6 Things Successful Career Developers Have in Common
Career development is an ongoing effort that successful people know how to navigate. Successful career developers have many common traits.
Posts Tagged: featured blogger
Professional Development in 15 Minutes a Day
A mentor gave me an interesting challenge a few years ago, one that has stuck with me ever since. She challenged me to take 15 minutes a day to learn something new and to share with her what I learned. I thought what could I possibly learn in 15 minutes? Little did I know, IRead… Read more »
Do You Have Some Free Time?
Working for the government is the most rewarding career choice one could have made but can also keep you quite busy with very little down time. Every branch of the government involves customer service, whether it be face to face, or behind the scenes. That would make us the largest customer service agency in America!!! Now with that beingRead… Read more »
New Zealand’s Govt.nz: What We Did Right
In earlier blog posts, I mentioned Govt.nz, which is the New Zealand Government’s flagship website. The new website was launched in July 2014 but things didn’t actually stop there. That requires a little explanation: we launched a minimal viable product or MVP. If you Google that term, you’ll get either a definition that includes return-on-investmentRead… Read more »
Local Newspapers Equals Local News to Most People. Work With Them
It’s tempting to fall in love with the internet and all the ways we can get our message out without relying on local news. Be wary of that temptation. Local news outlets, especially newspapers, still hold a powerful attraction to the people in our communities. And reporters, although fewer in number and more overworked thanRead… Read more »
5 Things I’ve Learned as a Consultant
I’m a city manager. I’ll always consider myself a city manager. I work with other city managers and local-government professionals. But instead of working full-time for one municipality, we now help government leaders create the change their organizations need. Sometimes they need financial analysis or a strategic plan. Sometimes they want to improve their businessRead… Read more »
Final Week: 3 Lessons from Vanilla Ice: Listen
Over the last two weeks, I shared how government leaders should heed Vanilla Ice’s advice in Ice, Ice Baby to Stop and Collaborate. In this final blog of the three-part series, we will focus on how to Listen. While many think of social media as the place to spew every thought one ever had orRead… Read more »
Why Every Federal Agency Should Have A Chief Customer Officer
Chief Customer Officers (CCO) are becoming commonplace in the private sector, with more than 2,000 of these C-level execs in the US alone. Should federal agencies follow suit? The answer is unequivocally yes. As the only senior exec whose primary goal is to represent the interests of the customer, a CCO can help a federalRead… Read more »
Harness the Power of Unstructured HR Data with Text Analytics
Federal HR professionals with access to electronic employee databases typically have access to a wealth of so-called “structured” employee data, or information that can be quickly counted and analyzed in spreadsheet programs to create pivot tables and reports. Examples of structured HR data include employee salary and demographic information and employee survey responses, all ofRead… Read more »
“Where Does Fed Money Go?” Using a Canonical Model to Find It
For decades, OMB and Departments have been trying to trace federal grants and loans to specific places: cities, neighborhoods, farms, enterprise zones, individual houses or stores. The complexity of community development, economic development, rural development, job creation, or just accounting have plagued how funds can be traced. The purpose of tracing the money is toRead… Read more »