thedrifter
09-11-08, 08:31 AM
Learning to lead
By CHRISTY HARRIS
September 10, 2008
Defense Department civilians who want to move up to leadership positions may find themselves rappelling from towers with Marines and soldiers and practicing water safety survival with the Navy.
The experiences are part of the department’s 10-month Executive Leadership Development Program. In February, when the department debuts its new Defense Senior Leader Development Program, it will remain part of the overall leadership development plan. It is one of a number of agency and governmentwide education programs aimed at preparing employees for the Senior Executive Service and other high-level positions.
While agencies make the opportunities available, getting in can be tough, and managers must be proactive in pursuing them, program and agency officials and program participants said.
“Employees must be engaged in the work of the organization, perform well and take initiative to discuss their career goals with managers,” said Rochelle Granat, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for human resources and chief human capital officer.
A good place for ambitious employees to start looking for leadership development opportunities, including SES candidate development programs, is the Office of Personnel Management’s searchable catalog, www.opm.gov/fedldp. The site can be particularly helpful because some agencies’ programs are open to employees at other agencies, not just their own.
But OPM relies on agencies to provide updated information for the site, and the information is not always the most current, so managers are encouraged to go beyond the site in their research.
Opportunities vary
Treasury and other big departments such as Defense and Homeland Security offer both internal and vendor-provided leadership development programs, but opportunities within some bureaus or subagencies may be greater than others, depending on financial resources, differing requirements and other factors.
For example, IRS, Treasury’s largest bureau, has an array of programs including mentoring, preparation for front-line management, executive readiness and an SES candidate development program.
“Other bureaus are considerably smaller and their leadership development programs are scaled accordingly,” Granat said in a written response to questions.
Candidates from throughout Treasury are referred to the IRS executive readiness program because the departmentwide leadership training program, an 18-month program for new executives and GS-15s started in 2003, is on hold.
“Based on management and participant feedback, the human capital office determined that its leadership programs in general needed to be redesigned to develop a more comprehensive approach,” Granat said.
Candidates are also referred to ongoing programs of the Treasury Executive Institute, where executives, candidates and senior managers from all bureaus can attend a variety of vendor-provided seminars, some of which are one day, and network. The institute, founded in 1983, exposes participants to best practices in leadership models, new technologies and other areas.
Treasury also is establishing a chief learning officer position, emphasizing investing in employee and leader training and development as an imperative in the recently revised four-year human capital strategic plan, and evaluating whether programs are of good quality and value, among other initiatives.
“The goal to close leadership competency gaps and strengthen the focus on leadership development is paramount to ensure that we have effective leaders and the bench strength to offset the coming retirement wave,” Granat said.
Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection will award a new contract for a leadership institute program that will start in early fiscal 2009, said Janis Oehmann, director for leadership and organization development. The program most likely will be a five-week course over nine months for GS-14s and 15s who want to move into more difficult positions.
CBP also has a traditional candidate development program, but the new leadership institute will be “one of our key preparation grounds,” Oehmann said. The curriculum will center on OPM’s executive core qualifications but also will address managing change and transition in a law enforcement organization.
The new institute will help participants advance into SES and improve performance in their current job, Oehmann said. The agency will track participants’ progress afterward.
The agency considers employees who have had success and diversity in their careers to be competitive for the institute and other development programs, Oehmann said.
We “require that folks view their work here as an opportunity for lifelong learning,” she said. “It’s not just the formal classroom education and programs that count. But at the agency and in senior leadership — look at the types of jobs one has held, the diversity of experience both in terms of job and tasking, as well as geographical diversity — all of that is taken into account when considering applications to a development program.”
As part of their succession plans, most agencies have their own candidate development programs for managers with their sights set on SES. They do not run the programs all the time but on an as-needed basis, depending on how many vacancies they project they will need to fill and when, said Renee Roman, deputy associate director of OPM’s Center for Leadership Capacity Services.
OPM certifies agency SES candidate development programs that meet certain requirements. For example, one requirement is that a participant work in a four-month assignment outside his or her usual job to develop in a particular area. Another requirement is 80 hours of interagency training on various topics, meaning the participants would be from multiple agencies to reflect a wider perspective.
Governmentwide program
In addition, OPM runs a governmentwide SES Federal Candidate Development Program, www.opm.gov/fedcdp, which has participants from a variety of agencies in each 12-month training and development phase.
