28 September 2016 12:00 am Views - 2243
A small group of senior executives of Ceylinco Life has demonstrated how disproportionately large undertakings can be accomplished by five leadership practices that engage and inspire others.
From helping a remote community protect itself from chronic kidney disease (CKD) to setting up a library for a rural school, stimulating tree planting in communal institutions and renovating a dilapidated preschool, the work of this group of 24 in the course of a month surpassed what some organisations take a year or more to achieve.
Challenged to conceptualise and execute four corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects as part of a leadership training exercise, the 24 senior executives at directors, deputy general manager (DGM), assistant general manager (AGM) and senior manager level were formed into four teams of six each for the purpose. One month later, each team was required to make a presentation on the projects undertaken and the results achieved.
Team ‘MCTRUST’, which derived its name from the initials of its six members, had built and commissioned a water purification plant that uses reverse osmosis technology to remove impurities in the water used by 100 families in the CKD-prone village of Sivalakulam in the Anuradhapura District. The project linked with a community well donated to the area by Ceylinco Life many years ago and also involved training the villagers in the operation and maintenance of the purification plant.
Team ‘Transformers’ enthused colleagues at the Ceylinco Life head office and at branches around the country to donate books they could spare, supplemented the collection with books purchased anew and created an entire library for a school in Hatton.