Management for the public and private sector has the same primary goal: to make sure the organization’s mission is carried out. My training in the private sector has led me to focus on three key areas. First, I’m customer focused. In the private sector, you’re always worried about rivaling your competition and maximizing your profit. Customers can stay with you or walk away. In the public sector, you also have customers. I’ve made sure that is reflected in our strategic plans and that we remain customer-focused.

Second is to keep my attention on the bottom line. I ask tough questions about the return on investment and the opportunity costs, and I stress the importance of balancing tight resources to accomplish our mission. Third is the need to listen to employees. The employees know their job very well.They have the details and know what should be done and how. I recently implemented an anonymous comment box that goes directly to me called “What’s On Your Mind?” I am pleased with the feedback from our employees. They are extremely knowledgeable about what’s going on in this organization and they have excellent ideas.

How have you kept your employees motivated and engaged in GPO’s mission?

We have a clearly articulated plan and communicate it everywhere, continually putting it in front of employees. We posted it on the Web site. We took sound bytes of that strategic plan and put it on our link system, where screens throughout the building continually promote things that are happening. We put it in “Headlines,” our weekly newspaper. At the end of fiscal year 2011, we developed an accomplishment document. We wrote all the activities we had completed in support of that strategic plan. We wanted employees to know what we had accomplished and how proud we are of their work. I can refer to the previous year’s accomplishments to tell employees we appreciate what they do and explain how they have helped further our strategic plan.

Also, training is the great motivator. When an organization is going through massive, transformative change, as we are, training is important. We look at needed skill sets, leadership and best practices. This year, we have asked every employee to develop an individual development plan on these three areas. Last year, we implemented LEAD — it stands for leadership, evaluation and development. It’s open to all of the GPO employees interested in getting into leadership roles, but who may not be at the grade level. A series of ten modules focuses on building leadership skills. We are trying to demonstrate that we are committed to training leaders of tomorrow and to retraining our staff with the skill sets necessary to perform their jobs better.