Emerging leaders finish development course

Courtesy Photo | Rick Davis, Defense Finance and Accounting Service Internal Review director, center, poses with four DFAS employees, Christy Hall, Kristen Hershberger, Megan Bodkin and Ray Musser, after a ceremony at the Department of Defense Executive Management Training Center in Southbridge, Massachusetts, June 15, 2018. The foursome completed the four-month program geared toward emerging leaders within various organizations. (Courtesy photo)  

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, UNITED STATES

06.22.2018

Story by Christopher Allbright 

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

INDIANAPOLIS, June 22, 2018 – Learning leadership skills from an insider's point of view was a valuable skill four Defense Finance and Accounting Service employees said they learned during a four-month Defense Civilian Emerging Leader Program.
Megan Bodkin, Christy Hall, Kristen Hershberger and Ray Musser were among 144 program graduates recognized during a ceremony at the Department of Defense Executive Management Training Center in Southbridge, Massachusetts, June 15.
Based out of DFAS Columbus, Hall is a Special Projects Office division chief, Hershberger is a Target Business Systems branch chief, and Musser is an Internal Review auditor; and Bodkin is Accounting Systems Integrated Systems Support division chief at DFAS Indianapolis.
As the course title suggests, this four-month development program provides learning opportunities for DoD civilian employees in the grades of GS-7 through GS-12 "to serve as a foundation for future development as responsibilities increase," according to the course syllabus.
The training made an impression on Musser as he said he found the discussions and activities revealed participants' strengths and weaknesses as people and as leaders.
Discussions cut across disciplines and working environments, and the participants said they found it to be stressful at times but very rewarding as they had very open and frank discussions in an open forum.
"Having a chance to share my experiences and hear different perspectives on leadership strategies was very enlightening," Bodkin elaborated.
The training was built on basic leadership competencies as the emphasis is on building leaders who can examine themselves, be self-directed and lead others while establishing their baseline for further growth and development.
The DFAS foursome traveled once a month to Massachusetts for the training with weeklong sessions focused on one of the course objectives, which included:
• knowing oneself,
• expressing oneself,
• building teams,
• leading people, and
• understanding the DoD.
With an exposure to differing viewpoints, participants said they created "strong and cherished" bonds by demonstrating teamwork in class activities, sharing their thoughts on topics and having meals together during sessions.
According to Hall, she learned more about herself and how to become a better, more effective leader.
"I was able to network with my counterparts across the DoD while learning valuable tools that were practical and could be applied to my day-to-day life," she said.
The training is also aimed at giving participants a platform to focus on each objective extensively while networking at the same time.
"This training far exceeded my expectations and was different from anything I've experienced in the private or public sectors," Musser said.
"The relationships fostered with my team members were the biggest takeaway for me," Bodkin echoed.
The participants said they discovered their exercises pointed toward a final project to complete within their agencies.
For Musser, his paper discussed the use of analytics and how "big data" could be "used to identify relationships between the data not previously discovered and find efficiencies to do things better and reach our goals defined in the strategy" within DFAS audit readiness.
Employees were selected for this course through a competitive application process from across the DoD. DFAS candidates completed a comprehensive packet and were interviewed by a panel of senior DFAS leaders before their nominations moved to the DoD level. The process took several months before they were notified of their selection.
The DFAS graduates of the program encouraged their fellow employees to challenge themselves by applying for this and similar training.
Hall said that she would highly recommend it because it would help the person grow both personally and professionally.
"We have many awesome leadership courses available to us at DFAS," she added.
For more information about leadership development opportunities and the mentoring program, check out the Leadership Development page.

• Date Taken: 06.22.2018
• Date Posted: 12.31.2018 17:36
• Story ID: 305931
• Location: INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US