Inside Harrisburg capitol dome

Developing Leaders in State Government

By Ernest Beck

As deputy secretary of Community Affairs and Development in the Pennsylvania state government, Rick Vilello helps oversee an agency with around 300 employees and a $300 million budget. So when Vilello, a former mayor of the city of Lock Haven and a small- business owner, was offered a place last year in a new leadership development program for senior state managers, sponsored by 媚娘直播鈥檚 O鈥橮ake Institute for Ethics, Leadership and Public Service, he quickly agreed.

鈥淏eing mayor was the best internship for what I am doing now, but I still needed to learn more,鈥 Vilello, 52, said about the 14-week program, which took place at Harrisburg University with 媚娘直播 

and Harrisburg faculty. 鈥淚t gave me more concrete skills,鈥 he added, 鈥渁nd any opportunity to listen to a professor and pick up tips is good.鈥

The program reflects 媚娘直播鈥檚 educational mission to 鈥渇oster ethical leaders with moral courage鈥 and the O鈥橮ake Institute鈥檚 mandate to support that effort in the school鈥檚 curriculum and the broader community. David Myers, director of the O鈥橮ake Institute, says he decided to focus the leadership program on senior state managers after recognizing their unique challenges.    

鈥淪trong leaders need to set a vision, explaining not only what needs to be done but why and how, in order to motivate, enable and empower people. And this is particularly important in these [state agency] positions,鈥 Myers explained. 

While many senior state managers 鈥 whether political appointees or long-standing agency employees 鈥 have strong professional credentials, they don鈥檛 always have experience in leadership and, more specifically, in government. 

For outsiders who are new to the job, managing a state bureaucracy and understanding the culture of a state agency can be tricky. Senior managers at state agencies are in the difficult position of translating the goals and objectives of people at the top 鈥 from the governor鈥檚 office 鈥 while representing the interests and concerns of agency staff and also interacting with the public.

In all of these cases, Myers figures, 鈥淭here is a need for managers to better understand how to work more efficiently and effectively and to know the difference between management and leadership.鈥 It鈥檚 the kind of training that state agencies cannot provide due to budgetary constraints but that 媚娘直播 can fulfill.

For the inaugural program, 14 senior managers 鈥 among them a lawyer and a CPA 鈥 were chosen from nominations submitted by officials at state agencies. Courses were built around case studies, team projects, role-playing and scenario planning, as well as coaching and mentoring. Classes were designed to be supportive 鈥渟afe spaces鈥 where participants could discuss workplace issues and also promote interagency collaboration, which is often lacking in state government.

In one workshop, participants were asked to critique an agency鈥檚 website from a consumer鈥檚 point of view, to illustrate the kind of 鈥渃itizen-centric service鈥 that state agencies should strive for. The website in question was perceived as written more for agency insiders than the public, prompting a discussion about better ways to communicate with a target audience, whether internal or external. 

Jodi Radosh, an associate professor of English and communications at 媚娘直播, spoke to participants about communications strategies and how to integrate storytelling, video, customized messaging and humor into both traditional media and social media channels. The goal, she told the managers, should be to make the voice of the state agency 鈥渕ore authentic and less sterile and to increase the flow of information to the public.鈥

Other areas of study included data-driven decision-making, understanding the culture of state government and what managers need to know about working with next-generation employees 鈥 specifically, millennials, those aged 18 to 35 who now comprise the largest living generation in the U.S. 

Laura Slaymaker, a 50-year-old lawyer who is now deputy insurance commissioner in the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, was particularly interested in improving her strategic planning skills. Working with a mentor, she learned about how to be 鈥減roactive, reach out to people and anticipate problems before they happen,鈥 Slaymaker said. As a result, she has started a strategic planning committee with representatives from the three bureaus in her agency to see if planning processes can be improved.

Vilello, the former mayor, was interested in networking with other senior managers and also learning how to become a better negotiator, as part of his agency鈥檚 work to attract corporate investment in Pennsylvania and promote low-income housing and access to technology. 鈥淚鈥檝e done a lot of negotiating in my lifetime, but this gave me an entirely different perspective,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 more of a science to it than I expected.鈥

Myers plans to launch a 2018 leadership program, which will have a greater focus on citizen-centric problem-solving. 鈥淪tate agencies can persist with weak leadership, but they won鈥檛 thrive,鈥 he believes. 鈥淯nderstanding the challenges that state managers face and giving them tools to be successful strengthens the agencies. And getting managers to envision solutions strengthens them as leaders.鈥

 

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