Capitol Secrets with Bill Leighty

Happy Friday, everyone. It's Joe Morris here with In Case You Missed It in GovTech, flying solo today. And that's while Dustin, uh, is enjoying a well-deserved vacation. But I've got a great guest that's going to be joining me here in, in a moment, a longtime senior fellow with the Center for Digital Government and former chief of staff for 2 governors in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Bill Leidy.

Bill.

Thanks for joining me.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you all for having me on In Case You Missed It. All right.

Well, it's such a pleasure to have you and to have the opportunity to talk about your book. Before we dig into that, maybe you could share with our audience a little bit about yourself and your background in the public sector.

All right, Joe. Well, thank you. I started my professional career really as a United States Marine. I spent 4 years in the Marine Corps. When I left the Marine Corps, I went to college and got a master's degree in business administration and immediately went to work for the Virginia Department of Taxation as an economist doing quantitative statistical things. And it was a pretty high-level position to start out with, and I ended up working directly with a number of Virginia governors. So I worked my way through the bureaucracy In a number of state agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Taxation, the Virginia Retirement System, several stints in the governor's office in various capacities, and ultimately became chief of staff to Governor Mark Warner. When Governor Tim Kaine was elected, he asked me to stay on, so I served as chief of staff to 2 Virginia governors before retiring in 2007.

That's amazing. You didn't just work there, though. You're selling yourself a little bit short. During your tenure of working there, the Commonwealth was voted, you know, and awarded by Governing Magazine the best managed state in the nation, and then you personally received some recognitions from Governing as well a little bit later as a Public Official of the Year. Maybe you could share with the audience what were some of your proudest achievements or key initiatives that helped contribute to both those recognitions?

Well, you know, as a Chief of Staff, my job was to be behind the scenes, but I did take the lead in creating Virginia Performs, the performance management system for the Commonwealth of Virginia, oversaw a lot of the relationships with the cabinet and the reportings of the cabinet to the governor. I put into place fairly extensive reporting requirements by the agencies, weekly reports to the governor and documentation about what was going on within each state agency to keep the governor apprised of our 121,000-employee, $75 billion organization. It's not an easy thing to keep and ride herd over.

You know, your expertise in performance management didn't just stop in the Commonwealth and your accolades there. You helped do a performance review with the UN and their pension fund, the Government of Scotland. What contributed to that interest in performance management, and why do you think it's so important for the public sector?

Well, Joe, I think because my background was in econometrics and quantitative statistics, I always had a natural inclination to want to measure things. And as a consequence, measuring things and how things get done within the agencies that I worked in became both a passion and, quite frankly, an obsession at times in terms of Making sure that we were measuring the right things, which is always a difficulty in performance measurement because you tend to start by measuring the things you can measure rather than the things you should measure.

You know, the last couple years have thrown a lot at states and localities, right? The pandemic, the availability of federal funds, record levels of federal funds. What opportunities do you see for states and localities to improve in performance management today?

Well, you know, it's kind of interesting because the pandemic's been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing side of it is that we did learn that employees can be, in fact, be productive in nontraditional office settings. And the dispersal of work out there became much more universal. And a number of CEOs that I've talked with and worked with over the years have said that They've seen productivity actually increase with remote working. Of course, the downside of that is that there's nobody going to offices, and so the economies around traditional office spaces are certainly suffering. But I guess in terms of things going forward, I think in particular customer service, the dispersal of customer service agents to the more friendly home environment where they can still do all the work they need to do, but do it from home and still have the cat running around in the background as they're talking to people is something that needs to be looked at more.

So, you know, I want to pull the string a little bit on 2 things. One, you mentioned the shift to remote work, the concerns over productivity. Now that you've got government agencies that have been at this remote work now for a couple of years, we're seeing organizations start to pull employees back. We're seeing others kind of continue with this hybrid work environment. Any advice for those that are tuning in and public sector employees at large in terms of how do you continue to foster that culture of productivity?

Well, fostering the culture of productivity, the one thing that is missing when you're doing remote offices, the day-to-day, you know, talking over the water cooler interactions that you have and the camaraderie that you build When you're with somebody, you know, 8 hours a day. So you have to stay very attuned to making sure that you do things like— one of the folks I work with today, we're having our Friday cheers moment where everybody's getting together on Friday for an hour or so to talk to each other about what's going on. You know, who's had a baby, how's the baby doing, you know, how's your wife doing. The more social interaction that's there, but Employers need to be fairly proactive in making sure that kind of thing happens and keeps that going on. You know, Joe, it would, it would be remiss of me not to mention one other real big opportunity in remote learning that employers need to make sure they take care of. And that is remote learning has now given the handicapped community an equal opportunity to be part of a workforce. For years, The less-abled community has been saying, you know, give us some remediation, give us some accommodation by allowing us to work at home. And that's always fallen on deaf ears. Now we know it can work. And so one of the things that I would put a plug in for, for all employers is to make sure you're reaching out to the less-abled community and seeing that there's not an opportunity for them to join your workforce.

