• ·vturnBy B.J. Walker

Inthe 2011 State of the Union,President Obama asked us to con-

sider what it would take to have a moretrusted and competent government. Toget there, we need a different public-sector leader --one willing to lead "fromthe inside out." Here's the deal: manyof us initially go into public-sector lead-ership thinking that we are bringingmore-from the outside-than we couldpossibly get from those working insidegovernment. We drink what has becomethe national "kool-aid." We are all toowilling to accept that government is a

BJ Walker is the former commissioner of the GeorgiaDepartment of Human Services.

knows that you can't stay too long ortake too long.)

So as a nation, we end up with adilemma: a need for governmentto work well, a public that does notbelieve it can, a public workforce that ismore accustomed to things not chang-ing than they are to things changing,and public leaders who move on beforethey get fired. But that is not how thestory has to end.

Don't get me wrong: the public sec-tor's resistance to change is real. Letme count the ways: (1) too many mas-

Leading from the Inside OutA Way to Think AboutPublic-Sector Leadershipfailure and that government workers areunworthy. This is tragic given that manyof us (taxpayers) want and some of us(the neediest and most vulnerable) des-perately need government to deliver onits promises-better schools, better childwelfare systems, fewer homeless on thestreets, less crime, accurate and timelybenefits to those in need. Tragicallywetend to see this as a leadership problemthat can best be solved by finding theright Superstar. And here's how thatstory goes: Superstar signs on, runsup against multiple and long-standingobstacles to change, either things gobadly or one or two things manage togo wildly well. In any event, Superstarmoves on. (Every government leader

ters, players and rules; (2) not enoughmoney to start over and do it right;(3) ambiguity or disagreement aboutwho gets to decide what the goals are;(4) numerous risks attached to doingsomething different; and (5) bad gov-ernment often makes for good politics.

The mission ofleaders is to helppeople see that they do not have to beenslaved to their current reality, but thepublic sector is a hard place to makethat point. It is far easier to tell yourself,as an individual leader, that it is youwho are not enslaved and harder stillfor you to consider what might happenif the people working for you decidedthat they want to be free! (Stop being"good enough for government work.")

I think about the Civil RightsMovement of the 1960s, and particu-larly the Mississippi theater of thatmovement. Aside from what blackpeople believed in their hearts andminds, there was absolutely no reasonfor them to think that they could expectthe state of Mississippi to recognizetheir worth and allow them to vote.And on the surface, looking from theoutside in, there appeared to be plentyof good reasons to think that blacksdid not want to vote. In the early 1960s,hewscast after newscast reporteddaily on the "apathy" of blacks, say-mg that they really didn't want to vote.ISo where did the energy come from toJend hundreds of sharecroppers to theRegistrar's door steps, day after day,~onth after month-in spite of threatsand people dying?

Over time, those sharecropperssopped being enslaved by their cur-r~nt reality. They began to act from anbwand enlightened sense of what,as possible and they put aside theirf1arsand doubts that it"could happen.~le the rest of us were watchingp~ominent national leaders, black and

~:~ :~;:;~:~!~e:e~: ~~~~eofground in Mississippi. Some of themh~~ lived there all their lives and somegot off chartered Greyhound busesfrdm faraway places. It took these

~~;~~:~~~:O;l:r:~b:~~~dthdmselves in the day-to-day realitiesof ~e lives of Mississippi's sharecrop-pels, who understood what they werethirng and why, and who evenru-all~ came to understand what it wouldtake for something different to happen.Th~se who were there will tell you thatit was the blending of two wills: thewilliof the sharecroppers and the willof the leaders living amongst them thateventually became the tipping pointin .ssissippi. There were plenty oflead rs during t:he civil rights era that

6 PoJicv&Practice April 2011

converged on Mississippi during thatFreedom Summer of 1964 but not untiltheir energy merged with the energyof the sharecroppers did the state ofMississippi lose its struggle to keepblacks from voting.

