TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

Federal managers are expected to leave government in droves starting next year. The Office of Personnel Management forecasts that more than 500,000 employees, representing about a quarter of the federal workforce, will leave government between 2009 and 2013.

Among those retirees will be information technology executives and managers in charge of large programs, leaving a leadership void that could put agencies and their programs at risk, say senior federal executives. Agencies will be looking for leaders who can take over multibillion-dollar IT programs, motivate staffs and work with executives and political appointees.

But the retirements also bring opportunity, a chance to examine what kind of leadership government needs and to hire leaders who have those skills. But what kind of leadership? How does government attract those leaders to public service? And, quite simply, what do we mean by leadership?

To find out answers to these and other questions, Nextgov.com traveled to Lexington, Va., to talk to Kenneth Ruscio, president of Washington and Lee University. Ruscio has studied and written extensively on leadership, what it is and how to teach those skills. He also oversees the Johnson Scholarship Program, which the university established last year after it received an anonymous $100 million gift to fund 44 scholarships and two professorships to teach leadership theory. Ruscio is no stranger to government. He served from 1981 to 1982 as a postdoctoral research fellow in the program analysis division of what was then the General Accounting Office.

During an interview in his office this summer, Ruscio offered his insights into what leadership is, what kind of leaders government should look for and what that means for information technology.

Watch the interview.