I'm in Basic Leadership Skills training from 9-4 this entire week at work; it's part of a mandatory program instituted by Secretary Powell, who practices what he preaches about valuing people and developing the leadership skills of all State Department employees. However, as with anything in the government, bureaucracy and regulations get in the way.
The idea is that at upon reaching a certain grade level (GS-13) in the Civil Service and a roughly corresponding one (FS-03) in the Foreign Service, all State Department employees must enroll in this five-day Basic Leadership Skills course, which talks about organizational culture, communication and preference styles, and supervisory skillsets. At the next grade, you enroll in Intermediate Leadership Skills, and then at the next in Advanced.
But this doesn't account for the fact that not all GS-13s and FS-03s are alike. Some have never supervised anyone before, while others have, and some have no supervisory responsibilities in their current position. In my class of 24, I'm unusual in having come into the government at this level directly from private industry rather than from within the Department or from another government agency; before taking this job I'd been managing departments (with almost two years at the CTO level) for the past six to seven years, and managing teams and workgroups for another six or seven before that. I've had much of this sort of training before.
Granted, the part on organizational culture is particularly valuable to me anyway, because the culture, values and processes here in the government are very different than the other places I've worked, even the not-for-profits and academic institutions. And learning about new theories and models (though none of what we're going to be covering looks to be particularly new) and networking with other managers throughout the department certainly has value as well. But it would be nice if there were some degree of tailoring available, rather than only a one-size-fits-all approach.
