What were the top blogs and discussions on GovLoop in 2012?
When I first set out to answer this question, I thought I’d get a pretty clear answer…but what emerged was less a set of individual blog posts and more a series of themes that captured the most attention or spurred the best conversations over the year. Here they are:
5. Government’s Got HR and PR Problems: How do we get the next generation of government employees to start and stay in government careers? First, we have to entice them to apply. Second, we have to keep them growing and moving up the ladder. Apparently, government is having some issues with both of those things. A couple of the most-viewed posts in 2012 — “Only 2.3% of College Graduates Plan to Work for Government” and “Is Government HR Broken? Tips on How to Fix It” — tried to address these challenges constructively.
4. You Can Get Better at the Back and Forth With Your Boss: Two complementary posts by Steve Radick covered the topic of what you should be saying to your boss – and what your boss should be saying to you. A related and relatively popular post was a question that came anonymously from one of the GovLoop members: “How Do You Manage Up With a Poor Performing Boss?” There’s solid advice in the posts and comments for all three of these submissions.
3. Creativity Is the Most Critical Skill for Government Leaders (Or Is It?): A post by Paul Wolf got GovLoopers talking about the most important attribute required of a leader. He suggested that creativity was the #1 leadership competency. By the number and diversity of comments on the post, GovLoop members weren’t so sure. If you’re interested in the topic of leadership, we had many more blog posts about it throughout the year and we assembled the best in a study guide called “10 Traits of a Great Government Leader.” Check it out.
2. Don’t Call a Baby Boomer ‘Old’ (They Might Be More Like a Millennial): Discussions about generational diversity always jump off on GovLoop. In 2012, two stood out as memorable. The first was “Since When Is 40 Old?” as posted by Kristy Stewart based on her research of age discrimination. The other fascinating, age-related discussion was started by former GovLoop Graduate Fellow Allison Primack when she asked, “How Millennial Are You?” Take the test and find out. Many Boomers found out just how ‘young’ they really are.
1. You Can Learn a Lot from Super Heroes and Movies. The top posts of the year were tied to a few of the more popular movies that were released in 2012. Another GovLoop Graduate Fellow shared a few lessons in “Teamwork: What My MPA Capstone Project and the Avengers Have in Common.” But the most viewed post of 2012 was an interview between Chris Dorobek and Tom Fox at the Partnership for Public Service, titled “Hunger Games, Spiderman and Brave — Leadership Lessons from the Movies.” If you’re like me and haven’t seen any of those movies yet (can you believe it?), these last few days of 2012 might be a good time to check ’em out and get inspired for 2013.
Got any other GovLoop posts or discussions from 2012 that were memorable to you? Share them in the comments.