Drawing from our work with tens of thousands of leaders along with data from our 360 assessment tool, we publish original insights, commentary on best practices and policy recommendations to strengthen public service leadership.
Our research on public service leadership offers forward-thinking solutions, data-driven insights and actionable recommendations that help leaders address current challenges facing the federal workforce and change the way government works.
After two years of data collection, we analyzed federal leaders to better understand certain patterns in leadership experience. Specifically, we examined the differences and similarities between how women and men understand and experience their roles as public service leaders, and explored the intersections between race, ethnicity and gender in public service leadership.
America is experiencing a lack of trust in major institutions—particularly the federal government. Only 4 in 10 Americans say they trust the federal government to do what is right at least some of the time, according to a national survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and Freedman Consulting.
One of the most critical elements of employee engagement is leadership. This exploratory analysis by the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition® and Boston Consulting Group examined whether there is any difference in federal employee engagement if agency subcomponents are led by political appointees or by members of the career Senior Executive Service.
The Agency Performance Dashboard offers a critical snapshot of agency operations in an easily digestible visual format. Featured topics include personnel numbers, employee demographics, political appointments, employee engagement scores, information technology maturity and social media engagement. The Partnership is also continuing to seek additional insights that will tell a clearer story about agency performance for key audiences.
Good leadership enables our government to more effectively respond to public needs. The Partnership for Public Service and Maximus Federal address how individual leaders can improve the federal customer experience and recommend government-wide actions agencies can take to create a culture of customer-focused leadership.
The Partnership, with support from Deloitte, is working to better understand federal workforce trust in government and what agencies and administrations can do to improve it. After conducting surveys, roundtable discussions and interviews with federal employees, we are sharing three key findings about civil servants’ trust in civil service institutions.
We are at the forefront of identifying key leadership principles and developing best practices in government. Our various publications highlight the importance of value-driven leadership and demonstrate how public servant leaders can increase their influence and effectiveness to better serve the public.
Read our article in the Harvard Business Review.
Read our article in the MIT Sloan Management Review.
Leading in the federal government is a unique and complicated challenge. The Partnership has created the Public Service Leadership Model to help government leaders evaluate their performance, assess their progress and chart a course to reach their leadership potential. Learn more about the model and how individuals, teams and agencies can use it to strengthen our government.
Becoming a stronger leader can seem like a daunting task. While it takes hard work and dedication, it’s helpful to break down that ultimate goal into small, daily tasks. Learn how to use our Public Service Leadership Model and our list of resources to make becoming a better leader more manageable.
360 assessments are critical tools to help leaders understand their performance. However, receiving a significant amount of feedback from others can be overwhelming.
Our country, facing a host of serious domestic and international challenges, needs federal leaders who are capable of dealing with current problems and those looming on the horizon. The administration, agencies and Congress have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on recent innovations and set the government on a sustained path to renewal.
Read our recommendations to policymakers to make the Public Service Leadership Model the standard for effective federal leadership and take a whole-of-government approach to building better leaders.
We gather unique perspectives on public service leadership from experienced and qualified leadership luminaries—from our Government Leadership Advisory Council to our executive coaches and facilitators.
Podcasts
Washington Post journalist Lillian Cunningham joins co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Rachel Klein-Kircher for a conversation on how to lead in government during normal times and times of crisis, as well as why the study of public service leadership is critical for our nation’s public servants. Cunningham is the creator and host of The Post’s “Presidential,” “Constitutional” and “Moonrise” podcasts. As an editor and reporter of the newspaper’s “On Leadership” section that explores leadership and management challenges in the public and private sectors.
Bob McDonald, former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Andrew Marshall, vice president of leadership development at the Partnership for Public Service, discuss why good leaders are the key to a good government. McDonald and Marshall discuss leading in the public sector versus the private sector, the impact and evolution of the Partnership’s leadership development work and how strong leaders can help rebuild public trust in our most important democratic institution.
Former U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen led the U.S. response to some of the most challenging modern crises including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Allen discusses how he kept morale high when communicating with disaster recovery teams, media and the country during times of panic.
