National University training leaders

By Nefertiti Matatia 08 December 2017, 12:00AM

Great leaders are not born they are trained and moulded through experiences.

The administration board of the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) has been undergoing a four-day survey known as Take The Lead stage one, to help shape them into better leaders for the university in the long run.

Peseta Dr. Desmond Lee-Hang, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, believes the training gives assurance that the university’s management staff will all have the basic skills to lead.

“The reality is that all these supervisors, management team and directors have been appointed because they have demonstrated some leadership qualities over the years. Knowing and understanding that good leadership comes with specific skills,” he said.

He said their aim for these trainings was to improve the university in the future and they wanted proper training to ensure that everyone had the basic skills.

“The expectation there is for the production level to increase, for the inefficiency to improve and the services that they will render to the students of the university will be of high quality. This is about professional development of staff.

“This is aimed specifically for administrative staff. There will be an improvement in the delivery of service to the students but not necessarily directly to the teaching learning interface in the class.”

Peseta said leaders are not born and ready-made. They are trained through their experiences that shape them to become good leaders.

“In the long run, you expect people that will be appointed in the leadership positions to come ready-made with the skill setsthat they have been born with. 

“But we all need to understand that good leaders are not born, they are trained and made through the experiences that mould their characteristics.”

He said the training was an excellent initiative; not only does it broaden the staff’s understanding of leadership but it also brought them together. 

“The feedback from the staff has been good because the members of the administration have now been able to interact with one another since they are all from different faculties,” he said. 

“With this survey among staff, they are able to build conversations with staff and building of networks. It is important that before they would go out, they will be able to build the internal network first.”

There were 40 participants in the four days training that was spearheaded by John Ross, a consultant from the Samoa In Country Training Programme at the Oloamanu Center at N.U.S.

The participants were divided into two groups.

He said there would be another training the administrative staff will be undertaking next year and it will be a different level from what they have learnt recently.

By Nefertiti Matatia 08 December 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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