There are lessons for public-sectorleadership here: Government needsembedded leaders who work frominside the problem, alongside theissues, with the people who are mostresponsible for getting things done(their workforce). However, the publicsector is uniquely configured to operateout of passive compliance with policiesand procedures (rather than the visionofleaders) to dictate what people doand how they do it. I do not think itwould be an overstatement to describepublic-sector workers as "enslaved totheir current reality." To contemplatefreedom, to imagine something differ-ent, they need leaders that show up inthe midst of the work, who point outnew possibilities, leaders so deeplyembedded in the day-to-day realities ofgovernment that they themselves arecompelled to make change, becausethey feel the heat of the work as if theywere on the front line.

The good news is that the behaviorsof these kinds of leaders are neithersupernatural nor mysterious; thesebehaviors are tangible and can bedescribed, taught and learned. Andleaders who master them can executeconsistently because they stand forsomething-the work and the peoplewho do it.

• These leaders talk vision, help-ing people around them see thatthey do not have to be enslaved totheir current reality. Theyarticu-late a new and enlightened view ofwhat is possible. They make spacein the work for the energies and tal-ents and thinking of all who want tocontribute.

• These leaders supervise theirvision by showing up in the work,

•

using their presence to constantlycoax new potentialities from the will-ing as well as the unwilling. They domore than cultivate "good soldiers."They personally manage how peopletake up and execute on the vision.They help people see that the visionis not only worthy of their pursuitbut that it can be done, and they askpeople for their energy, their partici-pation and their commitment.

• These leaders make thework "public" -transparent andaccountable. They create a spacewhere people can sign up for thework; where they can learn by trying,track their results and use what theylearned to change their practice.

• These leaders are self-con-scious and purposeful enough intheir leadership to persuade peopleto walk away from their current (andcomfortable) reality. These leadersdisplay a willingness and ability toput all of their personal and profes-sional capital on the table on behalfof the work. They articulate theirbeliefs and thoughts so persuasivelythat others take them seriously,believe they are sincere and knowwhat they are talking about, admirethem for what they are willing todo and think they are courageousenough to pull it off.

• T~ se leaders think sustain-alJ,"lity"They intentionally embedthemselves in a way that makes theirle 'aership indistinguishable from thewo Ik. The result: when they go away(~d they will), the work continues.Th~ir intimacy with the work allowsth !b to authentically model forpe~lple what it ~ooks like to lead fromin de the work, what it means to bean agent of vision. By their very pres-enJe, their availability, they open up

: I'c;r~~~~e~r:h~:~:~ ~~::vites

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e fl. ers, space ~hat offers multipleop ! ortunities for the many to make

. gs happen, to move the vision,from whereverrthey are standing.

T~[se of us who enterpublic-sectorleadTrship would do well to remem-ber: Public systems need and dependon ili~ir workers far more that they dothei leaders. (If that were not true, eachnew dministration would not engagein sUfh lengthy and time-consumingtra~ition work, swapping out old lead-ers fi Tnew ones.) Indeed, there is muchtru lin the old adage: "The B teamwill I e here when you get here and

IIbe h~re when you leave." Understandand fccept that and you know whatyou need to do: cultivate a workforcethat wns the work and believes inyou leadership, not just because you

appointed but because you showup the work and lead from insideit. ere is no magical leadership curefor uch of what ails us in solving ourbigg st, most intractable public-sectorpro ems. That is probably what Ms.Ella aker, who was on the ground inMis issippi in the early 60s and whohelp~d to create a space where willscoul meet, intended when she said:"1 h ve always thought what is neededis th development of people who areinte ested not in being leaders as muchas i developing leadership in others."1a

• These leaders operate froman imperative-a set of valuesso powerful it cannot help but drivenew behaviors. Imperatives com-pel leaders to have a conversationwith their people about what theright work is and how to do it theright way. It forces individual play-ers to make decisions in which theirbehaviors are inextricably linked towhat they believe is right, not justwhat somebody told them to do.hnperatives remove ambiguity andrender the previously acceptable asunacceptable.

Apri! 2011 Policy&Praclice 7