May 18th, 2010
By Don Jacobson
On May 11, 2010, President Obama signed a memorandum ordering Federal agencies to significantly revamp their hiring processes by November 1, 2010. Under the new policies, agencies must:
- eliminate any requirement that applicants respond to essay-style questions when submitting their initial application materials for any Federal job (i.e. no more KSAs);
- allow individuals to apply for Federal employment by submitting resumes and cover letters or completing simple, plain language applications, and assess applicants using valid, reliable tools; and
- provide for selection from among a larger number of qualified applicants by using the “category rating” approach (i.e. no more “rule of three”).
Managers and supervisors with responsibility for hiring are required to be:
- more fully involved in the hiring process, including planning current and future workforce requirements, identifying the skills required for the job, and engaging actively in the recruitment and, when applicable, the interviewing process; and
- accountable for recruiting and hiring highly qualified employees and supporting their successful transition into Federal service, beginning with the first performance review cycle starting after November 1, 2010.
Federal managers will have a crucial role to play in making the new processes work. Regardless of the quality of the new hiring systems established by each agency, the government will not become any better at getting the right people into the right jobs unless/until we as managers take ownership of the hiring process and learn how to do it well. It is, of course, in our interest to do so; decisions about who will be on our team has a profound impact on the performance of the team. In Good to Great, Jim Collins actually argues that getting the right people “on the bus” is key to building the foundation of a great organization.
Federal agencies have actually had the flexibility to do most of the things in the President’s May 11 memorandum for several years, but few have taken advantage of the flexibilities available to them.
By the end of year, Federal managers will be held accountable in their annual performance evaluations for hiring qualified people and supporting their transition into their new roles. As such, managers will need to move quickly to start cultivating their hiring skills. There is no need to wait until your agency rolls the new processes. There are a number of principles that apply to recruitment and hiring regardless of context. Here are a couple suggestions on where to start:
March 8th, 2009
The press release below announces FedPitch 2009, a competition in which citizens (including government employees, of course) can present their ideas for improving leadership and management of the Federal workforce. Each semifinalist will have the opportunity to “pitch” his/her idea in a 2-minute presentation at an event on the National Mall during Public Service Recognition Week in May.
If you have ideas for improving leadership and management of the Federal workforce, please consider submitting you idea via the website FedPitch.org. Even if you don’t submit an idea, if you happen to be in the DC area please think about attending this event during Public Service Recognition Week. It should be a lot of fun.
GOOD-GOVERNMENT GROUPS ANNOUNCE FEDPITCH COMPETITION:
Citizens to “Pitch” Ideas for Better Managing the Federal Workforce
Washington, D.C. – Several good-government organizations today announced FedPitch 2009 – a competition where citizens present 2-minute “pitches” of their ideas for improving workforce management in the federal government. The FedPitch 2009 competition will be held during the week of May 4 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of Public Service Recognition Week, a yearly weeklong celebration that honors the men and women who serve America as federal, state and local government employees. The first annual FedPitch competition was held last year during the Public Service Recognition Week celebration. Read the rest of this entry »
March 1st, 2009
In many agencies there is disagreement over who is responsible for leadership development. In some organizations, responsibility for leadership development is delegated to HR. In others, leadership development is viewed as the domain of trainers. In yet other organizations, employees expect the agency’s senior leadership to take the lead.
They are all right—to a point. All three groups–HR staff, leadership trainers and senior leaders–have an important role in facilitating leadership development in the agency. Their roles should be as follows:
- HR should ensure that the agency’s personnel policies are aligned to ensure that effective leaders rise to the top. That means leadership capacity must be a key factor in promotions and hiring/selections for key leadership positions.
- Leadership training should be readily available and trainers should ensure that leadership training courses are of high quality and relevant to the agency’s culture and needs.
- And senior leaders throughout the organization should make it clear by word and deed that leadership is important and valued in their agency. That means being good mentors, coaches, and role models–and providing strong support for the efforts of HR and the trainers.
And it sure helps if someone is connecting the dots between the leadership development efforts of HR, the trainers and the managers to ensure that their efforts are mutually reinforcing and that that are no gaps.
The Real Bottom Line
Your agency has an important role in helping you develop as a leader, but the person with the ultimate responsibility for leadership development is you. All the incentives, training, and mentors in the world will accomplish nothing if each individual does not take ownership of his/her own leadership development. Learning to lead is a lifelong process. It’s hard work that requires practice, new skills, lots of feedback, and continual reflection. And only you can do it.
So, what are you going to do about it? How committed are you to growing as a leader? There’s no time like the present to begin! Seek out the experiences, mentors, and courses that can help you along the way. Seek feedback and make time for reflection. And never, ever, stop learning.
