FOLLOWING up on our previous article, we introduce a more sustainable, authentic and holistic approach to corporate governance, which is called call authentic governance. Dr. Rampersad has defined authentic governance in holistic humanized terms, namely: the systematic process of continuous, gradual and routine improvement, steering, and learning, that lead to sustainable high performance and ethical excellence.
He made a distinction between authentic personal governance and authentic corporate governance, which we will explain below in detail. So, authentic governance is a continuous voyage of discovery, involving continuous, gradual and routine improvement, steering, and learning. It is about a journey towards a happier and more successful life for individuals and ethical corporate excellence. By redefining and governing themselves effectively, leaders and employees will gain more understanding about their responsibility regarding ethical behavior, and they will understand that it is their responsibility to act ethically, on duty as well as off duty.
This new governance blueprint is an inside-out approach and focuses mainly on the human side of good governance. It places more emphasis on understanding yourself and the needs of others, meet those needs while staying true to your personal and corporate values, improve yourself and your personal integrity continuously, making ethics a way of life and a continuous learning process, and align these with formal corporate regulations, procedures and guidelines, instead of focusing on exhaustive formal corporate regulations, procedures and guidelines only. This authentic governance model consists of the following four phases, which are the building blocks of sustainable corporate governance:
1. Authentic Personal Governance:
a) Personal ambition; this phase involves a soul searching process based on thought, introspection, and self-reflection, supported by a breathing and silence exercise. Questions which you can ask yourself are: Who am I, what do I stand for, what makes me happy, what do I live for, why do I want to lead and what’s the purpose of my leadership? If the honest answers on the last four questions are power, prestige, and money, you may be at risk for your company. The result of this phase is the formulation of your personal mission, vision and values. On the basis of insights acquired through this process, you develop self awareness and self-regulation, which are the foundation of trustworthiness, integrity, and openness to learn.
b) Personal Balanced Scorecard (PBS); personal ambition has no value unless you take action to make it a reality. Therefore the emphasis in this stage is developing an integrated and well balanced action plan based on your personal ambition to realize your life objectives. It’s about translating your personal ambition into action. Your PBS entails your personal critical success factors that are related to your personal ambition and your corresponding objectives, performance measures, targets and improvement actions. It translates your personal ambition into manageable and measurable personal objectives, milestones and improvement actions in a holistic and balanced way.
c) Personal governance; personal ambition and personal balanced scorecard have no value unless you implement them to make it a reality. Therefore the next step is to implement, maintain, and cultivate your ambition and PBS to govern yourself effectively. This entails personal governance; the systematic process of continuous, gradual and routine personal improvement, steering, and learning. Your PBS needs constant updating to reflect the new challenges you take, the lessons you have learned, and the growth of yourself.
This article will be continued next week.
Prof. Hubert Rampersad is President of the Technological University of the Americas and Abiodun Kayode Fawumi is the Publisher of Ekocity Magazine.
