Leadership Training
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Leadership Training

Leadership is the most important factor influencing government performance and effectiveness. For federal leaders to keep us safe, provide vital services and move the country forward, they need to develop their leadership and management skills.

At the Public Service Leadership Institute®, we help members of the federal workforce develop into effective leaders. We provide them with resources to solve our government’s most intractable problems, foster collaboration within and across agencies, and spearhead innovation throughout government.

Leadership Training Programs
Course Catalog

Our leadership development programs are more than bullet points on a resume. We provide leaders across government—from entry-level career employees to members of the Senior Executive Service and political appointees—with the skills they need to make a positive impact at their agencies, and plan, design and implement creative solutions to government’s most intractable problems. We also enable enrollees to assess their own performance and progress as leaders using the Public Service Leadership Model and provide agencies with more targeted support for their management needs.

In all, our work provides federal leaders with tools, techniques and relationships they will use to create a better and more effective government throughout their careers.

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Agency Engagements

Our customized and off-the-shelf training opportunities help agency offices and teams achieve their distinct missions, address unique challenges, and strengthen leadership and other interpersonal skills. Our subject matter experts can design a program tailored to short- and long-term strategic goals through a range of facilitated training, experiential learning, individual and group coaching, and mentoring in a timeframe that works best for different agencies.

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Impact

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to build a better government and stronger democracy.

Leadership is the most important factor to meeting this lofty goal. Our approach to developing leaders is focused on action and results. Our tools are designed with the public service leader in mind, and our facilitation and coaching focuses on the live challenges leaders face today.

We have worked with tens of thousands of government leaders over the past twenty years. Nearly all of our program participants—97% in total—feel that their program helped them become a better leader, and over 85% report that they applied tools or lessons learned in their program to their job. Around half of our program alumni receive a promotion within one to three years of graduating, and a third report receiving an award or public recognition.

Learn more about how our programs help federal leaders Read case studies in outstanding government leadership

97%

Program participants who feel that their program helped them become a better leader.

85%

Program participants who report that they applied tools or lessons learned in their program to their job.

Alumni Perspective

Alumni share that their program made them more self-aware leaders and offered an expansive perspective on their work and the federal government. Supervisors share that their direct reports become more confident in their decision-making, more thoughtful when addressing complex issues and more self-aware.


“I am a recent graduate of the Partnership for Public Service’s Excellence in Government Fellows Program. It was by far the most rewarding learning experience I have participated in during my 20 years of federal service. I would encourage those who are curious and have a passion for leading, building coalitions, and learning how to manage change and transition to learn more about the Partnership’s program offerings. It’s not just another lecture series—it’s an experience. Highly recommend!”


Results

Results Projects enable participants in our longer-term programs to identify a challenge in the federal government, analyze the root cause and implement a solution. In doing so, participants apply the program’s leadership lessons to a real-world challenge and improve how government works.

Remote Collaboration

A project group in 2018 analyzed the tools offered for community building at the Defense Contract Audit Agency. They then developed a new set of tools designed to foster relationships among colleagues in virtual team environments. The team piloted these tools and created an electronic toolkit for the agency to use. Additional agencies used this tool when the need for telework and virtual environments increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preventing Abuse

A team from the 2017 Excellence in Government Fellows Program worked across agencies to better identify health care providers convicted of wrongdoing in order to exclude them from federal health care programs. Working with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the team identified health care providers who had been convicted by the Drug Enforcement Agency for abusive opioid prescribing.

The project team developed an interagency pilot program to securely share data between DEA and HHS-OIG, which led to further exclusions and a revocation of those providers’ licenses. The DEA eventually expanded this program to its 23 regions, and the project team established the program as a model that other agencies could use. In 2019, the project won the HHS Gears of Government Award.

Serving Veterans

One group from the Excellence in Government Fellows Program collaborated closely with multiple teams at the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand a program that sent text message reminders for health care appointments.

After securing funding from the VA Center for Innovation, the group worked with the teams to expand the small program and increase the number of appointment reminders to veterans at all VA health centers. In 2018, three years after creating the program, VEText helped bring no-show rates down from roughly 14% to about 12%. This mobile solution has enabled thousands of veterans to reschedule their appointments for earlier times and receive quicker and more efficient medical support.