February 26th, 2009
By Don Jacobson
Many of us in government want to change the way our agencies work. These changes can take many forms. Some of us may want to fix a process or change/eliminate counterproductive rules. Others may wish to shoot for more ambitious goals that require a change of culture. The current push to expand the use of collaboration tools like Web 2.0 technologies is one example of a big and important culture change. My personal focus has been on doing whatever I can to foster a culture of leadership—both in my own agency and throughout the government.
Effecting change in a large organization is difficult. Those difficulties can be magnified greatly in the public sector. Entrenched rules and structures pose many obstacles. Resource limitations often seem to be the things in greatest abundance. And the possibility of criticism from senior bosses, Congress and the media tends to make many managers risk averse.
So how does one overcome all these obstacles to bring about significant positive change? This article will outline 12 strategies, and practices that can be very helpful to the change agent in government. Read the rest of this entry »
February 14th, 2009
I am starting to rethink the whole notion of vocation—that we are “called” to a life’s work by a combination of our gifts, our passions, and the need of our times. In the vernacular, it is how we are “wired.” Some of us search all of our lives for what we will do when we grow up while others find peace and satisfaction that gets them out of bed in the morning—enthusiastically. Not that I think this premise is wrong, not at all, but in today’s world, it may be incomplete for many people. What got me thinking is that right now I have three close friends two of whom are unemployed while one has been very underemployed for some time now. We talk about it on long walks, look for connections to networks of people, and even pray together for it is a grievous place to be in a Type A society. Plus, just keeping a home and putting food on the table become matters of uncertainty—and anxiety. I agonize over this as to how to best help.
Looking at the unemployment statistics with some attempt to grasp just what it is we’re dealing with, I was reminded of a quote attributed to Stalin (if he didn’t say it, he should have) that “one death is a human tragedy; 20 million deaths is a newspaper headline for a day.” In the latest official count by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.6% of the paid workforce is out of work with 600 thousand jobs lost from December to January alone and an increase of 4 million people out of work in just one year. On top of that almost 14% of our country has either quit looking or taken any part time work just to get by. That means of our friends and neighbors across the country, almost 12 million of them are not working and an untold number have simply quit looking or taken part time jobs where they are seriously underemployed. We can debate the economic stimulus that just passed this past week as to whether it will make a big dent in this or not, but from what I gather, it will get worse before it gets better and time is going to roll forward for a few years before this monstrous thing is under control—we hope.
It all makes me wonder about whether having a true vocation, a calling, isn’t a luxury in these times, not unimportant, but maybe it needs some adjustment in our thinking. Read the rest of this entry »
February 14th, 2009
By Ray Blunt
Lists. We are a people who simply love lists. There must be something in our American psyche that craves to know what is up, what is down; what is hot and what is not. Maybe it’s our competitive juices that flow so readily toward comparisons. A brief review of the newspapers and magazines at the end of each year will give the list-hungry among us more than enough fodder, be it the top sports stories of the year; the best and worst dressed people; or even what’s “in” and what’s “out” for next year. Not surprisingly, it was only recently that The Book of Lists hit the best-seller list (no pun intended) to be followed by such imitators as The Writing Teacher’s Book of Lists (an oxymoron?), The Disinformation Book of Lists, and, inevitably, The Best Book of Lists, Ever!
Closer to home, a very important list in the Federal Government is the list of Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs), which has 5 components making up the Core, 22 competencies that define the 5 Core components and, to top it all off, 5 fundamental competencies that apply to all of the ECQs. Whew! So, are the ECQs just another list? Not really, but the ECQs are an expression of one of the 3Cs that should characterize every effective leader: competency. The other two Cs are character and chronos (for how a leader uses the scarcest resource—time—see Part I of this series).
Let’s begin this conversation about competency with a very brief history. In mid-1990s, OPM identified the ECQs following a lengthy process that recognized that the government needs more than competent managers; it also needs effective leaders. In benchmarking the best practices in the private sector, OPM researchers found that every top organization attempted to describe what they expected from their leaders and then used these descriptive expectations (i.e. competencies) for selection and development as well as for rewards and promotion. In addition to that benchmarking, OPM conducted extensive research in the field of leadership in general and consulted with Senior Executives and professional organizations. The first ECQs and their attendant competencies were published in 1996 and began to be incorporated much like the private sector into the various human resources functions. Not that much has changed in the ECQs in the 13 years since then. If you want to refresh your memory, go to this link: http://www.opm.gov/ses/recruitment/ecq.asp. (I won’t list them for you.)
But like all lists, even good ones like the ECQs, there are problems here. Read the rest of this entry »
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