Beloved Friends and Colleagues!
1. Today is yet another beautiful day of joy and peace! May his peace be upon you all and your loved ones. Important for me today is the desire to share with you, my thoughts on the above subject, namely, Subsidiarity of powers and Performance Assessment systems for optimal service delivery. I would not like to bore you with lots of professional jargons in the area of social ethics and behavior Psychology. That is why I would not go into the definition of Subsidiarity classically, but simply to put it as, the division of functions and powers, in such a way, that each and every person or group of persons, gets the opportunity and chance to do that which one is most suited for, where one has both ability and competence, being able to do that without undue interference from other powers, allowing individuals and groups the autonomy and liberty to do for themselves, what they alone are able to do, without prejudice and unnecessary bureaucracy from without.
2. Today we are talking about Performance Assessment as an important tool to ensure that hard working staff are recognized, applauded and promoted. Today we are talking about Mentoring and Coaching sessions, where one who has more experience and insight, mentors the other, with a view to increasing the others’ ability, capacity and even the others’ horizon in a work related environment. These are beautiful steps in greater self- awareness and realization. Chief of Parties of Programmes/ Projects, Supervisors and Directors of Projects/ Programmes, Advisors, Departmental Unit heads, Managers, Leads of diverse Categories, and all persons in one category of authority or the other, are so designed, that one has the duty of expanding the knowledge and experience base of the other in a work space. It means in practical terms, that despite the shared duties and individual skills of members, there are those with us who are placed in charge of us, for our own growth and development. Subsidiarity of powers and functions does not take away the duty of mentoring and coaching for greater self-development. As a matter of fact, Subsidiarity of Powers recognizes the power structures and the different levels of operations and the need for constant re-appraisal and renewal and for greater service delivery.
3. In our work environment, we operate the dynamics of Supervisors and Supervisees. We believe Supervisors are like the Guardian Angels to their Supervisees. They live and work with them. They interact on work related matters. They share insights and exchange ideas. They meet to learn and share with one another and others. Supervisors possess volumes of knowledge and insights about the areas of their supervision. They are always eager and most willing to share and let knowledge prosper. They are not super-powers. Neither are they all knowing. They too, live and learn in the vast arena of endless human knowledge. They are aware of their own need for more knowledge and insight. They are scholars eager and ready to learn and grow. In fact, they are like Midwives, Gurus, Teachers, Professors, Rabbis, Scholars, Masters and indeed, Mentors, who give birth to ideas that are latent in others.
4. Supervisees are like Apprentices, Students, Inquirers, Knowledge Seekers, Scholars, Researchers, and what you would like to call them, who are docile at learning, imitating the wisdom of their masters, taking corrections and learning from one’s mistakes. They are not to rub shoulders with their Masters. It is only arrogance and human pride that make us feel we do not need to learn more and grow more. Otherwise, knowledge is endless. No one single person can acquire all knowledge available. We can learn a bit of this or that but not all knowledge about a particular thing. Knowledge is vast and our human brains and minds are vastly limited. Let no one be ashamed, therefore, to learn what one does not know. Knowledge is power, and whoever possesses knowledge, has power.
5. Are you therefore a Supervisor or a Supervisee? Do you take time to mentor and coach? Do you see the need for it? Do you take pleasure in making others know what they ought to know? Or are you a terror because you have knowledge and power? Have you mentored anybody? Do you look back with pride, to count the children of your Mentorship? Do they exist here or elsewhere? Don’t you think that you should do more to beget more followers in your chosen profession? Today is a new day. You can begin all over again. People exist here and there, who look up to you, who admire the way you work, take them to the shore of work -experience and growth. But you the Supervisee, do you know that you are to learn from some other person? Or do you think that you do not need it? Are you teachable? Or is arrogance your own cross? Have you identified the gaps in your own systems? Are you able to take corrections? Or does this wound your personality? Ignorance and lack of due knowledge would continue to persist where arrogance and pride hinder knowledge and the desire to dare and take risks. Supervisors like all teachers cannot force knowledge on their Supervisees. There must be a mutual giving-and receiving of knowledge for services.
6. I understand that we have always had an inconclusive Staff Performance Assessment, that has led to poor Staff appraisal, poor or no promotion of hardworking Staff, that results in low motivation and lack of encouragement on the part of the staff. Be that as it may, Staff Performance Appraisal is like an examination for students upon which promotions to the next levels are based. They are important milestones in the work profiles of a Staff. We need to strengthen that process. And it is not the work of the HR alone. No one SINGLE person can do it for us alone. WE too must play our part. Now the process has begun. I urge you to take same to heart so that this effort will bear us the desired result. Just as we have remarked elsewhere, we would be depending on the current appraisal processes for our end of year 1-3 percent promotion of Staff who have significantly contributed to the success of our organization in the current dispensation.
7. In addition to the promotion that is being anticipated for every Staff, in due course, every Unit of the Organization is expected to present a Staff from its Unit, who in the estimation of that Unit, works most smartly more than others, for an award of Excellence by the Board at the last Meeting of the Board in December 2019. The Communication Unit has been mandated to communicate the details to all the Units and set time lines for submissions of names of Awardees. The criteria of assessment and result of assessment depends completely on the Unit. But if a Unit fails to identify the best among them, then one is free to presume, that either the Unit is not working optimally, or they are being tormented by envy and jealousy, that blindfold people from seeing the goods that exudes graciously in others, and think only of the little sparks of goodness that resides sparsely in them. We pray for the spirit of proper discernment and courage to call a spade by its name.
