Government reform efforts usually focus on macro-level change heralded by new policies, programs, structures, and systems. Yet they tend to ignore that these reforms do not succeed without people. Public managers who form healthy working relationships built on trust are the micro-level change levers—the necessary pre-condition to improving government.

Buttressed by their real-world experience on the frontlines of a range of cases, the authors demonstrate the importance of values-based leadership. Chapters then focus on tools; the concrete ways in which leaders can improve themselves, their organizations, those they coach; and the teams they establish to build effective relationships and the trust essential to success. Surveying agencies both horizontally and vertically, The Trusted Leader also addresses how public managers can collaborate with political appointees and the legislative branch, all the while engaging with citizens through modern technologies to build exceptional customer experiences.

Part I. Relationships: The Missing Link in Government Reform

Introduction: The Context for Leading Democracy
Terry Newell, Grant Reeher, and Peter Ronayne

1. Values-Based Leadership for a Democratic Society
Terry Newell

Part II. Building Relationships within the Organization

2. Self Awareness and Leadership Success
Beverly R. Fletcher and Alfred L. Cooke

3. Coaching: A Leadership Imperative for the 21st Century
Ron Redmon

4. Leading for Team Success
Gail Funke

5. Building High-Performance Organizations
John Pickering

Part III. Building Relationships across Organizational Boundaries

6. Collaborating across Organizational Boundaries
Russ Linden

7. Career-Political Relationships: Going beyond a Government of Strangers
Robert Maranto

7.1. Confessions of a Political Appointee
Bill Murray

8. Working with Congress: Building Relationships across the Constitutional Divide
Grace Cummings

8.1. Working with State Legislatures
Grant Reeher

9. From eGovernment to eGovernance: Harnessing Technology to Strengthen Democracy
Grant Reeher and George Mitchell

10. Engineering Experiences that Build Trust in Government
Lou Carbone

11. Global Leadership: Strengthening a Skeptical World’s Trust in America
Peter Ronayne

Conclusion: What, Then, Is the Job of the Government Leader?
Dan Fenn

"The Trusted Leader offers valuable insights into a critical dimension of public leadership—relationships built on trust. Without trust among colleagues, partners and stakeholders, excellent government performance is almost impossible to achieve, no matter how good the tools, technology or processes are. Without trust between government leaders and the American people, as both the owners and customers of government, our participatory democracy is at risk. Trust is built upon meaningful engagement, listening and communication, communication, communication, as well as the rigorous pursuit of evidence based policy and management and clear accountability for measurable progress. The Trusted Leader makes the case that the essence of public service is public trust."

- Patricia McGinnis, President and CEO, The Council for Excellence in Government

“As a former senior executive within the federal government, I know first-hand how important it is to build trust and relationships with congressional staff and executive branch officials in order to effectively achieve mission objectives. Most of the lessons that I learned in this regard came about by observing the damage caused by a lack of trust and poor relationships. The partisan nature of government also makes the task of building trust and relationships even more difficult than in the private sector. This book will be quite useful to those wishing to avoid learning these lessons the hard way!”

- John M. Palguta, Vice President, Policy, Partnership for Public Service

Terry Newell is currently director of his own firm, Leadership for a Responsible Society. He has also served as dean of faculty at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. His publications have addressed such issues as values and ethics in leadership, organizational change, and diversity and its affects on organizations and leaders. Newell has also worked at the U.S. Department of Education, where we was director of training and managed innovative grant programs for teacher education and training as well as for educational reform.

Grant Reeher is associate professor and director of graduate studies in the political science department at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also a Senior Research Associate at Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research, and on the adjunct faculty at the Federal Executive Institute. In addition, during 2004-2005 he was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy, & the Internet. He is the author or coauthor of, among other works, First Person Political: Legislative Life and the Meaning of Public Service;Narratives of Justice: Legislators’ Beliefs about Distributive Fairness; and Click on Democracy: The Internet's Power to Change Political Apathy into Civic Action. He has also published numerous editorial essays in newspapers around the country, and frequently appears on television and radio news and public affairs programs.

Peter Ronayne is the dean of faculty at the Federal Executive Institute where he also directs the Leadership for a Democratic Society program and co-founded FEI’s Center for Global Leadership. He is the author of Never Again?: The United States and the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide since the Holocaust and co-authored the most recent update of Biography of an Ideal, a history of the U.S. civil service for the United States Office of Personnel Management. He is currently writing a biography of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and is at work on a project that chronicles the history of Generation X.