As government leaders, we place a high priority on serving the public well, and rightfully so. But often our customers not only external to our organizations; our customers are often our colleagues in the next office, or in a nearby agency. These internal customers deserve our best customer service, too. What does really great internalRead… Read more »
When she’s not wearing her 80’s gear and rocking out as the lead singer of our city employee band, the Black Death Socks (BDS), Breanna Medina is the Emergency Management Coordinator for the city of Rancho Cucamonga, California. I asked Bree about her role and how she’s preparing our city to be a resilient community.Read… Read more »
Bob Tiede (@bobtiede) writes on leadership at his website, www.leadingwithquestions.com. On his list of ten questions leaders need to ask themselves, Bob has this nugget about change: “When is the last time I abandoned a program?” Yikes! That is a tough one for us govies. We are skilled at identifying problems and developing solutions, whichRead… Read more »
Most GovLoopers are looking to move up or move out to the next great gig. There’s lots of great advice on this site about how to do just that. But if you’re not sure if you want to climb the career ladder, here are ten guaranteed ways to sabotage your own success: Stay underground –Read… Read more »
The concept of public agencies delivering services to one another is nothing new, but doesn’t happen as often as it could. Policy wonks, the media, elected officials, and agency managers all agree the concept makes sense: One public organization does something well, and shares that expertise with another public agency, at a cost that providesRead… Read more »
It’s the end of January – are you fit yet? Me neither. In fact, across the nation, the wave of new gym members has waned and the post-resolution blues have firmly set in for most of us. Rather than getting discouraged, my co-workers and I are together finding ways to build healthier choices into our dailyRead… Read more »
The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) has released a survey with some hard-to-believe results. Today, only 13% of chief executive positions in local government are held by women – a number that has remained exactly the same since 1981. A lot of other things have changed since the same year IBM introduced the first personalRead… Read more »
Applying for a job online makes the process seem easier, but it also creates plenty of chances for missteps that take you out of the running, even though you might be a great pick for the position. My colleague, Human Resources Manager Jenifer Phillips, has some insights into what she’s looking for in those online applications,Read… Read more »
I loved hearing the stories this past December coming from organizations like www.code.org and www.GirlsWhoCode.com, who are working to inspire people to learn to write computer code. To show just how important Silicon Valley thinks this is, over $75 million was raised by Code.org to fund their “Hour of Code” push this past December. ThatRead… Read more »