And I do, and I appreciate that point. I do want to come back to the customer service, you know, that you were talking about earlier. We've seen on our digital state surveys, our digital cities, our digital county surveys now for several years, the government experience or resident experience or customer service priority is retaining its spot. Like, I think it's like the number 2 overall priority and it's staying there. Given that so much effort going behind improving the customer service, What do you think it is in some agencies or departments that may be either driving that priority or preventing the public sector from delivering upon the promise of better customer service?

Well, I mean, I would think that the thing that's the barrier to delivering excellence in customer service is also the greatest opportunity, and that's the use of technology. You know, we— I was talking with one of my business partners today who was talking about how he had a problem with one of his storm doors, and he got on the phone to Andersen Windows, and they took his phone, they took the camera over on his phone, and he was showing them the piece that wasn't working right, and they diagnosed the problem electronically on the spot. You know, that technology exists to help everyone, but we do not have in place in most— I won't say most, but in many government agencies the level of technological assistance for customer service that needs to be there.

All right, so Bill, kick this off. We talked about that you had a book that's recently come out. It's available for purchase on Amazon and, you know, where all great books are sold online. What prompted you to write your book about your experiences in the public sector?

Well, Joe, my book is very much a Facebook book, if you will. I'm a big contributor to little stories on Facebook, which I've been doing for a decade or more. And so whenever, you know, I would— something would prompt my memory about something that happened within state government, you know, when the Queen passed away, I posted a bunch of things about my interactions with the Queen of England when she was here in Virginia in 2007. And as I would post these short little stories, people would say, To heck with the stories, Bill, write a book. And so actually a year ago, I sat down and took all of the stories that I posted on Facebook, loaded them into a Word document, moved them around, and started thinking, wow, there's actually something here. So I wrote the book. The book starts talking about my service in the Marine Corps, talks about all of the time I spent in the the bowels of state government as a research economist and analyst, and my interactions with learning the legislative process. I spend a lot of time talking about my 7 years as the director of the Virginia Retirement System. And then one chapter called On Becoming Chief of Staff, talking about what it takes to become a chief of staff and what it's like to be a chief of staff. I have a whole disaster chapter on the many disasters that as Chief of Staff I helped assist with. Hurricane Isabel, Hurricane Katrina. I spent time down in the EOC in Katrina for Governor Blanco on loan to her from our state. The Beltway sniper, Virginia Tech fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, which is fairly significant. There's a whole chapter on the Queen's visit herself when she came in 2007. When the British ambassador called the governor to tell him that the Queen had decided to make Virginia her first stop on her trip to the United States in 2007, while we were holding for the governor to get online, the ambassador asked me, who's your chief protocol officer? Well, most organizations in the U.S. don't have a chief protocol officer. We didn't have one, so I just said, it's me. And so little did I know, because I was about to learn what a Chief Protocol Officer did, I had a very close interaction with the Queen and with Buckingham Palace in arranging her trip here. And so there's a whole chapter on that as well. I have a whole chapter called Shenanigans, which talks about some of the more innovative, creative, and duplicitous, if I might say, ways I got things done. during my career. And then a chapter called It Seemed Like a Good Idea that recounts— it seemed like a good idea at the time, which recounts all the mistakes I made in my career.

Well, I think that that combination of entertaining stories, but also that those practical lessons are going to help our audience that, you know, cracks the COVID of your book with some practical advice on what it takes to succeed in the public sector. You know, as you look back at your experience in the public sector, You know, what advice would you have for people to create that same enjoyable and meaningful career?

Well, number one on my list of things to do to have a successful career is to build a network and to really work on carefully cultivating that network and using that network and the tools that are available to expand that network. When I went to work for the Senate Finance Committee staff, this chairman said, you know what your job is now, don't you, son? I said, I think so, sir. He said, your job is to know the answer to every question I may ever be asked. I said, yes, sir. And he chuckled and he said, you know, you're a bright young man, but you're not that bright. But what you can do is build a network professionally and socially that is so wide and so strong that you will always know who knows the answer to the questions I may be asked. And he said, and Bill, if you build it with trust and openness, Not only will you always know who knows the answers, but in many cases they will tell you the questions I'm going to be asked before I'm asked them. And so my goal from the very beginning of my career was to build a strong network. That's rule number one.

