Creating Quality Leadership and Management

Creating Quality Leadership and Management Issue Summary:

President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to making major
improvements in the art and science of management within the federal
government. We at NPR recognize that this process will not be easy and
that many have tried, unsuccessfully, before us. We believe we can
succeed where others have failed by involving you, the members of the
federal work force, in the reinvention of management culture.

In the past, federal managers have often become passive responders
rather than active initiators. Today, managers are taking the lead in
creating a sense of purpose and vision for their organizations, with the
goal of improving customer satisfaction. They are using a
results-driven, active approach to management that continuously seeks
better value and improved efficiency. Managing for Results is a total
reversal from the reactive approach of the past where a manager's
primary focus was on regulation, compliance, clearance, oversight, and
review. To ensure continuous improvement and deliver better value to
government customers, results oriented managers must continue to develop
a single vision of purpose, define organizational values, establish
policy agendas, set priorities among competing demands, and invoke
strategic plans. These actions are geared toward improving performance
rather than maintaining the status quo. In other words, we want today's
leaders to practice Quality Management.

Many of the Quality Management strategies we are adopting in the federal
government come from the private sector. Studies show that private
companies that practice Quality Management experience better employee
relations, higher productivity, and greater customer satisfaction.
Several federal agencies, which are taking the lead in Quality
Management, are benefiting from similar improvements. You'll meet some
of them in our Promising Practices. The private sector has also taught
us that education is the first step in carrying out an effective Quality
Management strategy. The Executive Branch is committed to an education
program that includes the President, Vice President, Cabinet Members,
and senior managers throughout all federal departments and agencies.

Any attempt to reinvent federal management is useless without qualified,
enlightened leadership. To develop such leadership, we are putting
programs in place that make better use of career executives and develop
qualification standards for political appointees. New executives are
also receiving education and training on a results-oriented approach to
federal management.

Finally, we are working more closely with the Congress in creating an
effective long term management partnership. For far too long, Congress
and the Executive Branch have maintained an adversarial relationship
over program direction and oversight.  While preserving the
constitutional separations of power, the Executive and the Congress must
take the lead in adopting a Quality Management policy that makes
departments and agencies accountable for results rather than the inertia
of the status quo.  In the past year, working together, we have made
progress.  At the President's direction, all agencies have designated
Chief Operating Officers. These individuals are streamlining day-to-day
operations and instilling principles of Quality Management into the
culture of their agencies. The Chief Operating Officers also sit on the
President's Management Council and are spearheading management
initiatives throughout the government. We've also made progress in
upgrading management training for political appointees through an Office
of Personnel Management (OPM) orientation program.

Your participation in this Electronic Open Meeting will go a long way
toward energizing, refining, and implementing recommendations to create
quality leadership and management.  During the next two weeks you ll be
able to connect, engage, and network with participants across the
federal workforce. By sharing experiences and ideas on government
reinvention, this Electronic Open Meeting will help forge the
enterprising and pragmatic solutions needed to create a government that
works better and costs less.