Innovation Mindset

Should You Be a Public-Sector Leader?

Led by: Seth Harris

This workshop will consider the traits and skills that are often identified with leadership and give you some tools for assessing whether you would be a good public-sector leader. The workshop builds on two models of leaders: the traits model and the skills model. These models overlaps, but they provide different answers to the question, what does it take to be a leader?

Professor Seth Harris has been a public-sector leader, as Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor and Deputy U.S. Secretary of Labor, and he has taught public-sector leadership at Cornell University and in a certificate program offered by eCornell. His workshop will offer a small taste of a much larger body of work on public-sector leadership. And he looks forward to taking your questions.

Understand the traits and skills commonly associated with effective public-sector leadership through the traits model and the skills model
Analyze the similarities and differences between the traits model and the skills model to better understand diverse leadership pathways
Apply self-assessment tools to evaluate your own potential and readiness for leadership roles in the public sector