Archive for April, 2012

As a rising government leader, it takes courage to ask for professional development from your manager especially in times of tight budgets.

But you shouldn’t be afraid as we’ve found that managers are receptive to training if you provide them clear examples of ROI – what you’ll learn and how it’ll benefit the agency.  We’ve purposely planned the Next Generation of Government Training Summit (NextGen) to be the most practical training event for rising government leaders to help them develop the tactical and leadership skills they need.

Here are 10 reasons why your agency should send you Next Generation of Government Summit 2012.  Feel free to use these tips and share with your managers and HR teams.

1. Improve Performance Immediately w/ Tactical Skills – With this training conference, attendees will learn tactical skills that will improve performance immediately when they return back to work.  There will be sessions on running an effective meeting and improving public speaking skills, as well as developing your skills as a project manager.

2. Develop Leadership Capacity – NextGen has tons of sessions focusing on developing future leaders (and taking young leaders to higher levels quicker) that are essential as government faces a greying workforce – from mentoring sessions with SESers to sessions on innovation, career coaching and career advice.

3. Leverage Best Practices & Build a Network of Government Innovators – There’s no reason agencies should work in silos.  There are a ton of best practices across government and tons of passionate government employees doing great work that we can learn from. At NextGen, our speakers highlight best practices in a range of essential topics from IT to HR to acquisition to project management that you can take back and leverage in your agency. Further, we spend a lot of time connecting attendees with each other so they come out of the training with a network of other government innovators that they can reach out and call when they need help on specific projects.

4. Energize and Engage Staff – Every agency wants an energized and inspired staff.  In previous years, our attendees stated that one of the best parts of Next Gen was being around other passionate, engaged government employees.  Many attendees mentioned that the conference reminded them of why they came to serve and went back to their agency even more motivated and committed to public service.

5. Connect your Talented Core – Many agencies sent 10, 20, up to 50 of their rising leaders in previous years. By going as a cohort, these folks connected and built great bridges internally that helped connect the agency across departments and institutionalize the ideas learned at NextGen when they returned to the office.

6. It’s Designed by Managers to Meet your Needs – In addition to the founders who are leading young government networks, our advisory board includes senior leadership  such as GS-15 program managers, SES HR leaders, and Federal Executive Board leads.  These managers are shaping the agenda with sessions they want their staff to learn.

7. Enhanced Health & Financial Knowledge – Agencies want physically and financially healthy employees.  At NextGen, we have sessions focused on living a healthy lifestyle from exercising to financial literacy.

8. Retain Your Gen Y Leaders – #1 request for Gen Y is more professional development opportunities.  By training your team, you increase their job satisfaction leading to increased retention.  Further, it is anticipated that Gen Y leaders will change jobs 10-12 times in their career, changing approx. every 2 years. Send your staff and they’ll meet other awesome feds that may one day be looking for new opportunities in your office.

9. Meets Training Requirements – Many individuals have training requirements whether it’s for Presidential Management Fellowship hours or for a PMP certificate.  NextGen attendees will receive CEUs and training certificates that count towards these requirements.

10. It’s Affordable – Most trainings are in the $800-$2,000 price range.  We’ve made this training as affordable as possible. Check out the pricing model here.

These are just 10 reasons your agency should send you to the Next Generation of Government Training Summit 2012.  There are over 100 more.   Trust me – this will be the most useful training of the year.

Are you having trouble getting your supervisor to approve the budget for your ticket to NextGen?  Are you not even sure how to approach him/her about it?

Mr. GovLoop, Steve Ressler, has written out a sample letter for your use to help convince your supervisor to come to NextGen.

This type of written communication is a skill the next generation needs to develop – how to make the case and ask for what you want.

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Dear (boss)-

I’d like to attend the training sessions at the Next Generation of Government Training Summit (nextgengovt.com) on July 26-27^th  in DC and would like to get your approval.  The summit is in the process of becoming OPM approved (it was approved last year) and the sessions are geared toward the ECQ competencies.

I think this training will help me do my job in the following ways:

1) Presentation skills – A big part of my job is presenting my work and analysis to senior management. I would love to improve these presentations both in terms of powerpoint skills and public speaking skills. There is a session titled “Speak Up: How to be a Great Public Speaker”,  in this session participants will learn  how to make clear and convincing oral presentations to individuals and groups, clarify information as needed, and facilitate open communication.

2) Time and project management – I’m excited to have so many great projects to work on. I would love to improve my ability to manage my time across projects and deliver great projects on-time and within budget. There will be a session titled: “Project management 101: Getting Things Done in Government″.   This session will teach participants to make well-informed, effective and timely decisions while managing a project’s budget, scope, and schedule.

3) Lessons learned from other agencies – For my current assignments, I know there are other agencies doing similar work and I’d love to learn and leverage their best practices. During NextGen, there are opportunities for me to have one-on-one conversations to gain insight and build relationships in an intimate setting. I will be able to bring these connections and lessons learned back to our agency.

After the conference, I plan to write-up an analysis of the sessions I attended and key takeaways for our team. I can also provide a short briefing in our weekly team meeting.

The cost to attend the training is $640 (before June 23). Based on the level of learning, I think this is a good value – similar conferences such as a course on “Time Management” at Learning Tree is $1,500.

Thanks for considering my request. If you would like to discuss further, please let me know when you are available this week.

Thank you!

- (Your Name Here)

For more information on The Next Generation of Government Training Summit 2012 please contact Megan (megan@govloop.com).