Archive for category Federal Agency
Do our nation’s leaders need more leadership training?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Commitment, Communication, Employee Passion, Engagement, Federal Agency, Government, Ken Blanchard, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Relationships, Supervisor, Teams, Training on May 16, 2012
I work for a leadership and training development company. I am constantly surrounded by best practices on leading a team, leading in a situation, and even leading myself. I am continuously exposed to the skills required to develop an individual into a great leader, motivate a team member, and generate empowerment in a direct report. So when I read reports like The Federal Leadership Challenge from the Partnership for Public Service (PPS), I have to remember that not everyone has the same daily experience that I have. PPS conducted an analysis using the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and uncovered that leadership is the lowest ranking category in the Federal Government. The report states that out of 10 workplace categories, leadership has the lowest ranking, scoring only 54.9 out of 100.
More about the report
The leadership category of the analysis was broken down into perceptions of empowerment, fairness, and senior leaders and supervisors. Out of these sub-categories, empowerment and senior leaders reflected the lowest ratings with government employees.
- 46.3% of respondents felt personal empowerment
- 42.6% feel their senior leaders instill motivation and commitment
- 48.1% are satisfied with the information they receive from management about the state of the agency
- 50.7% feel they are involved in decisions that affect their work
- 52.9% believe senior leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity
- 54.3% trust there is fairness within their organization
Making improvements
A particular agency that has made a concerted effort in improving these numbers has experienced a positive increase in their employee’s perceptions of leadership within the organization. The U.S. Mint, an agency that is part of the Department of the Treasury, made some necessary changes on how they communicate and empower employees and it’s reflected in their scores. The agency had a 21.2% increase on the Best Places to Work Index from 2010, empowerment was ranked 34.5% higher than last year and senior leaders received a 41.5% spike from the same time frame. The report states that this positive increase came about from strides taken in increasing communication with employees, working more cooperatively with unions and by fully explaining the challenges faced by the organization and the reasons why decisions were being made. In addition, the Mint has been having regular town hall meetings, giving employees the opportunity to voice their concerns, and responding to those issues.
Researchers at The Ken Blanchard Companies uncovered that strategic leadership directly influenced operational leadership, which in turn directly influenced employee work passion and customer devotion. Strategic leadership indirectly influences organizational vitality. In addition, they found that employee work passion and customer devotion influenced one another and that when employees were passionate about their job and their organization, they tended to interact with the customer in a more positive manner.
Want to learn more on empowering and motivating employees? Register for an upcoming webinar that will show you 3 ways you can create a culture where everyone feels a sense of ownership, empowerment, and ability to make a difference. You’ll learn:
- The importance of sharing information freely throughout your organization. People without information—or incomplete information—make poor business decisions. People with access to complete information make better decisions and feel more committed to them. Ongoing communication is imperative.
- How to create alignment and get everyone moving forward in the same direction. Recent research shows that only 14% of people are truly aligned with their organization’s key goals.
- The role empowerment plays. Drive empowerment as close to the customer as possible. Make sure that reward and recognition practices encourage people to take action. Instill a sense of meaningful work in every employee.
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From Vegas to Colombia: Scandals Impacting Government Leadership
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Conflict, Federal Agency, Government, Leadership, Leadership Development, Management, Morale, Motivation, Trust on April 25, 2012
Scandal is nothing new to the White House. Many of us can recall several “mishaps” involving former presidents. This time, however, it’s the Secret Service. On April 11th, a dozen Secret Service agents and eleven military personnel were involved in an incident that involved partying at a local nightclub in Cartagena, Colombia, heavy drinking, and involvements with prostitutes while preparing for a visit by President Obama. Since that event, two supervisors who were involved in the scandal have been identified and removed from their positions. The case has been all over the news and has been causing quite a stir for the agency responsible for the well-being of the President of the United States.
Just as they did with the GSA scandal, lawmakers, citizens, government workers, and the media have been questioning the integrity, ethics, and accountability of the agency. So who is responsible? Who will ensure behavior like this will never happen again? President Obama has said that he has full trust in the Secret Service Director, Mark Sullivan, to continue the investigation and take the appropriate corrective actions needed. That’s all fine and dandy, but what about the trust that the American people, who are losing millions of their tax dollars due to these scandals, have lost for our government? Randy Conley, Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies, says that leaders must purposely engage in four trust-building behaviors in order for individuals to maintain confidence with their leader. Those behaviors include:
- Demonstrate competence
- Act with integrity
- Care about others
- Maintain reliability
After reading many articles and watching several news stories about both scandals, I can’t say that those involved with the GSA and Secret Service events practiced these four behaviors. So what corrective actions can government leaders now take to ensure that debauchery such as this won’t continue at other agencies? After all, people do make mistakes. Even with the best of intentions, leaders make mistakes that impact the commitment, morale, and performance of the people who work for them. With investigations in both cases still underway, we’ll have to wait and see the effects that these scandals will have on the future leadership and behaviors of our government.
