Extra, Extra, Read All About It

Alerting members and enticing nonmembers to YGL news and activities – in effort to expand YGL’s membership and effectiveness – is the goal of our public relations activities.

YGL events (speakers, seminars, social activities, etc.) and messaging need to be shared as far and as wide as possible. Whether through major media outlets such as the Washington Post, social media such blogs, campus newspapers or agency-specific leadership development groups, all are value platforms in which to advertise YGL.

But in Washington where it’s easy to lose visibility in a city full of professional and social activities, we want your help and to hear from you on how to best get the YGL word out.

Please send your suggestions (see e-mail below) on the best ways to inform you on upcoming YGL news and events and how to help spread the word to draw in those not yet YGL members. There is no “silver bullet,” we need to include an array of publications, broadcast media, agency mailing lists, etc.

Also, if you would like to directly assist in YGL’s public relations activities, let me know of your interest.

-Chris Vaccaro
YGL Public Relations Manager
christopher.vaccaro@noaa.gov

Is micromanagement killing generation X/Y?

"The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
Theodore Roosevelt

Humans have incredible potential. If you set a path for advancement and challenge people you will often be pleasantly surprised. One of the biggest struggles a senior manager can face is a lower level manager that refuses to allow his or her people to grow. Employee satisfaction will last only so long and management must encourage growth at all levels and hold those accountable.

When an employee feels micromanaged they become pressured and demoralized thereby distancing themselves from work. In the worst scenario, the employee may focus only to earn their salary, leaving motivation at home resulting in little productivity.

To avoid this situation, managers should establish goals with organization mission and employee development plans and each must stay updated and aligned. Otherwise the employee receives a sense of confusion and lack of satisfaction in their work. I recently went through this exercise and had a hard time mapping my personal goals to the organization’s mission so what’s the problem here?

A read from a colleague that speculated “micromanagement is so prevalent because it passed from generation of leaders that were applauded and promoted in this backwards environment”

If you feel unrestricted and empowered I believe you will hold increase morale and ambition. When this happens, you feel comfortable thinking independently and pitching new ideas fostering performance, innovation, and creativity.

Can you relate to this quote?

John
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

OPM and the Federal Hiring Process

It has been said time and time again that one of the best ways to get young people interested in working for the Federal Government is to change its hiring process. It became no longer acceptable to have a Federal Agency take six months or longer to hire a candidate. In that time, potential hires sought other jobs and were hired in no time especially in the private sector.

What this caused was seeing the best and the brightest perceive the Federal Government as a place that is very slow to change, very bureaucratic and a place that is not interested in seeing young blood fill the halls of each agency.

I was one of those people that felt that way. In May of 2005, on the day of my graduation, most of my classmates had been hired by top accounting and marketing firms. I at the time had applied to over 20 federal jobs and had not heard back from any of them. I only began to hear from them in late October, early November of 2005. A good six months from when I first applied. I was pretty disappointed at this and realized that unless you were determined to be as patient as I was, nobody would be willing to go through this process.

I always wondered how hiring mangers felt about the situation. Well I guess they weren’t as happy as I was because the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is taking an unprecedented step in overhauling the federal hiring process and trying to make it more robust so that people, especially future young Feds, do not get discouraged by the whole process.

OPM on September 5, 2008, presented (in a 59 paged document) steps to cut down the time it takes to recruit at a Federal agency. One of the great initiatives is to cut down the hiring time from infinity to just 80 days or less.

The following links are great articles on this:

From OPM’s website:
http://www.chcoc.gov/Transmittals/TransmittalDetails.aspx?TransmittalId=1513

From the Government Executive Magazine:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40913&dcn=todaysnews

From the Federal Computer Weekly (FCW)
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/153730-1.html

From the Federal Times:
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/153730-1.html

I believe this initiative is a step in the right direction and I believe more work needs to be done, from having a clear and discernable job description on USAJobs that cuts out the unnecessary agency jargons to setting clear expectations on USAjobs on the expected hiring period.

This new initiative comes at the right time with the impending mass retirement of baby boomers.

I am excited at this hiring overhaul (as I have been a victim of the old process) and I look forward to more changes.

I.J Ezeonwuka
Chapter Liaison- Young Government Leaders 2008-2009