Transforming CSC Leadership:

DEVELOPING THE
CSC LEADERSHIP BRAND 1
CSC now advocates Coaching for integrity and excellence as its leadership brand. CSC leaders,
using collaborative approaches, are now well-positioned to influence, encourage and support
other government agencies to improve their HRMD practices through coaching.

BACKGROUND
Civil Service Commission (CSC), as it started implementing programs under its

five-year roadmap for effective and efficient human resource management and

development, recognised the need to fully engage its leaders in carrying out the

reforms. CSC directors after all, are at the forefront of service delivery and make daily
decisions directly affecting organization outcomes. The CSC directors’ role has also

evolved overtime from simply getting the job done to delivering results aligned with

the public reform agenda outlined in the CSC roadmap. To succeed, CSC leaders

therefore needed to learn how to balance big picture concerns with the need to

perform everyday tasks. Because of this, CSC focused on improving competencies

of its leaders to deliver results. In 2011, partnered with PAHRODF, CSC launched the
intervention - Leaping Forward, Transforming CSC Leadership: Developing the CSC

Leadership Brand Including the CSC Coaching Practices to Lead the Implementation

of the CSC Roadmap. n

INTERVENTION OVERVIEW
The intervention was primarily meant to build the competencies of CSC directors to

create a leadership brand, transform from being regulatory to developmental, and

develop leaders in CSC who can inspire and sustain leadership competencies that are

transferrable to future leaders of the commission. It was, therefore, not only meant to

sustainably enhance directors’ specific skills, but also to impress upon them CSC’s

1
The full title of the intervention is: Leaping Forward, Transforming CSC Leadership: Developing the CSC Leadership Brand Including
the CSC Coaching Practices to Lead the Implementation of the CSC Roadmap

31
public reform agenda. The intervention included four workshops where CSC directors

were expected to learn rapidly emerging technologies for developing leaders – networking,

mentoring and peer coaching among others. These leaders were then expected to conduct
executive coaching by the end of the intervention. Selected directors were also expected

to do a pilot run of at least two leadership programs to division chiefs. n

COMMITTED RESULTS
TARGET COMPETENCIES ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT
OUTCOME

CSC directors are development • CSC leaders apply leader- Government agencies look up
leaders who excel in strategic ship practices that reflect to CSC as a benchmark in ef-
and critical thinking, decision the changes in CSC’s organ- fectively implementing HR
making and communication. isational climate and culture systems and processes. Se-
They are innovators who influ- and responds to CSC’s lected agencies are rec-
ence, lead and monitor change road map and PGS ognised as centers for excel-
initiatives. They inspire and balance scorecard. lence for their HR practices
motivate their staff, they coach • Leaders have improved under CSC’s PRIME-HRM.
for results and they develop working relationships and
cohesive teams. CSC leaders they are effectively imple-
exemplify integrity in every- menting ISO certified HR
thing they do. processes, empowering HR
policies, and awarding agen-
cies with excellence HR
practice through
PRIME-HRM.

IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS
The Commission currently advocates a leadership brand: Coaching for integrity

and excellence – which includes seven specific leadership competencies: thinking

strategically, leading change, building commitment, partnering and networking,

managing performance, developing people and coaching for results. CSC as a coach,

the brand directly linked to how CSC would like to be viewed by its stakeholders, is now

embedded in the organisation’s leadership practices. CSC leaders, using a collaborative

and partnership approach, are also well positioned to influence, encourage and

support other government agencies to improve through coaching. CSC directors also

now use their coaching skills to help customers implement the Strategic Performance

Management System. There is also internal capacity to create a coaching culture

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supported by directors and supplemented with the organisation’s coaching guidebook.

The intervention also helped identify mission critical leadership competency gaps, as well

as several organizational outcomes. This informed the development of the CSI’s learning

and development programs. n

ASSESSMENT
Relevance

The intervention is relevant. It is anchored on the OA and is strongly supported by the CSC

Chairman showing its importance to CSC. It responds to the need for the Commission to

have a Leadership brand (whereas before it had none) that is not generic and would reflect

its transformation from being regulatory to developmental.

Effectiveness

The intervention encouraged CSC leaders to be more open to change and be more energized

in the way they do things. Their ideas have also improved as if coming from seasoned HR

professionals. The directors as also communicating better, even with personnel from other

work units. With the Leadership Brand, directors are also now more conscious about the

attributes that they should exhibit as they now have a common identity. The intervention is

therefore effective. However, its effectiveness may be enhanced with better coordination

with other interventions, especially as the participation of these directors is also critical to

the success of other interventions.

Impact

The intervention is expected to deliver its desired impact. Having better leaders is critical to

the improved service delivery of CSC.

