The federal government must focus on developing and supporting leaders dedicated to serving the public interest

Placing highly capable people in positions of authority across the federal government is the most critical factor in its success and essential to its ability to regain the public’s trust. 

However, while there is a broadly accepted understanding of what it means to work in public service—referring to the people who serve our nation as federal, state, county, local and tribal government employees—there isn’t the same clarity around what it means to be a public service leader. 

Recently, my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, issued three recommendations to address this challenge, part of a five-point reform agenda designed to eliminate the most serious obstacles our government faces to meeting the needs of a diverse public. 

Among those obstacles, the lack of a shared standard that holds all political and career leaders accountable for meeting the unique responsibilities of public service—serving the people and acting as stewards of taxpayer dollars—stands out. 

Unlike organizations within the private sector and the military, the executive branch does not have a systematic, deliberate approach to developing and supporting federal leaders. 

The result is that these leaders—some of whom have tens of thousands of employees in their chain of command—are frequently moved into positions for their expertise on the issues rather than for their fundamental knowledge on how to lead and manage healthy organizations. 

At the same time, the government has not updated its methods for hiring and recruiting members of Senior Executive Service, the highest level of career employees who work alongside political appointees, in decades. This lag discourages top people across sectors from applying for these important roles. 

A slow Senate confirmation process for political appointees also makes it difficult for a new president to get a full leadership team in place quickly. 

Presidents currently need to make about 4,000 political appointments, including more than 1,300 who must receive Senate confirmation, representing an increase of more than 70% between 1960 and 2020. Due the sheer number of appointees and other factors, it now takes the Senate nearly four times longer to confirm a nominee than it did during President Ronald Reagan’s administration. 

These trends have led to more top-level vacancies, which slow decision making, undermine long-term strategic planning and modernization efforts, and weaken employee morale.

According to the 2023 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings, which measure how civil servants view their jobs and workplaces, employees rated their senior leaders at just 57.3 out of 100, revealing significant dissatisfaction with individuals in key positions.

Our reform agenda outlines three actions Congress, agencies and the incoming administration should urgently take to reverse these trends and fix the government’s leadership crisis. These include:

• Standardizing leadership framework and expectations: All federal executives and managers should meet a standard for leadership that holds them accountable for running healthy and high-performing agencies. The government should adopt a framework, similar to the one developed by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, that requires leaders to demonstrate skills essential to effective federal service, including the foundational value of being a steward of the public good.

• Improving the hiring process for senior executives: The government must improve the way it recruits, identifies and hires people to be federal leaders, including ensuring they have a diversity of experience within the public, private or nonprofit sectors. Additionally, agencies need to develop employees earlier in their careers to help them gain skills to move up the leadership ranks in their agencies.

• Reducing the number of political appointees subject to Senate confirmation and streamline the confirmation process: The Senate should consider converting some political jobs to career positions, and it needs to make it easier for agencies to fill critical leadership vacancies while preserving its role in reviewing nominees’ qualifications. In addition, Congress should update the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to clarify who may serve temporarily in a position until a political appointee steps into a role.

No matter one’s political persuasion or the politics of the day, greater emphasis and investment must be directed at developing highly competent leaders—the individuals responsible for keeping us safe in a dangerous world. At a time of declining faith in American institutions, leaders who fulfill these fundamental responsibilities will help make our government more trusted and trustworthy. 

Jenny Mattingley is the vice president for government affairs at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization dedicated to building a better government and a stronger democracy.