A lot of time and research is spent on fine-tuning leadership development programs for the private sector. But leadership development programs are equally important for the public sector, if not more so. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concludes that frontline leaders in the public sector will create the government and public entities of tomorrow—that they’re the real “change agents” of our local communities, cities, and country. And BCG also emphasizes the importance of embracing a new approach for developing frontline managers and leaders in the public sector.
But as public sector professionals are becoming more aware of the importance of leadership development, how should they create a leadership development program suited for the public sector in 2018 and beyond? Keep reading to discover strategic things you can do, as well as fundamental elements you must include in your public sector leadership development program.
Strategic Things to Do for Your Public Sector Leadership Development Program
Prepare Leaders and Organizations for the Future with Digital
It can no longer be contested—no matter your industry, the future of work lies in digital. Agencies must harness new technologies and data to drive people-related business decisions and strategies, especially leadership development. Furthermore, leaders in the public sector need a workplace environment equipped to encourage knowledge sharing, risk-taking, innovation, and growth—an environment designed for the future. Leaders should be engaged in real-world scenarios that expose them to innovation and digital disruption, where they can apply digital technologies along with real-world concepts and tactics, such as crowdsourcing, technological organization design, and design-thinking practices to empower teams.
Rethink Your Talent Management Strategy
To get and retain the best talent possible, public agencies should move beyond traditional talent acquisition strategies toward seeing diversity and inclusion as a strategic imperative embraced by leadership. Agencies should creatively rebrand themselves and use modern systems to efficiently attract and hire leadership talent more quickly. And leaders who are being developed need to provide real-time performance feedback to their existing employees to keep them engaged and to prepare them for future leadership roles, too.
Map the Leadership Experience for Empowerment, Engagement, and Growth
Agencies need to map out the entire lifecycle of their employees—from recruitment to retirement—if they want to have a great leadership pipeline for their development programs that provide and support career-long development and growth. Furthermore, government agencies must recognize ways they can continue to leverage their leadership to increase employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction to better deliver their missions.
Part 2 of this article will appear in tomorrow’s Advisor.