At the historical grounds of King Moshoeshoe’s residence, the Thaba-Bosiu Cultural Village, the WCO in partnership with the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) organized a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) Workshop from 21 July until 1 August, 2014 for 20 senior managers of the Authority. The overall objective of the two week interactive workshop was to strengthen senior management capacities to lead and drive reforms within LRA’s Customs modernization agenda.
The workshop brought together a diverse group of senior managers from LRA’s Customs, domestic tax and corporate services divisions. Throughout the workshop many of the current and future challenges of the LRA were discussed, 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 also established new foundations for stronger teamwork and co-operation between senior managers of the different divisions of the LRA.
For many of the participants the workshop turned out to be not only insightful and practical on organizational level, but a real first step towards a positive change in their individual leadership and management approaches, especially in the areas of self awareness, personal leadership and influencing others. Or, as one of the participants put it, "This Workshop has opened a potential I had never realized I have in me".
The LMD Workshop was a follow up on the Top Management Retreat with the Executive Committee of LRA, only one month earlier. The two events together have inspired senior management of LRA to drive their modernization process more strategically on one hand, and to more and better empower their staff on the other hand.
The event was funded with the generous support of the World Bank’s Trade Facilitation Facility and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.