Don’t get blindsided by fiscal contraints – Management is what matters

When the President was Inaugurated on Monday, he unveiled a broad agenda for the next four years. But one thing was missing from his inaugural address – civil service reform and management.

But Tom Fox says in order for any of the other priorities to be successful you first have to have strong leadership and management.

Fox is the Vice President for Leadership and Innovation at the Partnership for Public Service. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that without real civil service reform the government will suffer.

Biggest Challenge in the 2nd Term

“With the operating environment in government being what it is right now, undoubtedly there will be budget contraints, reductions in personell (hiring freezes), the government will have to pay much closer attention to management and the workforce in the next 4 years if they want to achieve the goals the president laid out on Monday’s address,” said Fox.

Don’t Tunnel In on Budget Cuts

“With fiscal matters taking everyone’s attention there is very little being paid to civil service reform. It is a badly antiquated system. It needs to be fixed, now,” said Fox.

Find Achievable Management Goals

“Even if the President and top leaders can focus on having clear outcomes and expectations for the management responsibilities for the political appointees, that would be a win. It’s a great starting point,” said Fox.

Perfect World – What Would You Change?

“My number one priority would be to shift the line of sight. I would add in performance contracts for the political appointees. I would make sure they have responsibility for producing real and measurable improvements in agencies’ best places to work results. Then I would cascade those responsibilities down through the leadership ranks. If you pay attention to people they will deliver better results,” said Fox.