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From Typist to Leader:
A Story of Success in the Federal Government
By Kathy Ellis
Moving into the ranks of a mid-level Federal leader from an entry level
position is not an easy task. Examples of individuals who have made this
journey often provide compelling lessons in leadership, perseverance, and
dedication. The following leadership story outlines how one such leader
accomplished this feat and the lessons she learned along the way.
Mrs. L started her career with the Federal Government in 1976, at age 19, as
a Clerk Typist, GS-2, working for the Army at a Federal facility in Bluemont,
Virginia. She now works for FEMA at that same facility--at the GS-15 level
and as the Director of FEMA’s Operations Center. She is responsible for
getting FEMA’s response teams moving to respond to emergencies Nationwide.
Back in 1976, she was one of five Clerk Typists hired into an administrative
pool and then detailed to various offices. In a little over a year, she
moved into a Mail Clerk, GS-4 position. During that time her biggest
obstacle as a Mail Clerk was to survive the computer programming courses
that her Supervisor insisted she take to enhance her skills. She found out
very quickly that she was a great computer operator but programming was not
her strongest skill. In another year, her position was abolished and she was
offered another job as a Clerk Typist, but at the GS-5 level.
By this time the facility changed ownership to FEMA. She recalls that she
was “no longer working under the threat of more computer programming
classes,” and the new job proved to be very interesting. This is the point
she feels where she began her career path in earnest. Her new position was
in what was called the “Watch Center”. They worked 24-hours per day
processing emergency actions.
The Watch Center utilized a number of different communications systems, and
she became very interested in how they worked and asked to be trained on
them. She was persistent in her enthusiasm to learn and took every chance
she could to ask questions about how the systems worked and to be shown how
to work them. Within five years she moved into a Communications Control
Technician at a GS-7 level. She soon discovered that emergency operations
was the career for her and continued to work in the Watch Center.
In 1984, she took time off from work for the birth of her son. During her
maternity leave, she contemplated leaving government service in order to
spend more time with her child. However, during her absence management
gained a greater appreciation of her contributions and offered her a
position as an Operations Specialist, with a career ladder from GS-9 to
GS-12. She decided to accept this great opportunity for advancement and go
back to work. “I knew after being at home, that I truly loved working and
missed my job and contacts with my co-workers.”
Her career moved smoothly from 1984 to 1988 to the GS-12 level. By the time
she reached the GS-12 level, she decided it was time to set a new goal. She
was always volunteering for projects and constantly learning any thing new
that came into the center. In 1990, she was asked to take on additional
responsibility and was promoted to Operations Specialist, GS-13.
Her biggest challenges came during 1990-1998 when she was assigned to a
National Emergency Team and deployed on two different occasions to a
Disaster Field Office (DFO) for a two and a half week period. A third
deployment was for about a week and a half. This was hard on her personally
because she and her son are very close and he didn’t like Mommy
traveling…especially when she was missing soccer games! Up until this time,
she had made her way by working strictly at the same location, with an
occasional commute to FEMA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. But it was
during this time, that the agency and the Branch she worked in had started
to change tremendously. FEMA was really “taking on” the challenge of
disaster response and recovery.
The Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) located in each of FEMA’s ten
regions, were in need of cosmetic and operational upgrades and she was
selected as just the person for the job. She became Team Leader of a
“Readiness Team” within her Branch. This required extensive travel to
perform the assessments at each region. She would travel during the week,
return home for the weekend and then go out again. She did this for ten
consecutive weeks until she completed assessments in all ten tegions.
Needless to say, this was very tough on her family.
When the trips were completed and the report submitted and approved,
approximately $700,000 was devoted to the ROC project and FEMA had a viable
ROC capability in each Region. This project had high visibility and that
extended to her personally. She still feels proud of her contributions to
the continuing improvement process for the ROCs.
There were countless projects that she worked on during the 1990-1998 period
and many were projects that she willingly took on when no one else wanted
them or couldn’t seem to get them done. She has always loved a challenge,
and taking on the worst projects and turning them into a success was
rewarding. “While other people resist change, I embrace it. You know you can
always improve upon something.”
In 1999, she accepted the challenge of Branch Chief, GS-14. The work that
her Branch performed was very important to the Agency and the projects just
never seemed to stop coming. Again, she had the opportunity to make a
difference….taking on more than her share of the workload and together with
an excellent staff, she felt like she helped move mountains in that one
year. She also accepted a Group Chief position on FEMA’s Domestic Emergency
Support Team. This assignment required quite a bit of travel for both
meetings and Exercises. In addition, she was on-call 24 hours a day every
day during the year with a four-hour deployment window to Andrews Air Force
Base.
She believes her greatest challenge in leadership is maintaining peak
efficiency in the work place. “Keeping it up and making sure you never fall
back.” She places a high value on being current on training to stay on top
of the job. It is constant work and every year their training needs to be
reviewed and adjusted to keep pace with current events and technologies. She
believes training and hands-on practice are critical to keep her staff ready
for all types of emergencies. Keeping staff levels up and hiring employees
with the right skills is just as important. The FOC staff must rotate on
shifts to be available 24 hours a day every day and having the right people
suited to this job is critical. “I have a really great staff; that makes
this work.”
In 2000, her position description was reviewed and subsequently re-rated at
the GS-15 level, which is where she is today as Director of the FEMA
Operations Center. When asked if the challenges and demands of the job
continue into 2008, the answer is a solid "yes."
Mrs. L. reflects on her successful rise from a GS-2 to a GS-15 as a large
amount of hard work and sometimes a little luck in being in right place at
the right time to take advantage of an opportunity. To get noticed for
advancement, one has to be willing to take on additional job duties and
projects no one else may want. She emphasized that none of the advancement
came without personal sacrifice. There was a sacrifice that had to be made
each time she advanced. At first, it was just late hours that cut into her
social life but later, the job requirements cut into her family time. “It’s
not easy to balance a career and a family. “
Mrs. L believes to be a successful leader you must build on your credibility
and become someone others will turn to for getting things done. In regard to
managing personnel, she advises "Don’t forget where you came from, your own
struggles, and how you felt as you were working your way to the top."
©2008 GovLeaders.org
