Most of the readers of this blog are people who hold governmental positions that require non-partisanship behavior. Others are people who got where they are, at least in part, due to their affiliation with one political party. Still others might be might be nonprofit leaders whose primary allegiance might be to a specific mission or particular client group, independent of political affiliation.

We are all in public service. We are all operating in a politically polarized country. We are all regaining our balance after an election that revealed deep divisions and generates passionate discussion.

How does a non-partisan leader move through this with integrity? Given that any response could present a target for criticism, the temptation might be to lay low and stay quiet. Tempting…but not effective in terms of addressing distress from any source, healing the divisions among us, and figuring out a new way forward together.

One of the better ideas generated this week comes from the author Elizabeth Gilbert. She suggests we reflect and respond to the question “How do I want to be in this situation?” None of us can fully control the situation, but all of us can make choices about how we respond.

We can create opportunities to have these discussions in the workplace, first taking care to ensure that participants are willing to model mutual respect and held accountable for doing so. This is also a good time for any organization or community to restate and reaffirm its values; they may well be put to the test later on.

As for me – today – how I choose to respond is to listen deeply, with patience, to everyone.  Not just even when I disagree with their votes, but especially when I disagree.

How do you want to be in this situation?

The post Nonpartisan Leadership in a Politically Polarized World appeared first on The Public Leadership Blog.

There is a lot of emotion and learning in this field and I can’t pretend to have a deep understanding of the politics or medical treatment of autism. But in our conversation, I was struck by how many people in our relatively small group had personal experiences with people with autism. Each said some version of “if I’d had this kind of understanding of autism, I would have been a better coworker/travel companion/group leader/friend”

We talked about the conferences Silberman describes, organized by people with autism, and their environment in which they communicate non-verbally using color-coded name tags, have quiet places where they can reduce their environmental stimulation, and places for group activities that appeal to them, such as sharing meaningful objects.

As our world welcomes the rising numbers of autistic individuals in our schools, and our workforce, I wonder how we will expand our understanding of diversity to include a broader range of personalities and neurological conditions. We often rely on tools such as the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi) to understand our colleagues, and ourselves, but are we limiting our workplace?

Not everyone with autism today will work at SAP, but as our population expands and autism continues to be present, will we be prepared to bring more people who are different into our workplace? Expanding our systems to accommodate and include more diversity in behaviors and preferences may be difficult but it should also lead to more innovation and creativity.

We can adopt tools similar to the ones the autistic participants designed for their conferences to engage introverts (a green name tag that indicates “I’m interested in discussion but I’m shy about making the first move”), and to encourage focus and decompression (quiet rooms, no technology). By starting now, we may be ready to follow in the footsteps of others who are including autism in their workforce. Or maybe we’ll take the initiative and work with autistic individuals to design work environments that are welcoming and inclusive now.

SAP: Shifting the perception of people’s abilities: A conversation about Autism at Work

The post Learning from a Wider Spectrum appeared first on The Public Leadership Blog.

We talked to our former classmates and other young professionals interested in public service management to gauge how issues of female mentorship, likeability, and family planning and partners affect them. Our MPA program focuses specifically on developing local government managers and more than 75% of our graduating class were women. However, only a handful are pursuing careers in local government. Despite many discussions around the concepts of leaning in, concerns over weighing the dual roles of managing a local government and managing a household are salient for the next generation of leaders.

Based on our conversations with our classmates and young professionals, one reason women are leaning out of local government management seems to be the perceived instability of leadership positions. There is a strong desire for women to fill leadership roles, but deputy or assistant roles were perceived as providing more stability. Another potential cause of the gap between the number of women graduating and women wanting to go into local government management are glass walls – relegating women to traditionally female roles within organizations. For example, two of the students we interviewed had received advice that they were particularly well-suited for careers in human resources when they were explicitly seeking advice about becoming local government managers. It is essential for women to gain a breadth of experiences that prepares them for being seen as management potential.

One final note is that not all women see leaning in as their biggest challenge in the workplace. When considered from the point of view of single parents and primary wage-earners, leaning in becomes a privilege since it requires placing long-term career plans ahead of family concerns. Women of color are another group of women who face challenges in the workplace that are not addressed in Lean In. For example, one interviewee noted, “It’s getting to the point where women can just be women in the workplace, but I’m not sure it’s ever going to get the point where I can just be Black at work.”

Local government leadership is disproportionately male. Despite many discussions about giving greater emphasis to career planning, the young women we talked with are struggling to lean in at the time in their careers at which leaning in arguably matters most. With these issues in mind, what can current local government managers do to help our generation “lean in” more?

The post The Next Generation of Local Government Leaders: Leaning In or Out of Local Government? appeared first on The Public Leadership Blog.