The federal and many of the agency candidate development programs include a mentoring component and time with an executive coach, Roman said.
The first governmentwide program began in July 2005, and included 12 candidates from six agencies. Participants are now being selected for the next program, which begins in October.
Some agencies have developmental programs other than those for SES candidates, and they are intended for a wider audience including grades under GS-14, or that emphasize material specific to their missions. OPM has helped the Defense Finance and Accounting Service develop a financial management curriculum, for example.
Other avenues
Agency SES candidate development programs are not enough by themselves to completely meet either the needs of agencies or of managers looking to become senior leaders, Roman said. That’s why OPM’s Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Va., and its Management Development Centers and the USDA Graduate School are important, she said.
“Only so many people out of a competition get to participate’’ in the SES candidate development programs, Roman said. “If you don’t have additional opportunities for individuals to work on their own individual skills and to be able to gain leadership development, then you’re going to leave a whole lot of people behind.”
Last year, more than 1,700 federal employees went through FEI’s Leadership for a Democratic Society, which can be another avenue into SES. About 5,600 employees went through seminars, of 65 kinds available, at the Management Development Centers in Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Aurora, Colo.
The Grad School offers a yearlong executive potential program for GS-13s through GS-15s and four SES developmental seminars for GS-14s and 15s.
More work needed
Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, said OPM and individual agencies should do more to guide employees through the maze of development programs.
Agencies can argue they’re on top of leadership development, but the question is whether, taken as a whole, programs are effective at positioning enough managers to move into the SES across government, Bonosaro said.
For instance, Bonosaro said, do programs such as FEI and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government hold equal, more or less weight than candidate development programs when it comes to developing the next senior executives?
“Which of these is the most effective program? Which one is going to help me the most move up? How do I figure that out?” she said.
It’s also hard to judge which of the agency candidate development programs are most effective without some kind of formal assessment, Bonosaro said. Statistics showing the positions held by participants or graduates are hard to come by.
“If this were Xerox, trust me, you would know where people had been, how that had affected their career path. A lot of the companies in private industry spend a lot of time on succession planning and really managing their work force in that way, and the fact is we don’t,” Bonosaro said. “There’s so much we don’t know, it’s incredible.”
Tell us what you think. E-mail Federal Times.
Ellie
By CHRISTY HARRIS
September 10, 2008
Defense Department civilians who want to move up to leadership positions may find themselves rappelling from towers with Marines and soldiers and practicing water safety survival with the Navy.
The experiences are part of the department’s 10-month Executive Leadership Development Program. In February, when the department debuts its new Defense Senior Leader Development Program, it will remain part of the overall leadership development plan. It is one of a number of agency and governmentwide education programs aimed at preparing employees for the Senior Executive Service and other high-level positions.
While agencies make the opportunities available, getting in can be tough, and managers must be proactive in pursuing them, program and agency officials and program participants said.
“Employees must be engaged in the work of the organization, perform well and take initiative to discuss their career goals with managers,” said Rochelle Granat, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for human resources and chief human capital officer.
A good place for ambitious employees to start looking for leadership development opportunities, including SES candidate development programs, is the Office of Personnel Management’s searchable catalog, www.opm.gov/fedldp. The site can be particularly helpful because some agencies’ programs are open to employees at other agencies, not just their own.
But OPM relies on agencies to provide updated information for the site, and the information is not always the most current, so managers are encouraged to go beyond the site in their research.
Opportunities vary
Treasury and other big departments such as Defense and Homeland Security offer both internal and vendor-provided leadership development programs, but opportunities within some bureaus or subagencies may be greater than others, depending on financial resources, differing requirements and other factors.
For example, IRS, Treasury’s largest bureau, has an array of programs including mentoring, preparation for front-line management, executive readiness and an SES candidate development program.
“Other bureaus are considerably smaller and their leadership development programs are scaled accordingly,” Granat said in a written response to questions.
Candidates from throughout Treasury are referred to the IRS executive readiness program because the departmentwide leadership training program, an 18-month program for new executives and GS-15s started in 2003, is on hold.
“Based on management and participant feedback, the human capital office determined that its leadership programs in general needed to be redesigned to develop a more comprehensive approach,” Granat said.
Candidates are also referred to ongoing programs of the Treasury Executive Institute, where executives, candidates and senior managers from all bureaus can attend a variety of vendor-provided seminars, some of which are one day, and network. The institute, founded in 1983, exposes participants to best practices in leadership models, new technologies and other areas.
