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Presently, limited scholarly work exists on State-Owned Entities (SOEs) adopting an operational excellence culture and implementing the Lean concept in South Africa. This research seeks to determine if the leadership approach undertaken by Eskom senior managers during the Covid-19 pandemic aligns with the fundamental principles of the Shingo Model and the lean concept. Using a qualitative research design, a total of 65 senior managers and three executive members at Eskom responded to the online survey. This study validates that the senior managers at Eskom unknowingly adopted the guiding principles of the Shingo Model to help create order in the chaos that the Covid-19 pandemic had presented. This study proposes a need to implement the Lean philosophy and methodologies at Eskom. The study findings provide insight to leaders of government and SOEs that operational excellence tools can be applied to these entities to reap the same bene