Consultant urges senior executives to develop transition game plan

Federal career executives should develop a common approach to building relationships with incoming political appointees and apply it governmentwide, a leadership consultant said on Tuesday.

"After six months in a new job, you are destined to be a star," Watkins said. "But will you be a rising star, or a falling star? These transition periods are really crucial times because so much is won and lost in terms of perceptions, credibility and political capital within those first 90 days," said Michael Watkins, co-author of The First 90 Days in Government: Critical Success Strategies for New Public Managers at All Levels (Harvard Business School Press, 2006), during a breakfast sponsored by the Council for Excellence in Government, Harvard Business Publishing and the Senior Executives Association. Watkins is a professor at INSEAD, a business school in France and founder of Genesis Advisers, a leadership development consultancy.

Watkins recommended that executives discuss five important areas with appointees at the outset: the nature of their working relationship; job challenges, performance expectations; critical resources and support; and tools necessary for improving performance.

The author also recommended that senior executives' transition framework involves a "portfolio analysis" of the government's situation and whether it is in a mode of startup, growth, sustaining success, realigning, turning around or shutting down. While it's unlikely the government would be starting up or shutting down, determining the situation can "provide the basis for what you're going to do and how you're going to lead in the new organization," he said.

Executives also could benefit from outlining some fundamental principles, Watkins said, such as creating a list of top priorities for the first 90 days, providing details on agency initiatives that should be preserved or changed, and helping appointees understand which policy initiatives can be accomplished quickly. "If applied across government, a common language can have a profound impact on what happens next," he said.

Watkins also highlighted common pitfalls for political appointees moving from business to government, such as failing to understand the government's "fishbowl" nature, underestimating its constraints, and expecting a pace as fast as the private sector's. He noted that, unlike in business, measuring government performance often can be difficult, which can create major roadblocks for using pay to motivate performance.

"What people coming into government from business need to understand is that you really have limited numbers [of ways] to use pay to get things done," he said. "The way you motivate people [in government] is more through nonmonetary incentives."

Watkins recommended career executives write short case studies on agency history and culture to help educate incoming political appointees from the private sector. Executives also can be more effective in communicating these messages if they have a strong understanding of the business environment.

"A new political appointee is jazzed about doing great things in government, but doesn't understand what it's going to take to do that," he said. "Give them some examples of where people have gone wrong and frame it in a language they would understand. Treat it as an influence process, and expect it to have a 10 percent impact."