WASHINGTON-- In one of her last public addresses in her current role, Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, Surgeon General and U.S. Army Medical Command commander, challenged the Department of the Army civilian leadership and workforce to excel in all its engagements.
Speaking before a luncheon gathering on Oct. 14 -- the final day of this year's Association of the U.S. Army's (AUSA) annual convention -- Horoho called on them to do so because, she said, employee engagement levels are declining across the federal government, "our Army included."
The problem needs to be addressed now, Horoho asserted, because Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley "has told us our number one priority is readiness and there is no number two." Responsibility for readiness, she added, "does not stop with Soldiers."
Citing the oft-repeated adage "good enough for government work," Horoho recalled that its origins during World War II "meant that the work could pass the most rigorous of standards." What was once a "statement of pride" later took on "an ironic meaning of poorly executed work and further defined our nation's perception of its federal workforce."
Horoho called for a civilian workforce that is "willing and allowed to put forth the effort required to deliver the products of their mission to the highest possible standards." She further contended that "engaged employees or disengaged employees are an outcome of your effort … to build a relationship around, and have a consensus expectation about your organization's culture, brand, value trust and mission."
Engagement, the Surgeon General outlined, "is an indicator of the collective strengths and weaknesses of:
1. The alignment of your culture to your mission and the behaviors each team member displays are consistent with the organization's culture;
2. The strength of your brand;
3. Your organizational values and how well each team member lives those values;
4. The level of the trust team members have for each other and for their external stakeholders;
5. Each team members perceived value and belief in the organization's mission."
"You don't fix an engagement with an engagement strategy," Horoho remarked, "nor can you buy it: it is not a thing but a commitment, a way of being. In Army Medicine we'd say it's an outcome."
For one to sustain optimum performance, she added, one needs to be "asking questions in relation to these five variables:
Is your culture defined and is there organizational consensus?"
What is one's brand and what is affecting it "positively or negatively?"
What are one's personal values, one's organizational system of values? "Are you and team members living those values and applying them to your mission?"
Trust is essential because "it's where the employer and employees become a team, not opponents … transparency must exist."
Finally, is the mission defined, or "has it changed or is it changing?"
Evoking the convention's theme, Horoho concluded that "if we are to win in a complex, uncertain world, we need the certainty of our civilian workforce."
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