Leadership

10 Tips for Leadership

Have no illusions: being a good leader takes work. Even if you are a “born leader” you must continually work and learn to remain at the top of your game. The below tips are not intended to be a cure-all for poor leadership or an unwillingness to learn, but a starting point for aspiring goodRead… Read more »

Creating a Cadre of Cross-Agency Executives

President Obama recently proposed a new White House Leadership Development Program. The goal is to expose rising leaders to the experience of solving challenges across agency boundaries. This could ultimately lead to a new capacity in government – a cadre of experienced executives who know how to get things done collaboratively.  Cross –agency collaboration isRead… Read more »

Improving Morale in Gov? Not Impossible

Earlier this month, the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings were released by the Partnership for Public Service, based on data from OPM’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. NASA was rated the best large agency to work for, FDIC was chosen as the best mid-sized agency, and the Surface Transportation board comesRead… Read more »

To Generate Innovation Ideas, Questions Are The Answer

Where do innovation ideas come from? Conventional wisdom says organizations must look outside to innovate. Innovative ideas exist out there, not in here. Not where everyone is too vested in the status quo. Too risk averse and change resistant. But wisdom isn’t conventional and innovative ideas aren’t rare gems to be found. Innovation is aRead… Read more »

Impostor – What If You Feel Like It’s You?

Imagine knowing that you are not the person that others seem to think you are. A true impostor. Like Ravi Desai, who persuaded Slate.com via e-mail that he was actually “Robert Klingler”, “North American head of BMW”. Slate published two articles by “Klingler” before alert readers pointed out that they could find no references toRead… Read more »

An Inside View of President’s Meeting with SES

This guest post was written by Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government. This week, John Kamensky and I were privileged to attend the meeting of Senior Executives at the Washington Hilton, at which President Obama spoke as well as several agency heads. The event helped to frame whyRead… Read more »