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The latest issue of Public Personnel Management, Winter 2004, focused exclusively on one of the hottest topics, which today's public sector human resource professionals: staff and succession planning. During the 2004 IPMA-HR International Training Conference, many sessions on the growing demand for workforce and succession planning focuses implement systems to the mass exodus of workers over the next five to ten years, the expected address. In both Public PersonnelManagement and the conference was the issue of leadership development as the primary means to prepare the employees referred to in the future.

Numerous agencies, including leadership development as an element of its employees pose planning. Notable Leadership Development Program, which documents include, in particular implemented in San Diego County, CA, Henrico County, VA, Hennepin County, MN, City of Las Vegas, NV, City of Phoenix, AZ, and City of San Jose, CA. In myObservation that many of the best elements of practice in public sector leadership development are consistent among the agencies. The purpose of this article is, ten practices that appear to be common themes among the agencies that leaders are expected to develop in-house to fill vacancies in the future, shares.

The following tips are a guide for public sector organizations who may be interested in developing their own leadership development programs available.

A tip: the Base Programon a competency model.

Take place before each training or development may, it is essential to develop the skills and competencies that are developed as a result of the efforts identified. As discussed in the Public Personnel Journal, Winter 2004, Henrico County developed 20 core leadership competencies, including communication, critical thinking and decision making, organizational acumen and personal integrity. These competencies provided the framework for their development efforts.Other agencies, including the San Diego County, its Leadership Academy based on the same model as the multi-rater, 360-feedback tool that is used in the program.

Whether your organization is an established competency model that is used throughout the human resources program or does not have, it is important to expect some time to define the skills, leadership program participants spend evolve too. For example, the City of San Jose an overview of the top managers led, followed byRound-table discussions to determine the competencies that are called developed in their leadership program, The Art and Practice of Leadership.

Tip Two: Let's choose the participants.

Each agency must determine for themselves the best method for the selection of the leadership development participants. Factors, including the collective bargaining influences the time and the intended audience can affect the process you use to identify the participants. Some organizations are targetingpotential future leaders while others only corporate leadership development opportunities offered.

In my experience, which will include a high degree of success in terms of commitment of participants results of a competition in which interested participants. Through self-selection, and not by the appointment of the participants rather their purpose for wanting to participate in the program should be clarified. If participants are asked to attend a leadershipDevelopment, they are often not willing to commit time and energy into their development, and often do not fully understand why they participate are asked to it.

The selection process you choose) is to the audience for the program (all staff vs. middle management. You can choose to be, upon written request, manager nomination, personal interviews, assessment centers, or other means by which the participants compete for entry into the program.However, it is strongly recommended that participants have the choice whether they participate in leadership development activities.

Tip three: involvement of managers and elected representatives in the development and implementation of the program.

It has been in numerous articles on employee and management development, said that failure without the full support and participation of the leadership team, the program. Top management must be involved in the developmentthe curriculum, the selection of participants and the presentation of the program. Your support is for the success and long-term viability of Leadership Development Program is crucial.

Likewise, many agencies are finding that the involvement of an elected official may also supplement the curriculum of the public sector Leadership Development Program. For example, invited the City of Las Vegas, one councilmember and the city of San Jose invited the Mayor to judge their currentLeadership Academy programs. The officials in each case deals with the class of the leaders up to an hour. They were asked to indicate their expectations for the public sector leaders, and program participants were allowed to ask questions. The dialogue created in these fora, the organization allows the future leaders of the organization through the eyes of elected officials to be seen. A conversation relieved that followed the presentations encouraged participants to identify meaningful"Take-aways" from the opinion of the elected officials. Because program participants are not likely to have intense, with an elected official interface, but they will probably be expected, since its leadership has increased, this became an important element in public leadership development programs.

Tip Four: Use 360-degree feedback, individual development planning and coaching as the core to rotate the other development opportunities.

360-degree survey toolsFeedback to enable Heads of State and Government to realize the strengths and areas for development on their own and other's perceptions. Typically, such feedback comes from the direct supervisor of the participants, direct reports and peers. Today, such processes can easily be facilitated on-line and feedback are comprehensive and detailed. Many providers can now customize survey tools to reflect your organization's competency model (see Tip One above).

The feedback process isonly the beginning of the development process. It is recommended that feedback be provided in conjunction with opportunities for one-on-one coaching, as many participants find the feedback hard to translate into everyday behavior. A trained coach can help the participants that a sense of the data. In addition, the participants should be expected to develop their own individual development plan that addresses competencies that are highlights in the feedback report. The individualDevelopment plan, once endorsed by the direct supervisor of the participants, they should be the blueprint for guiding the participant's development efforts.

As the feedback process can be so powerful, it is recommended that all Leadership Development Program starts with this element, since it will allow the direction that each participant as they pursue the program required. With their feedback, the participant can develop leadership skills Personal experience Addressthe identified needs. Because of this flexibility, 360-feedback is highly recommended and is a popular tool.

