Happy Friday!!!!

We hear at the DorobekINSIDER are at the Next Generation of Government Leadership Conference. If you can’t make it in person you can still live stream the entire conference here and we will be blogging and taking lots of photos.

If you can make it down, stop by and say hi to the DorobekINSIDER team: Chris Dorobek, Emily Jarvis and Stephen Peteritas. We will be interviewing speakers and attendees so stop by.

But we could leave you hanging. So prior to the conference Chris sat down with two NextGen speakers Mario Morino and….. to get a behind the scenes looks at their keynote addresses.

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Amid Austerity Measures, Innovation Opportunities lie with Gen X and Y’ers

Without a doubt, the federal government will be facing austerity measures in coming years. On top of these measures, federal government is being restructured, which reshapes the way government needs to operate.NextGen 2012 speaker and chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners as well as the Morino Institute, Mario Morino, spoke with theDorobekINSIDER’s Chris Dorobek about how it’s time to try new things and how the next generation of leaders in government can help bring the changes to fruition.

People are currently looking for a high-level of change in government. The election of Barack Obama exemplifies this, as his platform was all about bringing change to politics and government. Now is the time to finally begin really trying new things, even as the culture in government can make true change difficult. Generation X&Y makes this changes possible because they are more tech-savvy and willing to adapt to new technologies to address austerity measures than previous generations. Gen X&Y is also more likely to prefer public service, as many are looking to make a positive difference.

Leadership in government is becoming more horizontal and there is plenty of room for generation X&Y to take on leadership roles, even without the corner office. The generation is much less tolerant of a command and control environment, and for better or worse, feels they have a right to have a say in what’s going on. This point of view should be built upon rather than crushed from the top; it can make managing gen X&Y’ers more difficult, but also leaves room for rewards in innovation. The old guard in government can also help by becoming mentors to the next generation of government leaders.

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Leading with Risk

Making decisions is never easy — and some might argue that it is even more challenging today because things change SO quickly. How do you make the best decisions?

That is one of the issues we’ll be talking about later this month at the Next Generation of Government Training Summit taking place July 26-27 here in Washington.

One of the speakers will be John Torres, the deputy assistant director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information.

He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER Program that making decisions — good decisions — is essential.

Torres says young professionals should:

• Know it’s ok to ask for help
• It’s ok to make mistakes as long as your make them smartly
• You must develop trust with your superiors, staff and co-workers
• Nobody has all the right answers
• Find a mentor — older leaders would be remise if they didn’t step up to help prepare the next generation