skillsets that are transferrable within the sector or even across sectors. Beyond technical skills, the Singapore public service should identify and groom leaders who are agile, resilient, and adaptable to changes including change in roles. Ability to connect, to build relationships with diverse group of colleagues, peers and customers remotely is going to be critical as virtual meetings and interactions will remain a core mode of collaboration. This is all compounded by the fact that the very concept of work is evolving which will have implications for the acquiring and retention of specific skillsets. Focusing on appraisal qualities based on competencies instead on the AIM framework1 was also a key shift to competency-based leadership development. Recognising that competencies are demonstrable behaviours which can be developed through deliberate effort. The framework also alerts leaders not just on what competencies they need to build and exercise, but also what are the red flag behaviours that reduce our leadership effectiveness (Leo, 2022). These competencies are tiered according to the level of leadership i.e. at Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretary, CEO, director, and middle manager levels. The framework also provides clarity for young leaders who just started out in the service to know what competencies they need to build, what to grow in and what to apply. The institutionalisation of the 360-degree feedback exercise for leaders also help the leaders to address the gaps in the competencies that they are expected to demonstrate. Two initiatives namely, Leadership Xchange Directory and enhanced Leadership Discourse, are also developed in 2022 for the public service leadership community to learn experiences from one another. The Leadership Xchange Directory is an informal support network for leaders to offer advice and share their leadership experiences with others. Leaders will submit a profile of themselves on this exchange and they list areas that they would like to share about, and anyone be it young officers or established leaders, can reach out to them to ask for advice and support. The Leadership Discourse is about encouraging leaders to actively share their leadership stories, their best practices and the learning points that they’ve collected over the years. These initiatives will infuse stronger collective sense to help support one another’s leadership development. From the early days of pragmatism to policy advocacy and increasing engagements, the leadership schemes too has changed and evolved from an elitist system to a system that embrace diversity that values skills and experiences. The dynamic leadership and proactive governance demonstrated by the public service leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic was paramount to the eventual reduction in the rate of infection of Covid-19 in Singapore. As issues become more cross-cutting and complex, leaders need to collaborate with other leaders. Senior leadership is increasingly recognised as ‘collective work’, with the apex executive team in organisations forming an important collective entity (Ethos, 2021). Transformational leadership is also becoming a powerful approach for public service leaders to navigate the challenges of the modern world. As the new trends in the post-pandemic era are reshaping the future of work, Singapore public service must continue to discern the skills of the future to be equipped for the leaders today and place high priority and investment on learning and upgrading of digital and transferable skills. 138ConclusionStrong governments are needed to ensure economic development and political stability. If the public sector is not able to attract talents, it will add on the vicious cycle of weak governance and low public service quality (Poocharoen and Lee, 2013). Therefore, appropriate talent management practices and leadership development programmes are critical to be designed and implemented in the public sector to attract and retain talents, especially in the ‘war for talent’ with the private sector. The Public Sector Transformation reform of the Singapore Public Service serves a deeper purpose of keeping the bureaucracy relevant to operate in a world fraught with uncertainty and complexities. Therefore, shift from elitist towards holistic leadership development will enable the service to build an even stronger proposition for talents to join, to stay and to flourish and carry out reforms and transformation.
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