Following the recommendations of the WCO Phase 3 Progress Evaluation report to strengthen its management and change-management capability, the Maldives Customs Service (MCS) hosted a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) Workshop from 5 until 16 April 2015.
20 executive and senior managers of the MCS attended the Workshop. At the end of the Workshop, results were shared with around 20 other MCS managers. The overall objective of the two week interactive workshop was to strengthen senior management capacities to lead and drive reforms within MCS’s Customs modernization agenda.
With the whole senior management team participating in the Workshop, the content made an immense contribution to teambuilding, common understanding and mutual responsibility for MCS results as a whole. Or, as one of the participants put it, "It will help our management team in working towards one vision".
Throughout the Workshop, many of the current and future challenges of the MCS were discussed. These related to a wide range of topics such as how to deploy a leadership attitude in managing change, visioning, strategic management, negotiations, people management and strategic and personal communications. The Workshop reinforced working on improvement of integrity and diminishing favoritism by practising change management skills and techniques.
For many of the participants the Workshop turned out to be a real first step towards a positive change in their individual leadership and management approaches. Participants appreciated the practical, direct and highly interactive approach of the workshop, or as another participant stated, "We felt the content from inside, rather than listening to a facilitator".
The Commissioner General of MCS, Mr. Abbas Adil Riza, emphasized in his opening and closing speeches the importance of more leadership, openness and initiative to achieve MCS’s strategic objectives. Mr. Adil Riza commenced his position as a CG one month ago and was already inspiring and encouraging the senior management team to use their newly acquired skills to the benefit of the organization’s goals, the MCS staff, as well as the trade community in Maldives.
For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.