Dear Bureau Pat,

I was in a meeting today and I overheard my GS-15 boss say he had an FEI moment?  Most of us looked at him cluelessly, but his SES boss and another GS-15 both nodded knowingly.  I've heard of the Federal Executive Institute (FEI), but what does this expression mean?

Dear Fascinated,

Your boss is a member of the elite federal club of Federal Executive Institute (FEI) graduates and was indicating that with the FEI version of a secret handshake. Don't expect him to explain it to you lowly serfs.  Luckily, Bureau Pat is willing to spill the beans.

FEI was established in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who recognized the critical importance to increase the capacity of top civil service executives and professionals within the federal government. FEI is located at Charlottesville, Virginia.

The landmark course to enhance senior leadership is called Leadership for a Democratic Society (LDS) - not to be confused with the other LDS (Latter-day Saints) - which is a four week program designed to improve the leadership skills of senior career federal government executives to enhance their individual performance and the performance of government agencies. The program focuses on four themes: personal leadership, transforming organizations, policy in a Constitutional system, and the global context for executive action.

To get to the crux of your question, typically seventy executives are enrolled through a competitive process into an LDS session, where members are broken into Leadership Development Teams (LDTs)... because you just can't have a government program without a new set of jargon and acronyms. Since executives spend a great deal of their time in these groups and work closely together for the 4-week period, they need to develop group cohesiveness quickly.  Guided by a professional facilitator, the group is asked to share a personal moment that is meant to make the person vulnerable but enhance trust within the group.  That is were the FEI moment typically comes into play.

These vulnerable moments (past or present) are meant to make you feel sympathy and create emotion and you will be surprised what issue your team members have in their past or present and is part of their make up.  They range from normal to outrageous and may include cheating spouses, abusive relationships, poverty, death/near death, personal recovery, etc. When these heart-wrenching situations are presented, either the individual or the group as a whole gets emotional and sheds a tear or many.

That is a FEI moment.  It may be the one thing that humanizes your current leadership because in most cases they have to be a rock for everyone else to lean on.  Just know that even those in leadership positions may have/had rough experiences and were not all given a silver spoon or easy ride to the top.  It is how they dealt/deal with these difficult situations that makes them a good or bad leader.

The Only,
 

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