Treasury also is establishing a chief learning officer position, emphasizing investing in employee and leader training and development as an imperative in the recently revised four-year human capital strategic plan, and evaluating whether programs are of good quality and value, among other initiatives.
“The goal to close leadership competency gaps and strengthen the focus on leadership development is paramount to ensure that we have effective leaders and the bench strength to offset the coming retirement wave,” Granat said.
Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection will award a new contract for a leadership institute program that will start in early fiscal 2009, said Janis Oehmann, director for leadership and organization development. The program most likely will be a five-week course over nine months for GS-14s and 15s who want to move into more difficult positions.
CBP also has a traditional candidate development program, but the new leadership institute will be “one of our key preparation grounds,” Oehmann said. The curriculum will center on OPM’s executive core qualifications but also will address managing change and transition in a law enforcement organization.
The new institute will help participants advance into SES and improve performance in their current job, Oehmann said. The agency will track participants’ progress afterward.
The agency considers employees who have had success and diversity in their careers to be competitive for the institute and other development programs, Oehmann said.
We “require that folks view their work here as an opportunity for lifelong learning,” she said. “It’s not just the formal classroom education and programs that count. But at the agency and in senior leadership — look at the types of jobs one has held, the diversity of experience both in terms of job and tasking, as well as geographical diversity — all of that is taken into account when considering applications to a development program.”
As part of their succession plans, most agencies have their own candidate development programs for managers with their sights set on SES. They do not run the programs all the time but on an as-needed basis, depending on how many vacancies they project they will need to fill and when, said Renee Roman, deputy associate director of OPM’s Center for Leadership Capacity Services.
OPM certifies agency SES candidate development programs that meet certain requirements. For example, one requirement is that a participant work in a four-month assignment outside his or her usual job to develop in a particular area. Another requirement is 80 hours of interagency training on various topics, meaning the participants would be from multiple agencies to reflect a wider perspective.
Governmentwide program
In addition, OPM runs a governmentwide SES Federal Candidate Development Program, www.opm.gov/fedcdp, which has participants from a variety of agencies in each 12-month training and development phase.
The federal and many of the agency candidate development programs include a mentoring component and time with an executive coach, Roman said.
The first governmentwide program began in July 2005, and included 12 candidates from six agencies. Participants are now being selected for the next program, which begins in October.
Some agencies have developmental programs other than those for SES candidates, and they are intended for a wider audience including grades under GS-14, or that emphasize material specific to their missions. OPM has helped the Defense Finance and Accounting Service develop a financial management curriculum, for example.
Other avenues
Agency SES candidate development programs are not enough by themselves to completely meet either the needs of agencies or of managers looking to become senior leaders, Roman said. That’s why OPM’s Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Va., and its Management Development Centers and the USDA Graduate School are important, she said.
“Only so many people out of a competition get to participate’’ in the SES candidate development programs, Roman said. “If you don’t have additional opportunities for individuals to work on their own individual skills and to be able to gain leadership development, then you’re going to leave a whole lot of people behind.”
Last year, more than 1,700 federal employees went through FEI’s Leadership for a Democratic Society, which can be another avenue into SES. About 5,600 employees went through seminars, of 65 kinds available, at the Management Development Centers in Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Aurora, Colo.
The Grad School offers a yearlong executive potential program for GS-13s through GS-15s and four SES developmental seminars for GS-14s and 15s.
More work needed
Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, said OPM and individual agencies should do more to guide employees through the maze of development programs.
Agencies can argue they’re on top of leadership development, but the question is whether, taken as a whole, programs are effective at positioning enough managers to move into the SES across government, Bonosaro said.
For instance, Bonosaro said, do programs such as FEI and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government hold equal, more or less weight than candidate development programs when it comes to developing the next senior executives?
“Which of these is the most effective program? Which one is going to help me the most move up? How do I figure that out?” she said.
It’s also hard to judge which of the agency candidate development programs are most effective without some kind of formal assessment, Bonosaro said. Statistics showing the positions held by participants or graduates are hard to come by.
“If this were Xerox, trust me, you would know where people had been, how that had affected their career path. A lot of the companies in private industry spend a lot of time on succession planning and really managing their work force in that way, and the fact is we don’t,” Bonosaro said. “There’s so much we don’t know, it’s incredible.”
Tell us what you think. E-mail Federal Times.
Ellie