About the Department of Administration
DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION
MISSION STATEMENT
Operate a cost-efficient, customer-oriented service department whose actions are transparent to taxpayers resulting in innovative solutions and quality results for a government that effectively serves West Virginians.
MESSAGE FROM CABINET SECRETARY ROBERT W. FERGUSON, JR.
Fiscal Year 2010
As I often say, the two indicators of successful leadership are: 1) accomplishment of the mission, and 2) taking care of your people. The first requires technical competencies and the second requires concerned leadership. Both are equally important. As the leaders of the Department’s divisions and agencies, I expect you to create the environment for your employees to be successful. This letter reflects my intent on how to accomplish that mission.
MISSION
I expect you to know and understand both your mission and the Department’s mission and to be organized to accomplish both. While on the surface this may sound obvious, I think in some cases our structure does not serve us well. Specifically, I want you to review your organization to ensure that it is lean and best reflects what is needed to get the job done. If we have unnecessary redundancies, then they need to be eliminated. The people in the unneeded positions should be realigned to fill in where needed. The vast resources in the Division of Personnel will help with any employee realignments (Taking care of your people).
ETHICS
Know the letter of the law and lead your organization in such a manner that each employee knows, through your own personal example, the spirit and the intent of the law. Remember that as leaders we are all “living in a fish bowl” and every action we take will be analyzed by our subordinates, the taxpayers, and the media. Your own personal example sets the tone for your employees. Ask yourself the hard questions:
1. Is the playing field level for promotions for all my employees?
2. Is the playing field level for hiring temporaries?
3. Are the work hours the same for everyone in my organization?
4. Is the leave system the same for everyone?
5. Is the policy on moonlighting enforced?
6. Are the Civil Service System regulations followed without compromise? I want you to pay particular attention to the hiring system. I want all ten applicants on the civil service register to receive fair treatment. I want you to also ensure that all postings are made known to your current employees.
DIGNITY and RESPECT
I expect every employee to be treated with dignity and respect. Regardless of position or salary, each employee should be held in the highest esteem. To foster this, I want you to be visible to your employees and take time to get to know each of them. Frequent “all hand” events as well as round table meetings with your managers are the best way to ensure your expectations are met.
LEADERSHIP
I suggest you read Rules & Tools for Leaders by Perry M. Smith (provided by me). Each of you has developed your own leadership style. As always, I have special trust and confidence in your leadership ability and respect the style you employ in your organization. However, this book covers the commonly accepted and time-tested principles of effective leadership and management. I have provided it to you as an extra resource for your use and for further discussion.
Good leadership demands the highest standards of personal responsibility and accountability. As a leader I hold you responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in your organization. While this may seem like a daunting burden, if you have developed your team and established workable standard operating procedures, then constraints and system problems should be minimal. To this end, at a minimum, I expect you to:
1. See and be seen. This involves leadership by walking around. Depending on the size of your division/agency, schedule time each week to simply walk around and spend quality time with your employees. The mail clerks to the CFO, each deserve some of your undivided attention.
2. Inspect what you expect. This involves personally reviewing all aspects of your organization that affect mission accomplishment.
3. Lead from a position where you can best control the action. Sometimes that means you are out in front of an issue as a visible example to your employees; and, sometimes that means sitting in the back to allow your employees the opportunity to grow professionally.
What makes a good leader? While we all may have different answers to this question, I want you to consider the following as you lead your organization and mentor your employees. A good leader:
1. Keeps cool under pressure.
2. Clearly explains missions, standards, and priorities.
3. Sees the big picture; provides context and perspective.
4. Makes tough, sound decisions on time.
5. Adapts quickly to new situations; can handle bad news.
6. Gives useful feedback; sets a high ethical tone.
7. Is positive, encouraging, and realistically optimistic.
MISTAKES
Stuff happens. Mistakes are great learning tools. Accountability for mistakes is situation dependent and should always include mitigating and extenuating circumstances. Procedural errors require disciplining the system. Personal errors require retraining of the affected employee. Integrity violations are not mistakes and will never be tolerated. Bad news never gets better with age. Let me know when a mistake takes us outside the law or has the potential to either cost the State financially or is press worthy.
DECISION-MAKING
Trust your instincts. Use your staff. Delegate when you can. Be careful not to analyze an issue into inaction; go with your gut instinct or the 70 percent solution. Make all decisions with courage; do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reason. The foundation of all decisions should be based on what is in the best interest of the taxpayers.
COMMUNICATIONS
We speak with one voice. As a director I have special trust and confidence in your knowledge, skill, ability, and integrity and expect you to discuss openly with me if you believe that a course of action I am pursuing is not in the best interest of your agency/division. Speaking truth to power requires courage; I need to hear your views on the tough issues. Other communication requirements are the following:
1. The weekly directors’ meeting is mandatory. If you cannot attend, then get with me ahead of time to discuss.
2. All legislative contacts should be back briefed to the legislative coordinator.
3. I have an open door policy for you at anytime. No appointment is necessary; simply check with my secretary to ensure that I am in the office.
4. Keep me in the loop as to your work schedule. Call me regarding vacation time, sick leave, and any extraordinary circumstances that require you to be off. No micromanagement intended here; as the Secretary I need to know how and where to get hold of you.
MANAGEMENT
In addition to the procedures and practices unique to your organization, I expect you to be thoroughly familiar with or accomplish the following:
1. The civil service system.
2. The grievance process.
3. P-Card and purchasing rules. (Personally inspect the p-card bill monthly).
4. Annual performance evaluations.
5. Ensure that your organization has a Standard Operating Procedure and that your employees have desk-top procedures.
6. The leave system.
7. Be involved with the monthly production of your Profit & Loss Statement (P&L) and be able to conduct a comparative expense analysis as well as an overtime report.
8. Be involved in your budget development and execution.
9. Produce an Annual Report and list Goals and Objectives for the coming year.
10. Produce and document a training plan.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
This is the most important thing we do; this is our mission. High-quality customer service is the goal of the Department. The service we provide directly affects the performance of all other agencies in the Executive Branch. While our customers currently do not have the option to “shop us” with the private sector, their experience with us should match the expectations provided in the private sector. I want each of your divisions/agencies to focus on three core elements: exposure, rapport, and performance.
1. Exposure. Your agency cannot provide its services unless we first effectively communicate, advertise, and sell your product to our customers. Customers need to know who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Requesting our service must be easy – they should not have to jump through hoops to get action. As the leader of your organization, meet with potential and current customers face-to-face. Exposure is selling your service to them. Make it attractive, convenient, and fun.
2. Rapport. Do your customers know you personally? Do you provide them timely feedback on their issues? Do you give them courtesy follow-up calls to get feedback on your division/agency’s performance? Do you have service-level agreements to guarantee your service? Rapport is about caring for your customers. To that end, we need to lead our people so that they have a natural, intrinsic desire to excel and help our customers. Rapport sets the stage for performance.
3. Performance. Great performance comes after we have mastered the exposure and rapport elements. The foundation of great performance is “knowing your stuff – cold.” We must be the subject matter experts of our trade. Great performance also requires great administrative acumen. Record-keeping, continual auditing of the process, and accountability to the taxpayers are requirements. What we do must be transparent to the taxpayers. Performance is meeting the expectations of our customers – government agencies – so that they, in turn, can meet the expectations of their customers – the taxpayers.
Finally and most importantly, have fun. For most of us, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is the time and the place to be creative. Together we can accomplish great things for the people of West Virginia.