Tip five: implementation of action learning by project teams.

Another popular tool for improving leadership skills in public organizations is the use of Action Learning. Action Learning is a typical teaching approach, in which participants learn, through addressing issues that are unique to their own organization and / or community. The format will be in a continuous process ofLearning and reflection in order to build learning groups of colleagues, often achieved with the aim of working always in the context of initiatives.

The city of San Jose is with action learning as part of its new leadership development effort. The program participants are divided into six functionally different teams. Each team is assigned one of the priorities of the company, which includes the city:

• Performance-driven government

• Support for an effective CouncilPolitics

• Effective use of technology

• Customer Service

• The city as an employer of choice

• Neighborhood-oriented service delivery

The teams are led by team sponsors, who are all members of the executive team of the city. Over a period of six months, each team is expected to identify a theme or a city project that attention. The teams research the question of benchmark policies with other countries to propose solutions, the city could consider,a formal written report and an official presentation in City Council chambers as part of their program completion. The City Manager and other managers will receive their presentations and provide feedback to each team. Whenever possible, the team will get the authority to conduct or participate in the implementation of its recommendations, which may have throughout the city or regional impact. As a result, participants are able to practice their communication andTeamwork skills obtained as part of the process, feedback on their report writing skills and presentations, in practice, a forum in which many of them is new. You also have the opportunity to have their skills related to topics that they have not otherwise explore the possibility to showcase.

Tip Six: Use internal and external resources.

How to Tip Two mentioned above, it is important to make full use of the management team of your organizing team meetings which are directly relatedthe organization's strategic plan, culture and expectations. However, other approaches may be better by people outside the organization, which provide an external, or neutral perspective presented. You may also find that your organization does not have the capacity or expertise to address all the skills that in your model. A balance between internal and external speakers gives participants the opportunity to compare and the agency approach, with exercises andMethods outside the organization.

Tip Seven enlarge: internal public.

In any case, devote Leadership Development Program participants a great deal of time and energy to make these types of programs. It is not only a commitment from the time of the participants, it is a commitment of their managers and employees is time that in order to cover participants when they are in the program activities. You can communicate the objectives and outcomes of the program and recognize the importanceefforts to communicate with internal tools such as email, newsletters and intranet postings. Everyone who was touched by the program to understand its relevance to the objectives of the organization.

Before the start of the program, participants will be officially for the organization and promotion of each organizational unit support member. After the program, each graduate should be recognized with the same communication (emails, newsletters, intranet, etc.)and their managers and staff should be thanked them for their support. Internal public can help to inlet and enthusiasm for the program and its goals.

Eight Tip: Make continuously.

The first version of a comprehensive program like this is seldom perfect. It is important to constantly change the program on the basis of feedback received not only by the participants, but by their managers as well. Through the continuous improvement of the program, it is the needs ofOrganization, even if changing the organization. In any leadership development program I developed and managed is the agenda and the curriculum throughout the program, and after studying the changing needs of participants and reflect the organization changed. It is important to be flexible and listen to the program participants and their managers to continuously improve the program and maintains its credibility and relevance secured.

Tip Nine: Celebrate thePerformance.

An opportunity to learn a leadership academy, or as required on Leadership Development Program is a commitment of time and resources, not only on the part of the coordinators, but on the part of management and the participants. Studies or other public celebration is crucial to recognize the achievements of all parties involved. The graduation need not be elaborate or long. A working lunch with informal presentations will do the trick. However, termination ofProgram like this without some form of recognition is like taking a movie which does not include the credits at the end.

Tip Ten: measuring and track results.

While each organization and the height is measured to what extent the results of a Leadership Development Program, a number of tools can be determined is used to determine the impact of the program. Such measures include:

• knowledge of leadership concepts as measured over a pre-and post-assessment tool

• PerceivedChange in selected leadership skills such as through a multi-rater, 360-degree feedback tool measured
administered at the beginning of the effort and again a year later

• Number of subscribers of one, three receiving and five years

• Number of participants over a three promoted and five years

• performance of the supervisory participants to change the participant in relation to behavior after attending the Leadership Development Program

• The response to theLeadership Development Program curriculum as measured by the end of the session evaluations

However, your organization decides to measure the results of your development work, it is recommended that the measurements are determined before the start of the program, and that they will be closely monitored. Such measures can make the appropriate adjustments to future programs and will assist in showing the impact of efforts on the strategic objectives of your organization.

If yourOrganization does not yet begun on a major development work, it is likely that you will in the near future. Demographic change, the threat of "brain drain" are "and raise the need to maintain the comfort levels, public organizations of all sizes, instruments for ensuring the stability of their workforce to explore. And while many organizations are exploring these efforts, everyone must find a solution that works best for the culture of their organization and goals. The elements presented in thisArticles reflect the current practices in public sector leadership development efforts today.