Want to learn three actionable steps leaders can take to self-diagnose, assess, and change unwanted behaviors? Take a break at 9:00am PST/12:00pm EST today to listen to best-selling author and consultant Chris Edmonds share insight on how leaders can avoid making some common mistakes.
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Leadership in Las Vegas
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Conflict, Direction, Federal Agency, Government, Leadership, Leadership Development on April 11, 2012
Another official at the General Service Administration (GSA) was named in the scandal that has shocked the agency. Earlier this month, it was announced that several top officials at the GSA were accused of lavish spending at a Las Vegas training conference in 2010. Martha Johnson was one of the initial employees to resign from the agency. Before submitting her resignation, Johnson fired Public Buildings Service Commissioner, Robert Peck and senior adviser, Stephen Leeds. Since then, several other officials have been named in the scandal and are under investigation. To add insult to injury, several videos are now surfacing bragging and poking fun at the excessive spending the agency is responsible for from 2010.
What went wrong with the leadership at the GSA? When Martha Johnson was brought on as the GSA administrator in 2010, did she intentionally set out to go astray in leading her staff? Did the other officials involved in this incident take the time to consider what type of leadership skills they were portraying in Las Vegas? Being a leader is a full-time job. There are no breaks. A leader’s actions not only influence the organization, they also influence the level of satisfaction of the individuals working at the organization. A new book written by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller entitled, Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life describes four factors that promote great leaders and encourages them to challenge and stretch themselves both on and off the job. These four factors are reflected in the GROW acronym:
Gain Knowledge
Reach Out to Others
Open Your World
Walk Toward Wisdom
Want to learn more about the four keys to becoming a leader for life? Watch this webinar that will teach you the four strategies to reaching your highest potential.
Do you possess the skills to be a great leader? Take this personal assessment, based on the GROW model to find out.
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Mobile Management – A Good Strategy or Just Disruptive?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Attitude, Change, Conflict, Federal Agency, Government, Management, Morale, Motivation, Productivity on February 8, 2012
Today’s post was written by guest blogger, Jim Atwood, Director of Government Solutions at The Ken Blanchard Companies. Jim also presented on last week’s webinar, A Situational Approach to Leadership.
Last week’s webinar on taking a situational approach to leadership created a lot of discussion around the concept of mobile management. Several participants related to the idea and shared their experiences with mobile management within their agencies. I am most familiar with this type of management as it relates to the military… where a leader is usually only in a particular position for 18 months to 3 years. However, following the webinar, I received several comments about how it also is a significant issue in other government agencies as well. It was particularly evident with leaders who are in direct political appointee positions or those who report to political appointees.
For me, mobile management is the planned periodic rotation of managers. I know there are a great number of positive elements that can result from a well executed mobile management plan…unfortunately I have seen very few that were either well planned or well executed. My experience has primarily been with individuals who, knowing that their position is short-term, have made immediate large-scale organizational changes to be able to “make their mark” on the organization. Unfortunately, it appears that often the change was only for the sake of change…to be able to say that things were different from the previous manager. The results of many of the changes I observed were rarely to enhance mission capability for the organization as a whole and often had a negative effect. I recall one such individual who believed in this kind of change and said, “I like to really shake things up when I arrive…change everything. I believe that dust settles at a higher level.” He definitely shook things up but had a negative effect on morale and commitment to the command and its mission.
I really am hoping that my experiences are not common…that I just had the bad luck of interacting with inefficient leaders initiating ineffective change. But are my experiences the anomaly?
What have been your experiences with mobile management? How big of an issue is mobile management within the government? What positive experiences have others had…and what were the resulting effects on the organization?
If you missed the webinar on taking a situational approach to leadership, you can still listen to the recording and hear more about how to lessen the negative impact of mobile management.
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A Situational Approach to Leadership in the Public Sector
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Communication, Direction, Employee Engagement, Employee Passion, Federal Agency, Government, Ken Blanchard, Leadership, Leadership Development, Performance, Productivity, The Ken Blanchard Companies on February 2, 2012
Join The Ken Blanchard Companies for a complimentary webinar and online chat beginning today at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12:00 noon Eastern).
