What does it take to be a successful public service professional beyond the crisis?

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What does it take to be a successful public
service professional beyond the crisis?

• A preview on the emerging job description for
  public sector leaders and how the European
  Commission deals with it for their own staff
• Rainer v. Leoprechting this presentation only
  engages the author, not the European Commission
• Leuven 6 May 2011

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The new leadership job

• Whats the job A view on some major challenges
  for professionals in public service
• The job requirements

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Whats the new job about?
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Whats the new job about? (2)
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Who can do this?
Marked paradigm shifts needed, here some examples
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How talent develops in adults
Leadership stage
Management stage
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Distribution of talent
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Paradigm shifts across stages
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Some interim conclusions

• The emerging future requires leadership paradigms
  and leaders that we dont have
• However, no one can be developed, leaders grow
  out of their own
• The main work of todays top leaders thus is to
  cultivate their organisations as a leadership
  garden, in which staff are supported in their
  growth
• This corresponds to the new generation
  strategies of post-bureaucratic self-organisation
  and realisation in public services

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Some leadership gardening practices
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Developing Leadership Potential (partially done
at the EC)

• Measure how your incumbent managers make meaning
  and sense in their work
• Compare their level of leadership develop-ment
  with their current level of leadership
  requirements
• Have managers move if there is a major mismatch
• Coach people to accompany the growth to their
  next level

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Leadership pipeline

• Align the organisational hierarchy so that every
  staff member has a direct superior that is more
  developed that they themselves
• Coach managers in their transition to new levels
  of leadership authority
• Use organisational change and develop-ment
  projects as growth assignments for promising
  talents

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Action Learning

• Accompanies Change Initiatives with Reflection
  and Learning
• Small group learning sets
• Question-focused discovery
• Brings about (hidden) assumptions, opens to
  innovation in a consensual way
• Bonds project teams
• Supports development to leadership level

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Action Learning
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Communities of Practice

• Staff with a shared professional focus are
  invited to share their experiences and learning
  issues
• Sponsored by a senior manager that asks the
  community to produce specific outco-mes
• Self-organised learning groups
• Can be accompanied by consulting or coaching in
  the beginning

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Community of Practice (Planning Programming)
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Sharing and learning with peer leaders

• Share your initiatives European Commission-wide
• Reflect with peers about the overall challenges
  of the Union and your actions
• 8 peer seminars with European Commission
  directors in 2008-2010

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The Art of Hosting

• The Art of hosting meaningful conversations the
  essence of participatory leadership
• Self-organised meeting formats
• Open Space
• World café
• Proaction café
• Circle

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Open Space (Brussels)
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Open Space
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Collective Mind Map
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Voting on Mind Map
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Landscape
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Ritual dissent (Lux)
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Pro Action Café with Directors
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Pro Action Café in Jean Monnets House
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Stakeholder Café
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Circle (communication seminar)
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Circle (Mondorf, Lux)
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Circle (Jean Monnet House)
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Some references

• Adult DevelopmentRobert Kegan In over our heads
  (1994)
• Development of Leadership Potential Otto Laske
  Measuring hidden dimensions (2006)www.interdevel
  opmentals.org
• Drotter et al. The Leadership pipeline (2000)
• Action Learning www.ifal.org.uk
• Communities of Practice Etienne Wenger
  www.ewenger.com
• The Art of Hosting www.artofhosting.org
• Systemic constellation work http//www.tetrald.com
  /EuropeanConstellations
• Speaker ContactRainer v. Leoprechting email
  rainer.von-leoprechting_at_ec.europa.eu
• Graphics in the preceding slides by Otto Laske