The One Component Leadership Training Should Always Include

Friday, May 12, 2023

For several years, I’ve been saying that leaders at the executive level in government should have tech training because I thought it would help them develop themselves. (I even brought it up when I was on a committee to develop an executive training program. Nobody listened.)

Now I’m starting to see a trend not of government executives who are a little out of touch with the latest trends - but of government executives who are doing real, actual harm to their agencies because they’re technically ignorant.

The waste and inefficiency they’re perpetuating by refusing to embrace new tech should anger taxpayers. Their lack of expertise is actively stifling communication and collaboration-two things they say they want more of.

Meanwhile, IT departments are pretty much left unchecked to hold all the power, and hire more people, and augment staff in perpetuity, and do basically whatever the hell they want because executive leadership doesn’t speak the language.

Current trends in technology should absolutely be a MUST HAVE in any leadership development training program. I’m watching what happens when you only train leaders on interpersonal skills unfold in real time. And I’ve gotta say it makes me uncomfortable. I watched leaders demolish core functionality in applications like MS Teams just because of their own technological ignorance-from completely disabling voicemail to enforcing a strict 7-day retention period for all channel posts and chats. Now I’m seeing IT behave like tech hoarders, refusing to grant access to basic apps that people have come to rely on to do their work.

And I’m not talking about elected officials or politicians who are technologically clueless on a whole other level. I’m saying day to day administration of government functions is suffering because leaders aren’t savvy enough with technology.