The AGA Weblog

Are We Doing Enough to Develop Future AGA Leaders?

By: Kelly Stefanko, CPA

Kelly Stefanko, CPA, is the Deputy City Auditor, City of Norfolk, VA. She chairs AGA’s National Emerging Leaders Focus Group and serves as a member of the National Executive Committee.

AGA’s challenge to recruit, develop, motivate and retain key talent to meet its leadership needs is never ending. As younger leaders take over, their generationally-shaped workplace habits, attitudes and values will reshape the organization. In this second blog installment on what AGA is doing to help ensure we have a well-stocked legion of leaders, we pose the question—are we doing enough?

Believing in the value of its professional development conferences to develop loyalty and a sense of engagement, AGA has made a substantial investment in making it possible for more emerging leaders to attend through the PDC hotel scholarship offered to every AGA chapter. Scholarship awardees are expected to attend the Emerging Leaders Session on Sunday, July 27, at 1 p.m. All PDC attendees are welcome. The first hour of the session will allow for introductions and a great opportunity for a participative brainstorming and feedback session of the Emerging Leaders focus group.

The Emerging Leaders focus group is AGA’s national sounding board for generation x and y thinking. Usually, the group holds a conference call on the first Wednesday of the month to offer opinions and insight for an hour on a specific topic near and dear to AGA. If you belong to generation x or y and it sounds like something you want to participate in, simply e-mail Jessica Jones at jjones@agacgfm.org. Fresh voices and ideas are always welcomed!

Today, there’s a bonus way for your voice to be heard—simply add your comments to this blog!

The AGA Blog is a great example of a potential topic of a focus group discussion for generation x and y members

• Has the AGA Blog become or do you foresee it becoming part of your daily routine? Why/why not?

• Do you have friends or coworkers in your generation that read blogs dealing with their profession daily?

Similarly, we’re curious what are generation x and y members perceptions of the CGFM—is it something you’re interested in?

Knowing why or why not, which can be different from one generation to another, can have a huge impact on the how AGA markets its products and services.

Past focus group meetings have solicited innovative ideas on:

• How to better recruit/retain Early Career members and how AGA can build loyalty with them

• AGA opportunities for mentoring

• AGA’s investment in recruiting full-time college students

Ideas generated in focus group discussions have already started to take action. For instance, in response to the desire for more informal mentoring opportunities at large conferences, AGA is arranging to have reserved tables at the PDC’s Monday luncheon, which will give those on emerging leaders hotel scholarship the opportunity to meet, talk with and learn from AGA leaders, such as National Executive Committee members and Past National Presidents and Treasurers.

So, what do you think about all of this focus on developing “emerging leaders”? Is AGA on the right path or is there a different avenue we should be taking?

Can you suggest an alternative way of referring to AGA’s current and future leaders who are in their 20s and 30s?

Is “emerging leaders” too similar and therefore cause confusion with the AGA label “early careers”?

AGA is YOUR organization. I’m looking forward to hearing what YOU think!

Changing the Face of AGA to Appeal to Generations X and Y

By: Kelly Stefanko, CPA

Kelly Stefanko, CPA, a member of AGA’s Virginia Peninsula Chapter, is the deputy city auditor, City of Norfolk, VA. She chairs AGA’s National Emerging Leaders Focus Group and serves as a member of the National Executive Committee.

AGA’s challenge to recruit, develop, motivate and retain key talent to meet its leadership needs is never ending. As younger leaders take over, their generationally-shaped workplace related habits, attitudes and values will reshape the organization. AGA should prepare itself for change.

Over the years through trial and error, the AGA National Office has accumulated a great deal of experience in what has and hasn’t worked with early career programming and has been responsive in tweaking its offerings accordingly. Great programs and incentives aimed at early careers already exist, some better known and used than others. While all chapters don’t have access to large populations of young professionals, all do face the challenge of succession planning and recruiting and developing new leaders.

Is being mindful of generational differences the way to attract future leaders? AGA thinks so and has ensured it keeps its ear on the pulse of 20- and 30-year-olds by establishing the National Emerging Leaders focus group. The focus group, which debuted March 5, provides younger members with a rare opportunity to be involved with AGA at the national level. In turn, they are charged not only to brainstorm ideas for how AGA‘s can better recruit and retain members from Generation X (currently aged 42 to 27) and Generation Y (currently aged 27 or younger) but also to help implement their suggestions by taking action on them at home in their local chapters. The focus group members, in becoming more invested in AGA, are a visible “front edge” of a new generation of leaders for the organization (coined “emerging leaders”).

What are some characteristics of the youngest generation in today’s work force (those 30 and younger)?

• High expectations of self: They aim to work faster and better than other workers.
• High expectations of employers: They want fair and direct managers who are highly engaged in their professional development.
• Ongoing learning: They seek out creative challenges and view colleagues as vast resources from whom to gain knowledge.
• Immediate responsibility: They want to make an important impact on day one.
• Goal-oriented: They want small goals with tight deadlines so they can build up ownership of tasks.
• Technology reliant and savvy: They communicate efficiently and quickly using electronic devices.

So, is it possible to market AGA as a collaborator to challenge the status quo, an avenue to gain self fulfillment, a constant in a workplace that might change many times over for some, an opportunity for volunteers who can only commit to short term leadership assignments and a leading edge user of technology so as to appeal to a younger generation? If so, how do we do it and what does it look like?

Is AGA’s investment in marketing to young people better aimed at new hires, more vested in the government with an existing job, than to college students who may not end up working in the government industry?

How can AGA quickly build value with young members who may not have the opportunity to attend its professional development conferences so they are apt to renew, particularly if membership costs them twice as much if they’re aging out of “early career” status and into full membership?

What are AGA’s competitors NOT providing that AGA should capitalize on in attempting to attract and retain young members?

Should AGA’s national conferences include a mentoring opportunity for first time attendees to be matched with a veteran conference go-er who can help make introductions and provide a model for networking techniques?

Younger people may be regulars at social networking through sites such as MySpace and Facebook, but are they “plugged-in” with blogs, such as this one?

These are the types of questions we’re posing to the Emerging Leaders Focus Group. What is your opinion on them? Let’s hear from you!

TOMORROW: Jesse Hughes, Ph.D., CGFM, International Consultant, on "Adoption by the U.S. of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards"

Questions on posting comments or wish to subscribe to the feed that sends blogs right to your e-mail? Find instructions here. Want to be our guest on the Blog? Contact Marie Force, AGA communications director, at mforce@cox.net.