The leadership role in engagement: How to train 30,000 state government leaders

By Janelle Callahan, Principal Consultant, Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, CPS HR Consulting

Leadership is a vital piece of engagement puzzle. So how do we keep those in leadership roles aware and up to speed with how to be an effective leader who promotes engagement? 

Google’s re:Work platform features a new case study about how the California Government Operations Agency (GovOps) created a set leadership of values and a new supervisory training program. My organization, CPS HR Consulting, was one of three training providers that partnered with the state to pilot and assess the revised curriculum and training experiences. (On a personal note, I was not at all surprised to learn that our very own Melissa Asher, CPS HR’s Director of Training and Recruitment, and a dynamic and admired leader in her own right, was a key team member on this great project).

Results of the evaluation suggest that more emphasis on coaching and feedback at all levels is needed. Participants and their managers were asked to rank-order the top five competencies (out of 20) to be successful in a leadership role. Interestingly, there were differences between participants whose managers responded to the survey, and those who did not.

The top three competencies most important to success as ranked by participants whose managers did not respond were:

·       Performance management;

·       Communication; and

·       Onboarding

For those participants whose managers did respond, they ranked the following as their top three:

·       Values;

·       Decision-making skills; and

·       Giving and receiving feedback

The results suggest that supervisory training participants with less-involved managers have different perspectives on leadership competencies, possibly shaped by poorer experiences with their own managers.  Read the full case study here.

P.S. If you’re not familiar with re:Work, I recommend checking it out. In 2015, Google launched the site to share research and lessons learned from its famously effective people practices. They occasionally highlight insights from other organizations, including public sector agencies like California’s GovOps.