Few would argue that the federal government's Senior Executive Service (SES) is a critical part of our system of governance, serving as the link between the deciding and the doing of the public's business. However, as that cadre approaches its fourth decade of existence, it is no exaggeration to suggest that without some much needed reforms, its future is at risk.  

Hyperbole? Just look at the evidence. Legislation diminishing SES appeal rights — potentially even making career executives employed 'at will' — has begun to proliferate, and the pendulum of politics continues to swing between benign neglect of career executives on one hand, and overt distrust on the other. However, those are merely the latest dark clouds on the horizon. Years of pay freezes, limited (or lost) bonuses, even cancelled Presidential Rank Awards have also taken their toll.

Today, more than 65 percent of the SES corps is eligible to retire, a bubble that's been ballooning for a decade. It is only a matter of time before that bubble bursts, and at least for some career executives, the prospect of presiding over massive budget and personnel cuts may finally be what does it.

But perhaps even more worrisome, survey after survey tells us that most of the employees led by these career executives no longer have faith in them, and worse, many the GS-14s and 15s who are their most likely successors no longer aspire to follow in their footsteps. With government reorganization of historic proportions on the horizon, the resulting career leadership vacuum couldn't come at a worse time. 

No, the SES is at risk. And that's not just my opinion. That's the consensus of some of our federal government's most respected senior leaders: Political appointees and career officials who have served with distinction at the very highest levels of government … and for both Republican and Democratic presidents. They've have had the chance to see SES members in action, up close and personal, and their perspectives are set forth in a landmark anthology entitled Building a 21st Century SES: Ensuring Leadership Excellence for Our Federal Government.

The book's premise is straightforward: The excellence of our nation's SES members is vital to the effectiveness of 21st century government institutions — especially but not exclusively federal ones — yet they are developed, selected, paid, and promoted according to a system conceived in the 20th! Set to be released on March 17, the book is being published by the National Academy of Public Administration, with the generous support of my company, Booz Allen Hamilton, who let me (along with my colleagues Elaine Brenner and Fred Richardson) work on this project over the last two years.

The March 17 release event will be held at the Brookings Institution at 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW, in Washington DC from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and seats remain available.

It's been a labor of love. The career SES number just over 7,000, yet along with their colleagues in the several other 'spin off' senior services, they impact virtually every citizen of this country … and millions more across the globe.

They (we … I was honored to be a member of this elite cadre for over two decades) are responsible for a federal budget that exceeds $3.5 trillion annually, yet they represent an infinitesimally small fraction of the staff and programs they oversee. Millions of people in and out of uniform — and in and out of government — depend on them for direction and leadership, and they lead historic things like landing robots on Mars and searching for a cure for Zika. However, they also lead more mundane (but no less essential) work: Collecting taxes, paying Medicare bills and Social Security pensions, serving wounded veterans, building roads and bridges and dams, and processing the countless forms that fuel the engines of our government.

But here's the problem: As noted, the system that produced those career executives was created in 1978, and our nation and the world have changed rather dramatically since then.

And although a number of incremental changes to the SES have occurred over the course of its relatively young institutional life span, there is some question as to whether the original, (and as-yet-unrealized) vision of the SES — as a mobile corps of savvy senior leaders deployed to meet the nation's challenges wherever and whenever they may arise — is still valid today … and more importantly, tomorrow.

Is today's Senior Executive Service — and tomorrow's senior career executives — ready for the challenges that the next decade will bring? That is the focus of Building a 21st Century SES, and in it, our illustrious contributors offer their views on what the federal government must do to ensure the continued effectiveness of its career executive corps.

You'll recognize most of the book's contributors, including (alphabetically) Thad Allen, Beth Cobert, Ed DeSeve, Michele Flournoy, Christine H. Fox, Mike Hayden, Bob Hale, Steve Kelman, Pat Kennedy, Tish Long, Beth McGrath, Sean O'Keefe, Charles Rossotti, Robert Shea, Bob Tobias, David Walker, and Danny Werfel. In addition, several current and former career executives — Steve Shih and Suzanne Logan from OPM, GAO's Robert Goldenkoff, and former Air Force exec and SEA Board Member Bob Corsi — also authored chapters.

In that regard, the book does not pretend to be the product of empirical research, nor is it an academic analysis of policy options. Instead, we asked each of these luminary leaders to tell a story — about their careers, their defining moments as leaders, and their own personal leadership philosophies — all based on more than half a millennium of practical experience.

More importantly, most of their experiences have involved working with senior career executives on some of the most significant challenges our government has ever faced: Hurricane Katrina and the Global War on Terrorism, the Challenger shuttle disaster and Deepwater Horizon, the transformation of the IRS (twice), Sequestration and the great shutdown of 2014, the resurgence of Russia and China and of hyper-partisanship, and the explosion of technology. And in relating those experiences, we asked our contributors to address five key questions:

  • What kinds of challenges are senior government executives likely to confront as they lead 21st century government?
  • Given the original vision for the SES, what institutional role should career executives play in our government?
  • What leadership competencies, both enduing and emerging, will be required of senior career executives in the future?
  • How can the federal government best identify and develop the next generation of SES members in the face of changing external and internal challenges, career patterns, and individual expectations?
  • What can the federal government do to sustain a viable, vital senior executive corps into the future, given the likelihood of continuing fiscal austerity and antipathy toward government?

It was my great privilege to produce and edit the volume, as well as to co-author a chapter and provide extensive ‘color’ commentary throughout. I also attempted to synthesize the priceless practical insights of our contributors as the basis for over two dozen recommendations set forth in the book.

For the record, I take sole responsibility for their content, and I’ll be detailing them in my next couple of Federal Times columns; however, taken together, those recommendations are intended to provide a blueprint for doing just what the title of the book promises — that is, building a 21

st

century SES … and in so doing, ensuring

continued

leadership excellence in our federal government.

PS: The book will be available in hard copy and e-version beginning on Friday from the National Academy and, like the Academy, it is a ‘not for profit’ project, so there are no royalties associated with the anthology.

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