THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
KLMNO
S THE FEDERAL WORKER
On Leadership
6views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/fedcoach.
FEDERAL DIARY Joe Davidson
Feds honored for ‘pride and passion’ to their jobs W
ith the sticks and stones thrown at federal employees in recent months, verbally and sometimes with lethal force, it’s refreshing when ordinary workers are honored for extraordinary accomplishments that really are routine parts of their jobs. Wednesday afternoon, first
lady Michelle Obama met with federal employees who are recipients of this year’s Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. The winners received their medals at a gala Wednesday evening. In a letter read at the gathering, President Obama said, “Federal employees do their jobs with pride and passion, protecting us from threats abroad and at home, keeping our promises to our veterans and seniors, and performing many other vital services that keep America moving forward.” The medals have been
presented annually since 2002 by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. This is the first year the awards carry the name of Heyman, the organization’s founder, who died last year. The winners were selected from more than 400 workers nominated by their colleagues. Max Stier, the partnership’s president and chief executive, said the awards demonstrate “our government has an ever-replenishing set of amazing people.” The winners also demonstrate, he said, the too-often overlooked “value of investing in their workforce.” Pius Bannis, a field office
director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Haiti, took the highest honor: Federal Employee of the Year. He was honored for his work helping hundreds of Haitian orphans find new families in the United States after the earthquake that devastated the island nation in January. “When I get news about the children and how they are settling in . . . that just makes me very, very happy,” Bannis said during a luncheon at The Washington Post in honor of the winners and finalists. “It makes me feel the effort was worth it, it’s really worth it.” The other winners are:
Jeffrey M. Baker, Science and Environment Medal. He led the design and construction of the world’s largest net-zero energy office building, a 220,000-square-foot structure in Golden, Colo. Net-zero means the building generates as much or more energy than it uses. Baker is director of laboratory management for the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He said the work demonstrates
that “by focusing on energy performance in the earliest stages of design, others can achieve similar performance on their own projects to help achieve our national energy goals.” Sandra K. Brooks, Homeland Security Medal. She uses innovative techniques to gather information about drug
SUSAN BIDDLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Federal Employee of the Year Pius Bannis with cousin John Finn, center, and daughter Judith Pierre.
Jeffrey M. Baker
Sandra K. Brooks
Teri Glass
Shane Kelley
extremely gratifying,” she said. Susan Solomon, Career Achievement Medal. She is a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose research on climate change “demonstrated how changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped,” according to the Partnership. Her work is far too complex for
Jamie Konstas
Eva Ristow
trafficking. As deputy director of intelligence and security for the Joint Interagency Task Force South, a network of federal agencies, she promotes advanced technology to detect stealth vessels that have been used by drug smugglers and could be used by terrorists. She said her work helps the nation “to stay a step ahead of our adversaries.” Teri Glass and the Army Medical Support Systems Team, National Security and International Affairs Medal. They developed life-saving medical evacuation equipment that has saved the lives of Americans wounded in combat. Glass and the team created a kit that allows a wide range of vehicles, including Humvees, to be quickly converted into medical evacuation transportation. Glass said the most rewarding
part of her job is “knowing that we play some part in a wounded warrior’s chances of survival.” Shane Kelley and Eva Ristow, Citizen Services Medal. They brought increased Social Security services to residents in remote sections of the country,
Checkpoint Washington
6washingtonpost.com/checkpoint
Two weeks ago, The
Washington Post reported that the military was struggling to convince U.S. troops that many of them were eligible for back pay because they had remained on duty beyond their original discharge date. The military had mailed letters to eligible troops and veterans and mounted an extensive publicity campaign. The reaction from many of
washingtonpost.com Q.
How do you think your federal benefits stack up against benefits offered with a comparable job in the private sector?
E-mail your answer to
federalworker@washpost.com and include your full name, home town and the agency for which you work. We might include your response in Friday’s Washington Post. When answers are particularly sensitive, we will consider a respondent’s request to withhold full identification.
them was skeptical. Free money? Couldn’t be. Now the Pentagon and the
Department of Veterans Affairs are calling in major PR support: President Obama. In a Web video, the president is encouraging active-duty troops and veterans who were subject to the military’s “stop loss” policy to apply for the special retroactive pay to which they are entitled.
“As your commander in chief,
I’m here to tell you that this is no gimmick or trick,” Obama said in the video. “You worked hard. You earned this money. It doesn’t matter whether you were active or reserve, whether you’re a veteran who experienced ‘stop loss’ or the survivor of a service member who did. If your service was extended, you’re eligible.” — Jason Ukman
TODAY’S FED PAGE The Influence Industry
Despite support from the Supreme Court, there has been increasingly less disclosure of funding sources for “issue” campaign ads. A23
The Cable
Top Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are promising to oppose the defense bill because of its language on gays in the military and the possible insertion of an amendment on immigration. A23
Susan Solomon
Saskia van Gendt
particularly Indian reservations, by using two-way video connections located in public facilities such as libraries. Their work “has increased the number of benefit applications by nearly 80 percent among Native Americans at some of the reservations,” according to the partnership.
