Claudia Cross

Energy
Claudia Cross
Director of Human Resources,
Chief Human Capital Officer

Claudia Cross remembers joining the Senior Executive Service in the 1990s as one of the proudest moments of her life. "I had a lot of ideas," she says, and she relished the opportunity to test those ideas as manager of the Energy Department's executive resources organization. The job, she says, was "a grand experiment."

Cross, who started her federal career in 1975 as a Navy intern, remains an innovator. As Energy's director of human resources and chief human capital officer, she now has a broader platform. "What is so much fun about the CHCO role is influencing government-wide," she says. Many of her ideas center on better supervisory and leadership training, which she describes as "close to a silver bullet," noting that government lags behind the private sector in helping recently promoted supervisors tackle their new duties. "Overnight, you're just supposed to be a good manager," she says.

She also is working to shift emphasis to skills, rather than qualifications. For example, the Energy Department needs engineers who can manage contractors. "An engineer is not one-size-fits-all," she says.

Another priority is to get managers more engaged in issues such as succession planning, recruitment, mentoring and training. "The budget has always been one of the things managers understand," she says. "For some strange reason, having the right people hasn't been talked about."