VA Senior Executive Leadership Program

Challenge

The Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration (AS/OHR&A) chartered the VA Transformational Leadership Training Task Force (TLTTF) to rapidly design a strategy for delivering a core curriculum tailored to leaders, managers and supervisors to accomplish what is called “VA Transformation.” In response, the TLTTF developed a Transformational Leadership training strategy for satisfying the goals outlined in the charter to meet the learning needs for VA Senior Executives.

Context

We were hired by the VA Corporate Senior Executive Management Office (CSEMO) to design, develop, and deliver a one-day course that reinforced VA’s High Performance Development Model. In developing our course, we made sure to align the strategic and transformational intent of the VA Guiding Principles (i.e., be “people-centric, results oriented, and forward looking”) to the Executive Core Qualifications.

We delivered our course, called Strategic Ecosystem Mapping, to more than 60 VA SES-level employees across the VA who were participants in the CSEMO’s quarterly Senior Strategic Leadership Training Program. To effectively drive transformation, VA leaders recognized that they must collaborate to change the way their employees work in order to support the delivery of better results to their customers. Our course equipped them with practical tools they can use to prepare themselves to bring forth the transformation required to meet the rising expectations of the Department, and most importantly, Veterans.

The objective of our course was to increase the proficiency of VA’s SES-level employees in each of six (6) levels of leadership competencies: Leading People, Partnering, Leading Change, Results Driven, Global Perspective and Business Acumen. The course reinforced the VA’s commitment to investing in the transformation of VA’s leadership through an interactive program that provided a clear view of the strategic vision of the Secretary, with measurable results in support of VA’s Transformation Initiatives.

Results

Our course met the specific training requirements provided by VA Learning University (VALU), and was designed so that it could be offered in a wide variety of training methodologies including e-Learning, facilitated instructor-led group events, and independent study.