| Understand Your Job. Politically appointed
positions and senior government jobs usually have very specific
responsibilities mandated by public law. Review the appropriate
sections of the United States Code and all applicable instructions,
memoranda, and policies to determine the exact breadth and scope
of your new responsibilities. Also, ensure that you completely understand
the boundaries of your responsibility and authority. One sure way
to alienate yourself and create enemies and adversaries in the nation’s
capital is to overstep your authority and infringe upon another
person’s area of responsibility. Inside the beltway, political
stovepipes are strong and people have lasting memories that will
undoubtedly exceed the length of your particular assignment.
Develop a Strategic Planning Process Early. Developing
a new strategic plan early in your tour is important for a variety
of reasons. First, it clearly outlines your vision, priorities,
and goals for your organization. Your job is to translate the desires
and management agenda of the president into actionable objectives
for your agency. A strategic plan and strategic planning process
provide the vehicle and process for doing so.
Second, a plan is imperative to build relationships, which are
essential to success. A robust strategic planning process helps
you identify your customers, stakeholders, gatekeepers, and other
critical relationships early in your tenure.
Third, the amount of data captured in one form another in the federal
government is daunting to say the least. A strategic plan will help
you determine that finite set of performance metrics necessary to
manage your agency or organization.
Finally, there are a host of reporting requirements imposed by
Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other agencies.
A strategic plan will help to align those external reporting requirements
with those measures needed for effective management. Work collaboratively
with key clients and stakeholders to develop a strategic plan. Unless
clients and stakeholders feel a sense of ownership in the effort,
they may not support it and in some cases may oppose or subvert
it.
Foster and Build Strong Relationships. Washington
is a political town, and you are a political appointee; therefore
it is necessary to play the political game. You will need to fight
for money, jobs, influence, etc., so look to partners to help you.
Identify your key stakeholders whether in Congress, the White House,
the OMB, or other federal agencies, and build relationships.
Build relationships with key agency leaders, including the Secretary,
assistant secretaries, and undersecretaries. Know how they operate,
learn what their priorities are, and determine how best to work
with them. Develop relationships based on trust and respect. Nurture
and strengthen these relationships, among other things, by personally
attending important meetings involving these individuals.
Form a community of interest with key stakeholders in your area,
stakeholders from other related areas, and industry partners (as
appropriate to your role). Interacting with stakeholders makes it
much easier to accomplish your goals and fulfill your mission when
you understand the major players, and they you. Build relationships
with the appropriate congressional committees in both the House
and Senate. Understand that Congress has both an oversight role
and a partnership role. Don’t mix or confuse roles.
Establish a Management Agenda. The wheels of democracy
turn slowly. Realize that most major federal programs will take
longer that you will be in office. Establish priorities and identify
several major initiatives (no more than 5) where you can personally
make a difference and create lasting change. Ideally, all will interest
you and will be consistent with the goals of your superiors. These
are the programs that you should personally focus on and drive to
a successful conclusion.
At the same time, there is so much information and so much to achieve
that delegation is necessary. Never delegate your top priority programs
or those high priority initiatives for the administration. These
top priorities coupled with the top priority programs of the administration
and certain high risk or controversial programs will become your
management agenda
For your management agenda to succeed, you need to be aware of
the agendas of others in the environment, not only higher and lower
level offices, but also those who are lateral to your operations—those
working on requirements and budgets, for example. These offices
also need to be aware of your agenda.
Once your strategic plan is developed and your management agenda
is clearly defined, you must implement a process to foster change
within your organization. It is not sufficient to issue directives
to re-engineer organizations or publish a strategic plan then hope
that they succeed. You must develop a well-defined strategy for
managing change that is well-understood and widely-accepted by stakeholders.
This change plan is in addition to the strategic plan and management
agenda. People are less likely to resist change if they understand
the plan and have bought into it. Essential to success is the development
of a communication plan that keeps everyone informed continuously
through the change process.
Create a High-Performance, High-Integrity Organization.
Just as in commercial industry, it is imperative to create a culture
that fosters creativity and innovation; rewards outstanding performance;
and attracts talented individuals. The landscape of the federal
government is changing rapidly. Over the past several years, there
have numerous initiatives to attract and retain federal employees,
such as pay banding, pay for performance, bonuses, etc. Therefore,
it is possible to put in place reward and promotion systems that
recognize superior performance. It is the responsibility of the
senior executive to create a culture that rewards innovation and
outstanding achievement and not allow the system to deteriorate
into a “salami-slice” approach of rewarding everyone
for showing up for work.
Establish and articulate priorities and create a reward system
based upon merit. Evaluate people on how well they are meeting or
exceeding their personal performance objectives and don’t
allow federal “grade inflation” to enter or continue
in your organization. This will only serve to drive top performers
from government service and create a culture of mediocrity. Establishing
a high performance organization will not go unnoticed nor will hurt
in budget negotiations. Aside from pet programs, Congress is apt
to give more money to successful organizations that can justify
their major programs and demonstrate sound fiscal management. Additionally,
Congress is more likely to fund innovative strategies that will
result in benefits to the taxpayers since taxpayers are casting
ballots for our elected officials.
As this is the Federal government, it is imperative that its culture
values integrity and honesty above everything else. The amount of
oversight in a highly visible federal job is far greater than is
seen in private industry. Private industry does have to answer to
the board of directors, file appropriate paperwork with the SEC
and—in light of the Enron incident—adhere to Sarbanes-Oxley,
but this oversight does not compare to the level of scrutiny encountered
in the federal government. Entire entities are devoted to monitoring
the activities of federal agencies such as the Government Accountability
Organization (GAO), the Inspector General’s Office, and OMB,
not to the mention the press. Recent scandals have only heightened
the scrutiny. Create an organization based upon merit, innovation
and performance but utmost ensure honesty and integrity are at the
forefront of your core values.
Walk the Halls. By now you have digested what you
should do to manage your agency, but you still need to lead tens—if
not hundreds—of thousands of people. In corporate America
you have been a CEO or a senior corporate executive, but the federal
government is bigger and more diverse than most any other organization.
Just as in your civilian career, people are your most important
asset. Lead them, talk to them, walk the halls.
Understand, however, that the federal government has its own unique
human capital issues: an aging workforce, a career-minded workforce,
OPM guidelines, among others. And, to score a “green”
rating on the OMB scorecard, you need to implement strategic human
capital management, workforce planning, internet recruiting and
a host of other processes. Additionally, all of your key staff,
COO, CIO, CFO, and general counsel have to follow myriad federal
regulations and submit an almost infinite number or reports that
are beyond your control.
Many senior officials are so diverted by the daily crises and the
seemingly endless number of meetings that they fail to get out of
the office and visit the “troops.” Do not fall into
this trap. Go visit the employees; have town hall meetings; travel
to the field activities and take an interest in the people and they
will follow you. If you don’t they will just wait out you
tour. Remember, most of them will still be there long after you
are gone.
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