Career

The Obama Jobs Speech: Real Life Leadership Lessons.

Real life leadership lesson – be transparent, congruent and authentic to both yourself and to those you lead! To be clear – I am wearing my organization development practitioner hat here. This is a bi-partisan analysis of a real life event to highlight what I believe are imperative traits of successful leadership -transparency, congruence, andRead… Read more »

Despite reluctance, states acknowledge looming deadline for insurance exchanges

Deltek Analyst Amanda White reports. The January 1, 2014 federal deadline for states to have health insurance exchanges up and running is fast approaching, and as summer comes to a close, states are realizing just how fast time is flying. Surprisingly, several states have yet to pass legislation to set up the infrastructure, and inRead… Read more »

Get Ready for a Food Fight!

I have some pretty cool news to share. Aetna is teaming up with Recipe.com and Bobby Flay for one awesome cause. The Aetna Healthy Food Fight is an initiative to promote healthy eating through education and sharing of healthy tips and recipes. Aetna’s Food Fight is making healthy eating not only a reality, but reallyRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: Do You Feel Safe At Work?

Even though it’s been ten years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, federal employees still feel weary when they go to work. The DC Earthquake was a prime example, as many worried that it was not an earthquake, but indeed another attack on a nearby building. This fear, however, has not kept federal employees out ofRead… Read more »

Local Gov Interview: Andy Maxwell, Director of Planning & Sustainability in Syracuse, NY

I love learning about different roles in local government. I was lucky enough to interview Andy Maxwell, the Director of Planning & Sustainability in the City of Syracuse, New York. This interview was especially interesting to me since I spent the past year completing my MPA program at Syracuse. It was fun to hear someRead… Read more »

MANAGING ATTENDANCE: What Every Supervisor Should Know

Contrary to popular belief, Federal employees having Career Tenure are not made of Teflon®; they are subject to the same disciplinary measures as their private sector counterparts. Career Tenure was originally adopted solely for the purpose of restricting the power of the President of the United States to remove certain office-holders without the approval ofRead… Read more »

Four Lessons Learned From Implementing Forest Service’s Lauded eMNEPA Program

USFS Program Selected by Presidents Council on Environmental Quality as a Pilot Program to Help Modernize and Reinvigorate NEPA The President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced August 31st that the Electronic Management of NEPA (eMNEPA) program at the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has been selected for the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Pilot Program,Read… Read more »

DOE invests in electric cars

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is making a big investment in electric cars nationwide. The investment is part of DOE’s Clean Cities initiative which is supporting the growth of energy efficient and renewable energy measures in America’s cities. Awards were given to 16 electric vehicle projects in 24 states and Washington DC. The projectsRead… Read more »

The Federal Coach: Susan Grundmann on Protecting Merit Systems in the Federal Government

Susan Tsui Grundmann is the chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent, quasi-judicial agency that protects the federal merit systems and promotes government-wide merit system principles. Grundmann previously served as general counsel to the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 100,000 federal workers nationwide. How difficult was it toRead… Read more »

The Ratchet Effect

…occurs when two or more competitors are frequently matched against one another. When one develops an advantage, the others develop counter moves. The overall result is that the whole group becomes continuously better. Continue this through several generations of improvement and the whole group has a marked advantage over others who started at the sameRead… Read more »