WCO organized a Leadership and Management Top Executive Retreat (TER) for the Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) from 20 to 23 August. The highest prioritiy was to install a new management culture that focuses on the LRA’s guiding policy summarized as “building a service culture through collaborative leadership”. The TER is an important part of other capacity building support to the LRA and was funded by HM Revenue & Customs (UK) and UNCTAD.

All executive managers (10) from all departments of the LRA participated in the retreat. Over the last few years the management style in the administration was characterized as hierarchical and focused on enforcement only. With the entrance of a new Commissioner General, Mr. Thabo Khasipe, a year and a half ago, a lot has positively changed but further development of the executive team was necessary. The agenda of the TER was shaped to the LRA’s needs and focused on behavioural change in line with the LRA’s strategy, team introspection and on how to deal with uncertainty present on all levels of the organization and resulting in lack of motivation, fear and frustration. During the four days all these topics were discussed with the top executive managers on a deeper level, resulting in a clear and shared view on how to further implement the LRA’s strategic plan as a team.

Dialogues on the situation and too slow implementation of the strategic plan of the LRA were alternated with the presentation of relevant models and theories on modern leadership and management. Especially the ‘diamond of leadership’ with focus on knowing yourself – managing yourself – really understanding others – having a positive influence turned out to be a revealing and appreciated inspiration for the participants. Also, quite some time was spent on practical management skills, attitude and behaviour, such as motivating, delegating, teambuilding and feedback. The evening sessions consisted of creating a strong, trustful and open team. During these sessions team members got to know a lot about others as well as themselves.

At the end of the retreat Mr. Thabo Khasipe described the value of the retreat as follows: “This was better and more impactful than education at MIT. We are now able and committed to bring our highest priorities further and to do this as a team”.

For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.