Professional communication is probably the most important soft skill a person can have. Our communication style conveys our reliability, responsibility, professionalism, and knowledge. How we express ourselves virtually and in person can make a difference in job applications, interviews, sales pitches, team work, and so much more. Given the importance of the topic, we atRead… Read more »
Google+ is an interesting – if quiet – place. It’s not used by very many people, which is a shame, as the interface is rather nice and it features some really cool bits of technology. Hangouts, for instance, are fantastic – on demand video conferencing which integrates neatly with Google’s other services likes Docs andRead… Read more »
I get asked a lot about career advice from 20 something folks inside and outside the government. Then my cousin Jay Saunders asked me, and it seemed worth the effort to share the basics that have seemed to help many younger colleagues… Read the rest at Innovation Excellence: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/12/07/career-thinking-at-20/
A few weeks ago Ann Stewart, the Australian Government Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Deputy Secretary leading AGIMO (the Australian Government Information Management Office) announced she was retiring from the public service after seven years in her current role. Her announcement was widely covered in the media, and there’s been a number of public and,Read… Read more »
My thoughts on leadership… Being a leader is about instilling trust in all those individuals you contact daily. Leadership is not inherent in each of us. We must educate ourself to ensure we are able to adapt to each individual’s need regards of their status within an organization. Show respect to gain respect. Show compassionRead… Read more »
For the second week in a row, the S&P 500 bottomed out on Wednesday, then closed near the high of the week on Friday. I don’t know what the significance of that might be except that in market timing and technical analysis, we are sometimes just watching out for patterns because they tend to repeatRead… Read more »
In August 2012, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget stated in a memo that federal CIOs should become true portfolio managers. The memo was aimed at heads of executive departments and agencies and was released as part of the U.S. federal IT reform plan. As with most OMB memos, it contained a lotRead… Read more »
Do federal employees really care about their retirement, pay, and benefits??? The more people I talk to, the more I realize that most don’t even think about it. Maybe when the employee is near retirement they start to ask questions because they are nervous, but why not ask questions before? Are we too busy toRead… Read more »
Just say sorry After writing about Accountability & the Blame Game yesterday I started to think about an important aspect of being accountable which is the apology. I know that there is mixed research out there with regard to the effect a leaders apology has on the organization and the perception of the leader. ResearchRead… Read more »
Yesterday I attended and spoke at GovLoop and YGL’s half day training session for the next generation of government employees, NextGen+. I want to share with you some nuggets from Pat Fiorenza’s presentation on leadership and managing up, which has been a hot topic on GovLoop. What does it mean to be a public sectorRead… Read more »