Jim Atwood, Director of Blanchard Government Solutions will be discussing how taking a situational approach to leadership can enhance your ability to effectively manage and develop your people and how that process can increase competence, commitment, and retention of your most talented individuals.
This webinar is free and seats are still available if you would like to join over 800 people expected to participate. Immediately after the webinar, Jim will be answering follow-up questions here at How Gov Leads for about 30 minutes. To participate in the follow-up discussion, use these simple instructions.
Instructions for Participating in the Online Chat
- Click on the LEAVE A COMMENT link below
- Type in your question
- Push SUBMIT COMMENT
It’s as easy as that! Jim will answer as many questions as possible in the order they are received. Be sure to press F5 to refresh your screen occasionally to see the latest responses. We hope you can join us later today for this special complimentary event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.
A Resolution Worth Making…and Keeping
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Commitment, Federal Agency, Government, Ken Blanchard, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Performance, Productivity, Training on January 4, 2012
When the New Year rolls around, most people have good intentions and make resolutions to kick-off the year; unfortunately, most people break their resolutions less than a month into the year. However, some don’t wait until the clock strikes midnight to make a positive change and continue working on and improving those changes well into the New Year. The Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the government agencies that set a resolution to retain their employees. The government agency has helped many of its employees improve their skills and has provided them opportunities to grow within the agency. Despite budget cuts and pay freezes, the agency created the VA Learning University (VALU) to offer employees an outlet to improve development, leadership skills, and personal growth while aligning to the agency’s mission and goals. This initiative has helped the VA save $200 million in turnover expenses in 2011. For 2012, the agency has made a goal to support the Obama administration’s drive to add more veterans into the civilian federal workforce. They plan on increasing the amounts of veterans they have on staff to 40 percent in 2012, up from 32 percent currently.
Perhaps the VA is on to something. A survey recently conducted by Federal News Radio to 49 chief human capital officers (CHCO) showed that most CHCOs are concerned with recruiting and retaining employees due to tight budgets and limited resources. VALU is proof that not all incentives to recruit and retain are monetary. The ability to grow professionally and personally is a coveted benefit at any agency. The Ken Blanchard Companies believes that individual learning is a key element to a high performing agency and is essential to self-leadership. Agencies that do not encourage people to learn are less likely to be high performing, because the skills of an agency are no greater than the skills of its people. When individuals learn, the agency learns. High performing agencies use formal training, mentoring, and on-the-job support to develop the skills and competencies of their people.
As a leader, why not help your direct reports make the most out of their learning experience. Learn the six keys on how to ENGAGE your staff so they can apply what the learned in real-life work scenarios.
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Analyzing performance management: Is your leadership style effective?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Communication, Federal Agency, Goals, Government, Leadership, Motivation, Performance, Productivity, Results, The Ken Blanchard Companies on December 7, 2011
To bring out the best in others, leadership must match the development level of the person being led.
In order to improve performance management and efficiency, several federal agencies are using analytics to identify problems, identify progress, and share information and results. The Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for The Business of Government reviewed four agencies that are using data analysis to save money, improve services and more effectively achieve their goals. The agencies that were reviewed include Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Each of these agencies is actively using analytical tools to determine the success of specific programs they have implemented. The agencies highlighted in the study shared certain practices that they all used to gather data and turn the information into knowledge that improved their program results:
- Leaders focused on transparency, accountability and results.
- Staff had a clear line of sight from where they stood to the desired goals and outcomes.
- Agencies invested in technology, tools and talent.
- Agencies cultivated and leveraged partnerships across the agency and with partners who deliver services.
Equally as important as the analytical tools used to improve performance management is the leadership style and direction managers use with their direct reports.
Leaders play a critical role in communicating a clear vision, setting expectations and calling for accountability for results.
Oversupervising or undersupervising has a negative impact on people’s development. That’s why it’s so important to match leadership style to development level. This matching strategy is the essence of Situational Leadership II®, a leadership model that delivers an effective approach to managing and motivating people. It opens communication and fosters a partnership between the leaders and the people the leader supports and depends on. SLII is based on the beliefs that people can and want to develop and there is no best leadership style to encourage that development. You should tailor leadership style to the situation.
Check out this fun video, narrated by Ken Blanchard, about how the right leadership can make a world of difference in your agency’s success.
You can also access the study on how agencies are using analytics to measure performance management and improve program success.
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