Sustainability

Intervention outcomes are sustainable as shown in the sustainability action plan. The

interventions included training of trainers to cascade learning down to the level of division

chiefs and the rank and file personnel. It also developed a Coaching Handbook that includes

the tools necessary to sustain the results of the intervention. n

33
“We consider the FACTS AND FIGURES
entry of PAHRODF to
the commission as a INVESTMENT

aud260,000
blessing, because for
so long, we‘ve been so
focused on the techni-
cal aspects of our job,
we did not focus on NUMBER OF CORE PARTICIPANTS

132
developing ourselves
also. It helps a lot that
we are being devel-
oped, because we are PARTICIPANTS FROM DIRECTORS II-IV LEVEL NATIONWIDE

also helping to devel- 61 division chiefs, senior PS and personnel specialist participated in the three (3) pilot runs of the “Cascading the CSC
Leadership and Coaching Brand” Program
op the competencies
of the whole bureau-
cracy.” Duration March 2012 - November 2011

# of REAPs 112
Regional Director
Karin Zerna
CSC Region 7 Produced Output • Coaching Guidebook
• Perception survey
• Case studies on CSC Leadership
• 132 Kouzes and Posner individual leadership profiles
• Approved leadership and coaching competencies and
brand (with marketing materials)

EMERGING LESSONS
AND GOOD PRACTICES
1 It is crucial for organisations to develop a leadership brand, as it guides

leaders on how they should behave to be successful and remain relevant in

their respective organisations.

2 Developing and implementing a communication and change management

plan around the leadership brand is critical for creating buy in and sustaining

the results of the intervention.

3 Using a comprehensive and robust mixed methodology to understand

stakeholders’ perceptions, is critical in developing a leadership brand and

in making it credible and sustainable.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
1 Coaching should be institutionalised. Coaching tools and methodologies should

be integrated into the oganisation’s key performance indicators and strategic

performance management system.

2 Considering the size of CSC, the Commission should consider training additional

coaches who can perform two functions: as trainers and as coaches. Some

coaches may conduct coaching workshops while other coaches may be tasked

to actually coach leaders trying to implement the leadership brand.

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 SHORT
FEATURE

Developing Competencies
and Influencing
Bureaucracy
The re-entry action plan (REAP) of Director Karin Zerna, Regional Director
of CSC Region 7, focused on an area that she felt she needed to improve
on based on her competency assessment: partnership building.
Through her REAP, she created a Multi-sectorial Government Council (MSGC), which would answer the Civil Service

Commission’s (CSC) need to inform and engage key agencies and stakeholders.

Having the MSGC in place, according to Director Zerna, would enable CSC to tap the services of individuals and

groups that could help CSC meet its targets and convince other government agencies to appreciate and accept the

commission’s change initiatives.

Director Zerna is part of the Transforming CSC Leadership: Developing the CSC Leadership Brand intervention imple-

mented by PAHRODF in 2011. The intervention was meant to build the competencies of CSC directors and develop

leaders in CSC who can inspire and sustain leadership competencies that are transferrable to future leaders of the

commission. It was, therefore, not only meant to sustainably enhance directors’ specific skills, but also to impress

upon them CSC’s public reform agenda.

36
Implementing her REAP, according to Director Zerna, has been relatively easy. In fact,

she was able to do it within a month after the intervention. “In the implementation of the

REAP, there was really no problem in so far as identification of who would be invited

to be members of our MSGC. All we needed was to send out invitations, prepare the

agenda and we made sure that we introduced what CSC is all about to all our potential

members of MSGC.”

With MSGC’s presence, Director Zerna is hopeful that CSC would get more support

especially with what they have committed to deliver within the year. For example, she

shared that CSC’s accomplishments don’t seem to be picked up by media. “Not all our

activities find its way to the news. CSC is not controversial. So we asked the media

personalities whom we invited and who have agreed to be members of MSGC to help

us with features about CSC and what we are doing, especially the change initiatives we

are implementing.”

THE BUILDING BLOCKS

Transforming CSC Leadership: Developing the CSC Leadership Brand is part of PAH-

RODF’s package of interventions aimed at helping the Civil Service Commission (CSC)

achieve its vision of being Asia’s center of excellence in Human Resource and Organisa-

tion Development by 2030.

With PAHRODF’s invaluable assistance, the commission was able to identify what it

lacks through an organisational assessment. This enabled CSC to create a roadmap

towards capacitating its leaders particularly regional directors like Director Zerna.

Director Zerna said PAHRODF, from the onset, made it clear that the Facility was there

to provide support needed to develop the competencies of CSC employees, and to help

cascade these learnings to the entire bureaucracy. According to Director Zerna, PAH-

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RODF emphasised that CSC is the central human resource agency of the government,

and that the commission can do a lot in terms of government services.

As a result, CSC employees felt confident about what they do, which was evident in

the way have been dealing with client agencies and other government employees.

Meanwhile, stakeholders now see CSC as the agency to turn to when they are in need

of assistance on certain competencies.

“We consider the entry of PAHRODF to the commission as a blessing, because for so

long, we‘ve been so focused on the technical aspects of our job, we did not focus on

developing ourselves also. It helps a lot that we are being developed, because we are

also helping to develop the competencies of the whole bureaucracy,” she said. n

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