Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com

Bringing Out the Best in the Executive Ranks

President Obama says the SES is key to making government smarter and faster.

Last week, President Obama and several agency heads spoke at a meeting of senior executives in Washington. The event helped frame why executive leadership remains a critical core of federal workforce productivity and effectiveness, and the president introduced several initiatives intended to strengthen the executive core as well as the services they lead.

This event, the first of its kind under the current administration, brought together several thousand federal leaders joined by a cadre of supporters of good government. The grand ballroom at the Washington Hilton was full and the mood was positive. We hope meetings like this continue periodically, whether they include the Senior Executive Service as a whole or subsets of leaders across government.

OPM Director Katherine Archuleta presented a video highlighting Presidential Rank Award winners. The director described federal leaders' impact in various fields that affect millions of Americans each day, including health care, disaster response, delivering loans to promote economic activity, and supporting small business. She reflected on the president’s priority on the importance of public service. Another video featured stories of some notable recipients of the Partnership for Public Service’s Service to America Medals.

View From Above

During the event a panel of agency heads, moderated by Rosemary Hart, a 2014 Presidential Rank Award winner and SES member from the Justice Department, took the stage. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke about leadership as well as the importance and impact of federal service. Interestingly, all three agencies were highlighted the following morning at the Partnership for Public Service’s annual event unveiling the best agencies to work in government—the panel demonstrated how senior leadership is clearly an element of that success. Here are some key points from the discussion surrounding questions posed by SESers:

Q: How do leaders such as yourself develop? Describe one personal leadership challenge you faced and how you overcame it?

Pritzker talked about leadership creating an environment that empowers people—who she called the most important assets of any public or private sector organization—to act, to feel safe in taking risks and sharing information so they can focus on solving problems. A key value she discussed was encouraging people to identify problems early, when they are easier to fix, saying "crises tend to be problems that are allowed to fester."

Perez told a personal story about his work as a local politician on the theme of acceptable risk-taking, saying "the only failure in life is failure to take risks . . . there is no such thing as failure other than failure to try." Allowing risk-taking can foster a culture of innovators to carry out agency missions, and leaders should demonstrate their support of those who take risks in their organizations.

Bolden talked about the role of teamwork, noting a key value is to “take care of your people, and they’ll take care of you.” Participatory leaders make decisions with their people, not for their people, and as a result are far less likely to make a mistake due to a lack of understanding about a situation.

Q. What are the differences between leading in the public and private sectors?

Pritzker, who came to Commerce after a successful career as a CEO at multiple private sector companies, noted that government has a greater diversity of stakeholders with whom to coordinate, more complex budget and hiring processes, and a set of rules that limit flexibility, compared with the private sector. One of the main strategies to help address these issues, she said, was the development of a clear strategic plan for Commerce that reflected the input and priorities of SES members across the agency. That is constantly communicated, she added, so employees understand how their role is related to agency goals and objectives, allowing a focus on substance rather than on constraints.

Q. What is the difference in leading between the military and civil sides of government?

Bolden, who came to NASA from a career in the military, talked about the military’s leadership model and its bottom-up element. In theater, a junior officer or even enlisted soldier often leads the charge. In a civilian setting, he noted, top career civil servants can reach into their workforce for the best ideas because, as in the military, the front line—whether soldier or civil servant—often has the best ideas and just needs a chance and channel to implement them. 

Q: How should leaders support diversity and inclusion of all kinds, both in the traditional sense as well as ensuring diversity of perspectives and agency viewpoints where relevant?

Perez said diversity is necessary for getting a job done well in a global economy. He cited the demographic transformation of the nation, saying effective leaders should look to expand their pipeline of recruitment to get a wide range of perspectives and the best talent from many sources. 

He also noted that solving the hardest problems requires diverse views and contributions from across government, among levels of government (i.e., federal, state, local, global), and across sectors of the economy and society. Perez noted that collaborating in an environment of multiple backgrounds, viewpoints and organizations “doesn't occur organically, it's a leadership challenge. It is the leader’s job to be the stovepipe imploders,” who help their people work across boundaries and reach a broader set of stakeholders than if they stayed within their lane.

The President’s Message

During his remarks, President Obama said: "My main message is thank you. Our senior leaders, here and around the globe, are the best of the best." He noted that when SES members are doing their job right, they don’t get noticed. Obama also said Americans don't trust government, yet we need the best and brightest to serve. The challenge, he said, is: “How can we yank this government into the 21st century and make it smarter and faster and more responsive?”

Obama announced three initiatives designed to enhance the SES and improve service to citizens:

A White House Leadership Development Program, which will comprise rotating senior leaders (both aspiring and SES) into the White House and senior jobs in different agencies. This is to not only encourage new ideas, but to build relationships across government.

A White House advisory group on SES reform. One element will help executives better respond to employee survey findings on engagement and trust in senior leaders. OPM has created a website, www.unlocktalent.gov, where leaders can find scores from their agencies.

An award to recognize outstanding customer service. Obama said “we want to honor people who do their job best.” There will be agency-level awards as well as governmentwide awards. This is an issue that a number of groups are also working to highlight, including the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council. (I am the chairman of IAC, which focused on the issue at its recent Executive Leadership Conference and will engage in a variety of activities on the effort.)

The president closed by recognizing that SES leaders have performed great work for the country for decades, highlighting one leader, Dwight Ink, a career senior management official who served seven presidents and has stayed active during the decades since. He continues to teach valuable lessons on government management through his work with the National Academy of Public Administration as a longtime fellow at age 92.

(Image via Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.