Tools for Improving Performance Management – Plus Your Weekend Reads

Welcome to GovLoop Insights Issue of the Week with Chris Dorobek, our goal is to find an issue — a person — an idea — then helped define the past 7-days… and we work to find an issue that will also will have an impact on the days, weeks and months ahead.

But before we get to that, have you registered or the Live Expert Panel: What’s Going On With Gov 2.0?

There’s no lack of Gov 2.0 success stories that cite citizen engagement and streamlined government communication, but – let’s face it – government has a lot of problems right now and innovation of any variety (Gov 2.0 included) requires time and money. Is it time to furlough Gov 2.0 or is it time to take it out of the gray area and label it as essential? Chris Dorobek sits down with a panel of Gov 2.0 experts next Wednesday 3/21 at Noon ET. Be there.

On the DorobekINSIDER this week:

• Sequestration – An Inordinate Waste of Time – Sequestration is a monumental loss of government productivity and further erodes what the government is supposed to be doing,” said UMD Public Policy Dean, Don Kettl. Do you agree?
• Crowdsourcing Solutions, One Competition at a Time: TopCoder Profiled – TopCoder is a new way for government’s to host competitions. Crowdsourcing. But the novel idea is causing some cultural friction for agencies. Find out why.
• Assessing the Nation’s Cybersecurity Strategy – 782% increase in cyber-attacks in 6 yrs. The Government Accountability Office has looked at the growing number of cybersecurity threats facing our nation. And it’s no small number. The GAO says the increase in cyber attack reported to CERT in the last 6 years has grown by 782%. There were 5,500 incidents in 2006, last year there were 48,000.
• Facebook to get a Facelift – Good for government? Facebook gets a new newsfeed. That’s great for the average user, but how will the new newsfeed impact government’s social media outreach.

Our Issue of the Week: looks at making the most of your performance at the office.

We are in the do more with less era of government. One of the ways to really do that is to improve your performance management and metrics.

David Hunter is the author of Working Hard and Working Well. He told Chris Dorobek that with some simple tools organizations can move become high achievers.

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Performance Management

“You need to be realistic, modest and humble in stating your mission and value of your proposition. A lot of organizations are rife with delusional expectations of what can be accomplished. For example, no group in the world can eliminate hunger. So that shouldn’t be part of the mission statement. We can do things to help the process. But are only a part of it,” said Hunter.

Mission Focused

“You need to maintain a focus and then only be accountable for that area. You can’t over promise on what you deliver. You have to settle on a north star,” said Hunter.

Leader vs. Manager – They’re not the same thing

“You need the right people in the right place. Different tasks require different competencies. It is one thing to have a visionary charismatic leader but that’s only half of leadership. The other half is have a strong and abiding concern about how well and organization is doing, and ask are we getting results? That’s a leader. A manager on the other hand has to be detail oriented. They have to be a person who understands it’s their responsibility to bring resources to a staff so that they can succeed. You need both a managers and leaders to have a successful organization,” said Hunter.

Weekend Reads:

• By now, probably everyone has heard about the controversy surrounding Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In. The book talks about women taking a leading role in the workplace. But the Atlantic says the book also have valuable lessons for men.
• Meanwhile, Forbes has synthesized Sandberg’s book to highlight the five lessons for women.