Those lessons came home to her in 2002, when she helped develop and complete the first performance budget for the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration. The agency was gearing up to meet goals

Esther Johnson (Image: Drake Sorey)

in the President’s Management Agenda, and Johnson, with a background in unemployment insurance and research, welcomed the challenge to learn more about financial management.

“One of the pieces of advice I got from a former manager was, ‘You concentrate on the budget side of it. Don’t worry about the accounting side of it. The accounting works really well in the agency, so that will kind of take care of itself.’

“Little did I know, until I got in there, that these things go hand in hand,” she recalled. “And there is no such thing as one side working well, taking care of itself, and you concentrate on just one piece of it. You’ve got to concentrate on both.”

She had not been on the job long before the inspector general had sent her 12 major findings about accounting problems, she said. “I knew, wait a minute, I’ve got to learn something about accounting here.”

Johnson went to work learning more about budgeting and accounting practices (and was later named comptroller for the Employment and Training Administration). “I had to be able to make sure that all these major findings that were outstanding in the financial management area were taken care of, resolved or at least in the process of being resolved,” she said.

"With the precious few resources we have in government, you have to find a way to make everyone a working part of a well-oiled machine."

In the end, she learned that “you don’t really listen to the advice of others except on the surface. You really have got to go into an office and understand not just the culture of the office but you’ve got to understand the major functions of the office and how they work.

“Even before you can determine what needs to be done or what your resource needs are, you as the administrator, you as the manager in charge have to have an in-depth knowledge of what these functions are before you can try to improve them. That is real, real important.”

Johnson, who has held a series of leadership positions at the Labor Department, moved to her latest position in March—national director for the Job Corps. Since its start in 1965, the Job Corps has become one of the nation’s largest educational and training programs, sponsoring 122 centers to serve disadvantaged youth between 16 and 24.

In her opening months as the program director, Johnson said she has spent much of her time trying to fashion a new vision for the Job Corps, aimed at improving how the program prepares young people for entry-level jobs in high-demand occupations and instills the confidence to go on to college.

Most Job Corps participants stay from eight months to 11 months at centers, and Johnson thinks they should be staying 18 to 24 months. That allows for time to earn a general educational development certificate or a high-school diploma and also scout potential employers for jobs that match interests and skills, she said.

Johnson’s career underscores the importance of learning. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Virginia Commonwealth University and a doctorate in educational administration from Virginia Tech. Her career began in 1976 as a math teacher for children of military personnel stationed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va. After other teaching jobs and summer work at the Labor Department, Johnson joined the government as a full-time employee in 1990. A decade later, in 2002, she joined the Senior Executive Service.

Johnson believes that successful leaders take care of their employees, providing them with training and other resources to do their job. Good leaders also find ways to recognize and reward employees, she believes.

“I don’t like seeing people pushed to the side,” she said. Employees who have been tagged with the reputation of “can’t do anything” should not be left on their own but brought into the fold, Johnson said. “You don’t overlook anyone. ... You try to work hard with a person to find out what can this person do well.”

Fostering teamwork in an office improves communication and permits leaders to set priorities for meeting workloads, she said.

“You don’t ignore anyone in your office. ... You can’t afford to do that. With the precious few resources we have in government, you have to find a way to make everyone a working part of a well-oiled machine.”

Stephen Barr writes the Federal Diary column for The Washington Post and hosts an online discussion, Federal Diary Live, each week at washingtonpost.com.