Good leadership skills can prevent costly mistakes, says Basil

A CABINET Minister says the lack of leadership skills has led to costly mistakes made by parliamentarians.
Minister for Communications, Information Technology and Energy Sam Basil said it would be beneficial if political leaders and their staff received innovative leadership and management training.
Basil made the remark during the FranklinCovey leaders’ breakfast event on Friday in Port Moresby.
He said the leadership training provided by FranklinCovey was something needed by members of parliament.
“As parliamentarians, we do not have set standing orders or rules in terms of how we provided leadership to the people. Therefore we made costly mistakes in our leadership,” Basil said.
“It was confusing when I first started. I made mistakes and learnt from them. But to be motivated and to add more value to our leadership roles and duties as leaders, I think such workshops are beneficial.
“I can only speak for my political party the Pangu Pati. I will see if our staff and members can come to FranklinCovey’s leadership training sessions in future.”
Chief executive of FranklinCovey PNG John Cholai said leadership was a big challenge in the country.
“If we can change the mindsets of leaders, we can change those of the people. Our training is about people. We specialise in changing human behaviour,” he said.
The leadership workshop ran from Nov 21 to Nov 23 in Port Moresby. Staff of organisations such as Eda Ranu, Water PNG, Nasfund, Treasury and Bemobile attended.