Recently I was surprised to see that the number of private sector attendees at a webcast, Take Time From Your Day Job-the ROI of Developmental Assignments outnumbered public sector attendees. Then I read this comprehensive paper, Business Case Analysis Leadership Development in the Public Sector that includes compelling private sector ROI examples that could be applied to the federal sector. This cross-over fertilization is a great thing, but I wonder why talent management in the federal government seems to have more room for improvement (especially when the length of federal talent tenure is usually longer than in the private sector).
Outstanding examples of leadership excellence in the public sector are found throughout the military, for whom "running a tight ship" can be a matter of life and death; for specifics, see the top 15 government initiatives for leadership development are in the military. Of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, with respect to leadership, again the military comes up as dominating the list."Field research" at HCI events also finds that many of public sector attendees are from the military.
A big take away from multiple sources, including the HCI webcast Driving Accountability and Engagement in the Public Sector is leadership’s accountability to implementing leadership development and developing talent at all levels. According to the Center for Human Capital Innovation Business Case Analysis Study, the ROI of high quality leadership development in the public sector could save as much as $12.3 to 40 billion over a five year period; talk about leading by example to capitalize on public sector talent to help reduce the national deficit!
I hope HCI members, especially those of you from the public sector, will post your comments and drop me a line. If you’d be interested in contributing to a Member Advisory focus group discussion on tackling development and leadership in the public sector, please let me know.
photo courtesy of internews