That's, uh, it's powerful advice. I mean, earlier you spoke to, you know, that, uh, improvisation obviously is an important factor in terms of, uh, your interactions with, with the Queen's staff. Now you've got the, uh, the powerful advice in terms of building the, uh, the network of, uh, associates and mentors and, and, and guiders. Uh, what about digging into that significance of an experience of working with such powerful, uh, individuals? Your experience with governors, how, how difficult and important is it to, is it to speak truth to, to power and to engage and, and deliver some of that difficult, uh, you know, uh, advice or guidance to To those level of individuals?

Well, it's incredibly important. The, you know, really good leaders surround themselves with people that are willing to do that, that are willing to say, you know, Governor, I appreciate what you're trying to say, but that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Mark Warner as a governor was very much like that. He really liked that give and take. He called it pushback. He said, you know, I don't want a whole bunch of people around me that aren't gonna give me pushback. And so, When he made decisions, he liked to have 10, 15 people in the room arguing with him and with each other about what the right and wrong thing to do was. And that gave him, I think, much more credible results as a result of hearing both sides of the story. That was another axiom that Senator Willey, when I went to work with him, taught me, which is any old fool can tell me how I should do what I should do, but it takes a really special person to be able to tell me 10 reasons why I shouldn't do it first. And then still convince me to do it. So that give and take is this incredible important part of telling the truth.

As you wrapped up your book and you sent it to print and you look back at your tenure in public service, what was that— was there one thing or several things that stood out that you said, hey, if only I knew this back then, I would have been more successful?

Oh, wow. Well, I, I guess, um, if I can rephrase the question just a little bit, uh, Joe, if you don't mind, um, the, the biggest reflection that I think that I got after, after I finished the book was the remarkable people that I was able to work with over the history of my career. You know, I had the opportunity to have a private audience with the Queen of England. I gave Tom Hanks a private tour of Virginia's Capitol in the middle of the night.

Wow.

I had drinks with Sean Connery. I had a beer with Clint Eastwood. Some pretty remarkable individuals. Dinner at Bill Gates— with Bill and Melinda Gates when they still were a couple. Pretty remarkable set of circumstances only available to me because I chose a life of public service. I never would have done those kind of meetings if I stayed in the Marine Corps, that's for sure. As I looked at all of that, what really was most remarkable to me were the, the men and women that I served with, the rank-and-file people, the neighbors that, you know, the people just like you and me, just regular people that went to work every single day to pursue the noble purpose of serving others in government that I was able to work with. And that to me was probably the most remarkable thing about the book was how starkly it brought forward to the fact that Yeah, I had a great career. I had a lot of fun, but I certainly didn't do it myself. I had a remarkable set of people that did all the work. Certainly I gave some guidance now and then, but it was others who deserve all the credit.

Well, those opening remarks made you seem like you might be state and local's James Bond based on all of your interactions there. That's pretty impressive and such a a powerful message in terms of all the people that you collaborated with and worked with to achieve the success that you and the organizations had that you were a part of. For our audience, those that are in the trenches of state and local government today, those that are aspiring to be those next generation of leaders, or those that are serving the public sector on the industry side, what advice would you have for them in terms of either contemplating a career in public service or taking that next step?

Oh gee, Joe, what a setup that is. Obviously they need to buy my book and read it. You know, in my book I talk about the fact that, you know, I handled floods, earthquakes, agricultural infestations, a number of situations. And what I say in the book is that there's a lot— this is not a textbook, but there's a lot to be learned by reading this book. And hopefully many of the things that you can learn by reading this textbook, you won't have to experience yourself. You know, being in the EOC in the middle of a race riot is not something that anybody ever set out as a career goal, but it does happen.

So where does our audience go to get your book?

It's available on Amazon. It's available on Barnes Noble, both. Both locations are pretty quick shipping overnight, actually, at this point, is what I would recommend.

Great. Well, Bill, thanks so much for joining us and taking time out of your Friday to share a little bit of your insights and expertise in the public sector and telling us a little bit about your book.

All right. Can I close with one real quick story?

Absolutely.

So as I mentioned, I did an awful lot of work for the Queen when she was here in 2007. And they have a ceremony called Final Farewells, and people that had a significant role in her journeys are each given a 5-minute private audience with the Queen as she leaves the country where she visited. I was one of 9 individuals given that honor. I walked in the room, I stopped 5 paces in front— 5 feet in front of her, as I'd been instructed to do, and I went to bow, and instead I curtsied. And she just roared with laughter, and she looked down and she said, young man, Of course, to me, to her, I was a young man. Young man, wars have been fought over less. Why do you Americans even bother? And so it was a wonderful, special moment of interaction, and those— that's indicative of the kind of stories that are in this book.

That's great, and I hope our audience picks up some copies, especially over the weekend. Nothing better to do than to crack a good book, and there's tons of lessons in there. So again, Bill, Thanks so much for joining us and sharing your expertise with us.

Thank you, Joe. Thanks for all that GovTech does.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.