Nowadays, everyone has an opinion about federal information technology — how projects should be managed and whether chief information officers have adequate authority to do their jobs. The truth is that all CIOs are not empowered equally. Many argue the culprit is not the nearly 20-year-old law that created the position but rather inconsistent implementationRead… Read more »
More and more, managers are being encouraged to use positive reinforcement in their employee reviews, rather than focusing on weaknesses. The argument is that by doing this, employees are more productive and engaged in their work. Opponents of such a management technique say that discussing negatives, or ranking employees against each other, can actually encourageRead… Read more »
Civil unrest in places like Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore has local government leaders across the country concerned about police-community relations in their own cities and towns. While it’s true that larger cities with greater diversity – whether economic, ethnic, racial or religious – are more at risk, government leaders in cities of all sizes canRead… Read more »
In earlier SMART Articles, I discussed the evolutionary phases in becoming a digital organization, described how all business functions are being transformed by social and digital technologies, articulated the primary barriers to digital engagement, and offered a digital transformation framework (to read these and other related pieces, click here). This article extends those pieces by proposingRead… Read more »
When we are grateful instead of hateful, it fills our hearts so we have more to give. In mental health care, we are faced with a lot of “What if’s”. What can you can keep after giving it away? Your word.
What do you know about the clerk working in your city our county government? We’re guessing probably not a lot. However, a clerk in your local government is constantly doing a lot of work — mostly behind the scenes that you may never know about. And the fact is, the job of a clerk is criticalRead… Read more »
When I was early in my career I discovered the catch-22 of gaining leadership experience: to be selected for a leadership position I needed to show I already had some previous leadership experience. So I had to get creative to break the cycle and get my feet wet. If you find yourself facing the same situation,Read… Read more »
In November 2014, the Pew Research Center surveyed public attitudes regarding gender and leadership in US politics and business. They found that people see little differences between men and women when it comes to leadership. Both genders were equal in terms of innovation, ambition and decisiveness. The major differences that surfaced were women were seenRead… Read more »
We’re making progress, but there’s more to be done. That’s the main takeaway from the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) recent report, Women in Federal Service: A Seat at Every Table, which used workforce data and Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results to analyze that status of women in government. What I appreciate most about this reportRead… Read more »
In last week’s post, I discussed how three words at the beginning of Vanilla Ice’s Ice, Ice Baby provide an important message for government leaders. (Bet you never thought you’d read that sentence.) In that post, we discussed creating a Stop Doing List. Now, I will outline a model to Collaborate. As government leaders, weRead… Read more »