Leadership Values for Public Service

An excerpt from Chad’s book “Thinking Aloud: Reflections on Ethical Leadership”. We hope you enjoy the essay – and perhaps introduce the questions below as a way to start conversations with your teammates. – ELA Team

Leadership Values for Public Service

Tough economic times prompt tough debates about the role of government and the efficacy of public institutions and employees. Constructive debate is grounded in reason as it seeks to address tough problems. Good discourse sheds light and informs wise action.

Too often, though, our public discourse generates much more heat than light.  Criticism of public employees can be especially vicious, and therefore especially unhelpful.  I work with leaders in public safety – fire, emergency medical service (EMS), and law enforcement – and I see great people providing excellent service, every day.  I believe that public leaders need better tools for leading this discussion toward rational assessment of how public work is done and supported in our communities.

I have been working within several public safety leadership development programs to develop a framework of values that can guide leaders and inform public discourse:

1. Excellent public service. Do excellent work, consistent with the public’s needs. Respond to, and thoughtfully inform, the public’s priorities for public service.
2. Sound stewardship of resources.Use public funds responsibly and intelligently, in pursuit of excellent service. Make purchases that aim for sufficiency and consider total cost of ownership.  Conserve resources.
3. Treat employees fairly, consistent with high expectations of service and stewardship. Articulate and apply principles of fairness across all stakeholders.  Share information openly, as appropriate.

While it remains a work in progress, this framework is strong enough to build upon, and capable of informing and improving our public discourse.  It has been tested and honed in more than 200 focus groups, working sessions, and training programs; for about two years, we have used the value set as a training and consulting tool while actively soliciting feedback and improving the framework itself.

These three values stand in constructive tension with one another.  Public leaders should strive for excellence, with clear missions and dedicated execution.  At the same time, leaders must be cautious about expenditures, assuring that the right priorities are efficiently pursued.  Fair practices surely include safety, reasonable compensation and clear performance expectations. In this context, our conception of fairness must also include accountability for both service and stewardship.

Putting these values into action requires robust discussion.  What is excellent service?  What should the public fund and what should we expect from that funding?  Stewardship demands that expenditures be linked to performance.  More money must buy more or better services. Finally, agencies and communities must define the principles of fairness under which they will operate.  Ultimately, fair practices lead to good performance.

These values form a basis for challenging mediocrity and waste; they also enable leaders to recognize excellence and efficiency.  Rather than resorting to empty criticism and mutual mistrust, perhaps those engaged in discourse on the boundaries and nature of public service can use this value framework to find common ground.  From a shared set of values, we can rationally evaluate and improve the work of government in ways that benefit us all.

Conversation Starters

Public sector leaders can use these three values to make decisions and to frame constructive discussions with stakeholders.

• What is the role of the public sector labor unions in advancing these three values? Can labor and management work together to set and uphold high standards for service, and to provide a fair working environment, at a reasonable cost to the public?
• If you are a leader in the public sector, can you apply these values to decisions you make? Can you participate in good-faith discussions about appropriate service and spending levels?
• If you are a leader in a public agency, how do your organizational values compare with this value set?

At Ethical Leaders in Action we believe that most, if not all people, can develop themselves to play leadership roles in many different spheres both large and small. The foundation of this development process is a short but powerful list of virtues which can be developed and improved through conscious effort. For more information feel free to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) which breaks these virtues down into features that can be individually developed. The results of the VELSI come with a quick reference guide to help you understand how the virtues and their individual features fit together. https://ethinact.com/velsi/

See a list of other posts in this series at Blog Post Series

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