deaths of babies after heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and an inquiry into poor care at a hospital in Staffordshire. The latter led her to the “deeply hurtful” realisation that her department’s responses to letters from patients’ families lacked empathy and that troubling patterns of substandard care had been missed – leading to reform of the department’s handling of letters from the public.

Having risen up the ranks – Una spent time as the health department’s director general of policy and strategy – she was appointed permanent secretary exactly 20 years to the day since she joined the civil service. She describes vividly the vision she had while waiting to go into the interview room of all the women who had supported her in the past standing behind her, willing her to succeed, and thinking “I can’t let you down”.

Also touching on her current work as a career and leadership coach, insights into working with ministers, and the skills needed in this new world of hybrid work, this is an episode packed with personal reflections from a leader whose motivations never wavered.

What government leaders’ greatest challenge will be in the coming years – interview with Israel Pastor Sainz-Pardo Jun 29, 2023

Show notes

Podcast host Siobhan Benita speaks know-how and knock-backs with the deputy director of learning at Spain’s National Institute of Public Administration.

Israel Pastor has more than 20 years’ experience as a senior manager in the Spanish state administration – including stints in the health, environment, finance and justice departments – affording him a broad perspective on leadership and what it takes to make the organisation you’re in charge of better.

Having studied hard to get through a rigorous selection process whereby people with no prior professional experience can become an executive member of the civil service – entering at grade 26 of 30 – Israel found himself leading a team in an unfamiliar organisation whilst still in his 20s.

He advises others who find themselves faced with such a baptism of fire, to “find your references, your mirrors and your mentors” and to have the humility to learn from less senior colleagues.

Entering any new high-ranking position requires vision, the ability to connect disparate projects and programmes, and the resources “in your backpack” to make improvements, he says. And as listeners will find out, it is these capabilities, along with a focus on shining a spotlight on the work of his teams and being attentive to colleagues’ needs, that epitomise his leadership style.

Also describing his current work leading the civil service’s learning and development programme, Israel shares his view on what leaders’ greatest challenge will be in the coming years and how to overcome it, and touches on much more besides: on frank discussions with political bosses; pushing back against the stereotype of the lazy civil servant; overcoming stress; the importance of institutional communication; and remaining faithful to your public service calling.

Don’t miss this episode featuring a man who has been determined from a young age to be the best public servant he could be.

Getting the best perspective on how government works – and how to improve it, with Iain Rennie Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

Iain Rennie spent 30 years in the New Zealand Public Service culminating in eight years in the top job – that of state services commissioner.

In this episode, Iain tells podcast host Siobhan Benita about talent management reform, his realisations about leadership, his work as a consultant to governments around the world, and why public servants should be mindful of the increasingly diverse perspectives of citizens.

Realising that great leaders in the New Zealand Public Service often reached their potential “despite the system” rather than because of it, Iain’s focus in his latter years in the top job was on devising and implementing a more systematic way of identifying and nurturing talent and “empowering people with a sense of possibility”.

He credits this and subsequent work with women now accounting for more than 50% of senior executive roles – but there is “unfinished business” he says, particularly around ethnic representation.

Now working with civil and public services around the world to improve their effectiveness, he describes what looking at governments from the outside in, as well as the inside out, has meant for his perspectives.

And he also looks back on the lessons from COVID – particularly that governments “failed pretty spectacularly” when it came to wellness – and his belief that the frames put around government response to major shocks are too narrow.

Also sharing his thoughts on waning public trust and the rise of mis- and disinformation, and the promise of technology to change public services for good, this is an episode packed with the kind of wisdom that comes only through decades of hard work, experience and reflection.

What makes for a responsive government? BONUS EPISODE May 26, 2023

Show notes

This special episode of Leading Questions shares the results from the 2023 Responsive Government Survey. Report author Richard Johnstone shares the headlines from the research, while contributors to the report - Grete Kvernland-Berg, the managing partner and country head for Norway at PA Consulting Group; Alexander Evans OBE, professor of practice in Public Policy at London School of Economics and former strategy director in the Cabinet Office in the United Kingdom; and Michael Wernick, the Jarislowsky chair of public sector management at the University of Ottawa, and former cabinet secretary in the Canadian government – share their thoughts on what success looks like for public services in the era of permacrisis.

‘Serve your country – you will never regret it’ – Noreen Hecmanczuk May 04, 2023

Show notes

In the first of our Leading Questions podcasts to feature an American federal government leader, Noreen Hecmanczuk reflects on a long and diverse career which has seen her serve in the White House twice.

She took her first job in Washington D.C in the early 1990s – inspired by her WW2 veteran uncle – and hasn’t looked back.

The senior adviser on strategic engagements and communications to the US federal CIO, Noreen is right at the heart of government. But having worked at nine agencies and for six administrations – and in a range of roles from strategic communications to stakeholder engagement, HR to technology – she has a very well-rounded perspective on government operations.

