WHO SHOULD APPLY

Driving Government Performance is designed for senior executives with the explicit, operational responsibility for producing results and improving performance in public agencies. For this Executive Education program, Harvard Kennedy School specifically seeks to recruit high-impact leaders who have a subtle appreciation for the nuances of organizational and human behavior as well as the management skills necessary to put the ideas and philosophy of performance leadership into action.

Other public officials may find the leadership concepts and performance principles useful in their current position. Such officials include: political assistants to elected executives who seek to understand the strategies that they can employ to help the agencies in their jurisdiction to ratchet up their performance; legislators who seek to develop new approaches that the legislative branch can utilize to help improve the performance of individual agencies. These officials should recognize, however, that the curriculum has been created to address the strategic challenges facing senior executives who have the moral and political obligation to exercise the leadership necessary to produce real results.

Driving Government Performance is primarily aimed at U.S. state, local, and federal organizations as well as nonprofits and non-governmental organizations that deliver public services. Senior executives from outside the U.S. are welcome to apply and could certainly benefit from the program; they should note, however, that the cases used to illustrate the program’s performance principles come from the U.S.


“The insight I gained from Driving Government Performance will help me to critically examine problems and challenges for their value as opportunities for constructive change.”

Viola Baskerville
Secretary of Administration
Office of the Governor, Commonwealth of Virginia