Career

Practicing Safe Stress for the Holidays: “Fast Food for Thought” from the Stress Doc ™

Yesterday I had a blast. It only lasted ten-minutes but the ebb and flow of the audience’s riveted attention and hearty laughter produced a slow to fade afterglow. I did some serious shtick on “Practicing Safe Stress for the Holidays” at a holiday gathering for members of Federally Employed Women (FEW)/Metro Washington Region. Consider thisRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Federal employees owe $3 billion in taxes

Federal workers owed more than $3 billion in income taxes in 2008, according to the Internal Revenue Service, a figure down slightly from the year before. The agency reported that 276,300 current and retired federal employees owed $3,042,200,000 in 2008, down from $3,586,784,725 in unpaid taxes in 2007. The list includes White House and CongressionalRead… Read more »

The Dangers of Being Too “Positive” in a Team Building Process: Or Don’t Just “Have a Nice Day!”

“You’re being negative!” Recently I led a team building workshop, and that was a federal government Division Director’s reply to my questioning, “Why the ‘Front Office’ meeting had not been working?” Preceding my operational assessment a number of people noted: a) that for several months people were not bringing relevant agenda issues to the meetingRead… Read more »

Mission Tenants: The missing link in collaboration success

My colleague (and new GovLoop friend) Andrew posted a bang-up deck on measurement earlier today. I love metrics and poring over data, so I refer you to it. Good stuff. Already, organizations that are focused, proactive and disciplined about measurement are seeing good results. For example, last week, my nGenera colleague Laura Carillo presented atRead… Read more »

Transforming the Conventional into the Creative: Discovering and Designing the “Bright Crystals” of Contradiction

These days everyone wants to be creative, to “think out of the box.” But how do you walk the talk? As a workshop leader who often tries to give organizations a “Jolt of CPR: Being Creative, Passionate and Risk-Taking,” let me share one concept that just might be an integral component of creative thinking andRead… Read more »

Federal Eye: Eye Opener: Nominate your favorite Fed

Happy Wednesday! Know of a government worker that deserves recognition? Nominate your favorite Fed for a Service to America Medal by the end of January and they might win up to $10,000. The Partnership for Public Service collects the nominations, selects the winners and then distributes eight “Sammies” at a big ceremony in September. There’sRead… Read more »

But where does DoD fit in? Review of Burton Report: Gotta, Mike. “Field Research: Actions to Take On Enterprise Social Networking”

With the DoD lagging behind in the adoption of social media in general, to include social networking, it is not an area ripe for research. Yet, with growing interest and a handful of innovative projects picking up steam, we have a need to apply what has been done on the commercial sector without much understandingRead… Read more »

Member of the Week: Dustin Haisler

When I received an invitation to present for the Texas Certified Public Manager in San Marcos, TX, this past week, I immediately thought of Dustin Haisler. Haisler wears many hats for the city of Manor, which is a few miles northeast of San Marcos just outside of Austin. He and his colleagues are finding creativeRead… Read more »

How-To: Write Post-Interview Thank-You

POST-INTERVIEW THANK-YOUS By Lily Whiteman, author of How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job and Federal Times Columnist Question: What is the first thing you should do after you get home from a job interview (after you rip off your uncomfortable interview outfit but before you pour yourself a stiff, cold drink)? Answer: Write aRead… Read more »