From volunteering to take notes at meetings of foods standards executives in the midst of a deadly E coli outbreak to a particularly sobering moment whilst at the Department of Labor, Noreen has always shown a dedication to understanding her colleagues’ needs and how she might help meet them.

And she has kept two quotes front of mind: Teddy Roosevelt’s “Do what you can with what you have, where you are”, and her boss Clare Martorana’s motto that “people support what they helped create”.

Also covering improving citizens’ interactions with government through technology, why leaders shouldn’t confuse their role with that of a subject matter expert, the particulars of the American system and much more besides, this is an episode brimming with insight from a public servant whose work always comes back to one thing: resolutely serving the American people as best she can.

‘Unless you fight for it, it’s not worth it once you get there’ – Phindile Baleni Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Phindile Baleni was appointed secretary to South Africa’s cabinet and director general of the presidency – the first woman in the country’s history to hold these roles – amid the pandemic in April 2021. It’s a good thing she likes a challenge.

With a background in maths and law, she joined the public service in 1994 just as South Africa was transitioning from the old apartheid regime to a new democratic order. Working in provincial government before moving to national, Phindile’s career has been akin to “navigating an obstacle course”, not least on account of her race and gender.

From a magistrate describing her as a “little girl” and refusing to address her in the courtroom to coming up against lawyers in the public service who excluded her by speaking Afrikaans, Phindile has faced discrimination with strength and grace – sometimes working to educate bigots and when necessary “fighting fire with fire”.

She says she has always had people “who have known what I’m capable of who troubleshooted on my behalf” but it is principally her self-confidence – built by her parents from a young age – that has helped to pull her through. She is, she says, “motivated by struggle”.

Using her experiences and leadership prowess to support others – Phindile subscribes to the idea popular in Africa that “a star shines because the other star gives you the light for you to shine” – she has worked to help talented colleagues get over crises of confidence, pushing them out of their comfort zones so that they can achieve their best.

In this first episode of the new series of Leading Questions, Phindile also describes the “harrowing” experience of transforming a public service built on apartheid – to serve four million of a population of 54 million – into a democratic system capable of serving all South Africans.

From an “eclectic” leader who comes across as humble and unassuming, this is a lesson in quiet unshakable strength, resilience and never giving up.

Pursuing gender parity in the public sector - BONUS EPISODE Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

To mark International Women’s Day, we bring you a special edition podcast in which two top civil servants discuss their experiences as women in government, their public service’s journey towards gender parity in the highest ranks, and what more needs to be done to break down the barriers women face on their way to the top.

Sarah Paquet, director and chief executive of FINTRAC Canada, has won awards in recognition of her commitment to advancing gender diversity and inclusion, while Zukiswa Mqolomba, deputy chairperson of South Africa’s Public Service Commission, wasted no time challenging the country’s patriarchal society upon being appointed to her latest role last year.

Both vocal advocates for women leaders and their contribution towards creating fairer societies, in this podcast – which pulls together the best bits from our recent women leaders webinar – Zukiswa and Sarah discuss everything from imposter syndrome and confronting microaggressions in the workplace, to parental leave policies and whether hybrid working helps or hinders women professionally, and much more besides.

Find out what governments’ priorities will be in the year ahead - BONUS EPISODE Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

In this bonus podcast in the Leading Questions feed, GGF executive editor Richard Johnstone and GGF event moderator Siobhan Benita set out the top trends affecting government in 2023, setting out insight on key topics including economy and finance, sustainability, resilience, digital government and transformation.

Listen now to get the inside track on what governments will be working on in 2023.

Getting to grips with the ‘friendly monster’ of the European Commission – Gertrud Ingestad Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

“It really was an adventure. But I was ready for it.”

Gertrud Ingestad – now director general for human resources and security at the European Commission – had been a language teacher in her native Sweden for 13 years before she decided to take a leap into the unknown.

Joining the Commission (the “friendly monster”) as a translator in 1995, Gertrud rose up the ranks, holding a variety of roles in different units, from head of training, to resources director, to information systems and interoperability solutions chief. Now approaching retirement after 27 years at the Commission, in this episode Gertrud looks back at a career she describes as a “series of banana skins”.

Having started in her latest role as HR chief on 16 March 2020, the first day of lockdown in Belgium, she and her team have been responsible for negotiating a new work model for a hugely complex organisation for which in-person collaborative work is a core value and with the complicating factor that most of its employees have special conditions under expat status that means they must work primarily from Brussels. As such, Gertrud is eminently well-placed to share lessons valuable for anyone navigating the post-pandemic world of hybrid work.

Also touching on experiencing burnout, being alert to cultural sensitivities, the growing importance of managers’ people skills, and why authenticity is key, this not-to-be-missed episode is full to the brim with wisdom from a woman who proves that being an introvert and an effective leader are not mutually exclusive.

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