Thank You For the Work You Do — Plus Your Thanksgiving Break Must Reads

Sometimes its tough to look past the partisan bickering and budget nightmares and see the folks working every day to fullfil their mission.

But its worth it to take a step back and say thank you to the federal, state and local government employees for all the work they do.

And it’s not just the GovLoop team taking notice of all the hard work – Tom Fox, the Vice President for Leadership and Innovation at the Partnership for Public Service, has also taken note.

He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that the ability of feds to put their mission first is really admirable.

“Right now in particular, despite some of the negative perceptions and stereotypes of federal employees there are a lot of folks that are very thankful for federal employees. People that were affected by Superstorm Sandy in particular were able to see how FEMA, HHS and other agencies were able to quick and effectively step up to the plate,” said Fox.

Daily Reminders

“We (Tom and Chris) have the privilege and advantage of seeing the great work by feds on a daily basis. But a lot of people don’t get the opportunity. But a lot of people took note of the great work that often gets overlooked,” said Fox.

Thanksgiving Reads

• William Silber’s new book, Volcker: The Triumph of Persistence, examines Paul Volcker’s work battling inflation in the 1970s and his role in helping the nation recover from the most recent financial collapse. The book offers behind-the scenes accounts of Volcker’s time at the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve. It also chronicles his resolve and independent thinking during times of crisis. Few individuals have had a long-term, profound impact on our federal government over the last 50 years as Volcker.
• In Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Meacham provides what many critics consider one of the most comprehensive and balanced portraits of a very complicated man with many strengths and weaknesses. It offers leaders who want to learn from history an invaluable resource by providing insights into a man who understood human nature, could marshal ideas, learn from his mistakes and prevail.

• Robert Pozen’s book, Extreme Productivity: Books Your Results, Reduce Your Hours. Pozen offers his advice on how to achieve workplace productivity and high performance, and provides solace to those feeling overwhelmed by a heavy workload and competing demands. He also offers suggestions on how to determine the highest priorities and manage time wisely. Maybe it’s not time management that’s the major challenge, but information overload. If that’s the case,
• Nate Silver – The Signal and the Noise: Why SoMany Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t. While Silver made a name for himself with his straightforward – and as it turned out accurate – analysis of the recent presidential election, this book can help any leader struggling with the best way of handling everyone’s latest, greatest buzz term – big data. If you are a federal leader overwhelmed by numbers, Silver’s book will help you distinguish between useful versus merely interesting data analysis.
• Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage:Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business. A quick and easy read, The Advantage distills many of Lencioni’s best lessons from previous works (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Four Obsessions of an Effective Executive) into a single, short volume.

Feds in the Movies