If you're a senior executive, you need to be a leader, not just a manager, according to new qualifications released by the Office of Personnel Management Tuesday.
OPM replaced the old set of qualifications that describe the skills, experience and qualities candidates need to become members of the elite Senior Executive Service, the top cadre of the civil service. The old qualification set was focused on management skills: human resources management, program development and evaluation, resources planning and management, organizational representation and strategic vision. The new set focuses on leadership skills: leading change, leading people, being results-driven, developing business acumen and building coalitions/communication.
"These new qualifications will ensure that we are developing leaders for the government of the future," said OPM Acting Director Janice Lachance.
The standards, known as Executive Core Qualifications, are used to evaluate candidates for SES positions. OPM talked with federal executives and human resources managers, compared leadership standards in the private sector and collaborated with the National Academy of Public Administration to come up with the qualifications.
Ray Blunt, a senior consultant at the academy, said executives who are succeeding in their jobs already demonstrate the new qualifications, but the government as a whole needs to focus more on leadership development.
"We have too few executives with leadership skills and too many with management skills," Blunt said. "We're not doing a good job of developing leaders."
Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, commended OPM for its emphasis on leadership, but said she has concerns with the new qualifications.
"OPM and the administration are certainly sending a signal, and the idea of an active leadership role is an appropriate signal to send," Bonosaro said. "But they might be able to articulate executive qualities that might be a bit more enduring. I'm not certain that all these qualifications are going to be applicable every year in every agency in every position."
Bonosaro said the qualifications should include leadership skills that recognize the differences between public service and business leadership. "Are these the essential executive qualities that would enable someone to lead change but also lead policy implementation?" Bonosaro asked.
Blunt said that if government doesn't show a commitment to the new standards, executives may simply respond by rewriting their resumes to reflect the jargon of the new qualifications. "If it's only on paper, then your response is going to be on paper," Blunt said.
"Someone has to be driving this," Blunt added. "The whole idea of developing the people side of the organization is the missing ingredient in reinvention." Blunt suggested that the Vice President, along with a team of career leaders, could champion a new focus on leadership.
To see in-depth definitions of the new Executive Core Qualifications, click here.
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