The need to sharpen the horns of leadership in order to ensure smooth service delivery, growth and harmonious relationships among team members so as to ensure sustainability in the Public Service has once again been brought to the front burner for immediate compliance.

The Ogun State Head of Service, Mr. Kolawole Fagbohun, threw this challenge while delivering a paper on "Team Building and Leadership Skills" at a 3-day Strategic Retreat for Management Team of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, held at Ijebu-Ode.

According to him, Leadership Skills and Team Building are interwoven because when a team is established, a distinct individual with the required skills, expertise and experience is appointed to lead, hence, the participants must brace up to live up to expectations in their various schedules.

He charged them to play their leadership roles well in order to make the Ministry achieve all set goals and objectives as "TEAM - Together Everyone Achieves More", must be entrenched.

While listing attributes of team building to include collaboration, evaluation, cognition and cooperation, the Head of Service submitted that as leaders, they must be assertive and ward off insolent and unsupportive officers.

"Put in everything, even if there are no resources. Give your best to the Ministry, especially after this training, as this is not an everyday affair. You must be self-motivated and there should be no room for excuses not to deliver optimally", Mr. Fagbohun charged.

In his goodwill message, the Chairman, Ijebu-Ode Local Government, Hon. Tunde Emiola-Gazal, said the retreat was essential as the Local Government is the bedrock of development in any society, thus, the Management Team has a bulk of responsibilities to handle in order to render top-notch service, and urged them to impact the society through quality service delivery.

Adding his voice, the Elese of Ilese, who was a retired Permanent Secretary, Oba Oluremi Obayomi, while commending the bold effort of the Ministry at organising the retreat said training and retraining of officers remain germane to the accomplishment of set goals and objectives of an organisation, especially, the Public Service.

"If you don't train, you don't blame. If officers are not performing to expectations, don't blame them because it is the duty of any organisation to organise from time-to-time training and retraining for efficient delivery, while implementation of formulated policies and objectives must be properly carried out by you", Oba Obayomi said.

He urged them to be ready to improve themselves as well in any area they deem fit as management function is not limited to their career alone.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Chief Host, the Commissioner in the Ministry, Hon. Ganiyu Hamzat, appreciated the governor for his unflinching commitment to providing the necessary skills and a conducive environment for improved quality and increased productivity in the Public Service.

He charged his management team to use the retreat to improve their knowledge and translate all experiences gathered into efficient service delivery in their schedules to keep advancing the Ministry and the State at large.

On his part, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Rotimiolu Akinlesi, said expectations after the retreat include: achieving togetherness, identifying challenges and coming up with innovations, great ideas and road maps to achieve set objectives of the Ministry, strengthening communication, resolve tension, improve work culture under a relaxed and conducive environment.