Ristow said she gets her kicks
by finding “new and better ways to provide service to the public.” Kelley put it this way: “I try to
serve America through my work by doing whatever I can to bring the government to the public rather than expecting the public to find the government.” Jamie Konstas, Justice and Law Enforcement Medal. The FBI intelligence analyst helped develop a national online database that the partnership said “resulted in the conviction of more than 600 pimps and predators, and the rescue of more than 1,150” child prostitutes. She described her work as “more of a passion than a job.” Helping her colleagues in law enforcement bust pimps who prey on children “has been
my feeble mind to grasp, but Solomon’s enthusiasm is contagious. “So many people are curious about understanding the planet,” she said, “and I love those moments when somebody says, ‘Oh, now I get it.’ ” Saskia van Gendt, Call to Service Medal. She is an Environmental Protection Agency scientist who developed an online competition to recognize building designs that reduce environmental impact, by cutting waste and minimizing energy consumption. Asked whether she would recommend a career in the federal service, van Gendt echoed other winners. “Definitely. It’s been very rewarding,” she said. “The range of experiences you get is really, really rewarding. You learn a lot . . . and you can see the impact on multiple levels.”
federaldiary@washpost.com
The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service have a content-sharing arangement.
The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and The Post’s On Leadership site produce the Federal Coach, hosted by Tom Fox, director of the partnership’s Center for Government Leadership. The goal is to “engage, inspire and learn from you, the federal worker, whether you are a new hire, a contractor or a manager at the highest level.” Share your ideas and questions at
fedcoach@ourpublicservice.org.
Gregory B. Jaczko is chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Before his tenure at the NRC, Jaczko served as appropriations director as well as the science policy adviser for Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). For the third consecutive time, the NRC ranked first in federal government rankings of best places to work, the latest of which were released this month.
How do you continue to keep your employees engaged in the NRC’s mission and work? We listen to our employees. I think what is really incumbent upon me and the other senior managers is to make sure we listen to figure out, “What do you need in order to best carry out our mission?” Communication is one of the
biggest keys to being successful in this kind of position. You have to communicate not only what your direction is, but then also hear from your employees about how they would solve the problems that are coming up. It’s never easy to be sure that you’re encouraging dissenting views to come forward, but we strive to create an environment where people feel comfortable raising a different view than what may be the mainstream. That requires a high degree of trust between managers and staff. It’s something where there’s no end, but you work on it continuously to refine, improve and enhance. How often do you directly communicate with NRC employees? I try to communicate at least on a weekly basis through a blog that I’ve started. It may be issues that are of large global importance to the agency or sometimes smaller issues that catch my attention. I found that it’s an informal way to keep in touch with the agency. Once a year, I also hold an open house where I open up my office to everyone in the agency. It gives me a chance to meet people who I may not have an opportunity to interact with directly. I try to keep lots of different avenues open for communication, but fundamentally it comes through the tremendous work of the senior managers — who ultimately have the job to communicate with the staff and to bring those views to my attention and all of the leaders at this agency.
How can federal leaders effectively build relationships?
Be proactive and reach out to people. The first time you communicate with someone shouldn’t be in the middle of a crisis or when there’s a problem. You need to build those relationships early. One of the first things I did
when I became chairman is I worked to reach out to a wide variety of stakeholders, groups and organizations [to] establish a dialogue and let them know that they could reach out to me. You have to continue to build those relationships every day, and it’s something that is a foundation for everything I do.
What did you learn about leadership working on the Hill, and how have you applied this knowledge at the NRC? One of the things I learned in working for Senator Reid was the importance of building consensus and, more important, working across the aisle. The most successful people on the Hill were people who were able to do that, and it was certainly a lesson I took with me to the commission. On so many issues that we face as a nation, there are different viewpoints, and it’s important to hear other people’s views and what their thoughts are on issues. You may not always agree on solutions, but it’s important to have that dialogue and respect the people who disagree with you and learn how to build those collaborations.
How do you manage your time? If there’s any silver bullet, it’s to hire really good people to help you — and that’s what I’ve found with time management. I look for people who can help organize my day and time. One of the bigger challenges is having the time to step back and think. That’s one of the things that I’ve found I need to build into my schedule so I can have some time to think and focus on the bigger picture and not only on the myriad issues that crop up in any day and need to be dealt with and addressed. I’ve found that if I don’t specifically set time aside, it doesn’t ultimately get done. So I set aside time specifically to do that longer-term planning and thinking.
Who is your leadership role model, and what lessons do you take away from their example?
I learned from my parents the
importance of treating others kindly and having strong values in the decisions that drive you.
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