Jerad McIntyre, a civil engineer with the Special Projects Program, was named the 2015 Emerging Leader for the Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, last month.
“I was honored that out of more than 800 employees, the Center’s leadership thought enough of me to name me as the Emerging Leader,” McIntyre said. “I am continually awed at the amount of support I have been given since I started working for the Center last October.”
As a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) emerging leader, McIntyre represented Huntsville Center at the Executive Governance Meeting in Washington, District of Columbia, Aug. 3-7.
The theme of the meeting was “Leading Agency Change,” which included seminars on planning for the future, successful partnerships, and emerging innovations. McIntyre, with 14 other emerging leaders from across the Corps, were given the opportunity to discuss current Corps issues with top leaders.
“We were able to ask questions and talk with Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick (U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of USACE) and Maj. Gen. Richard Stevens (Deputy Chief of Engineers and Deputy Commanding General), who gave us insight into the Corps on many issues including leadership,” McIntyre said.
“They also answered questions we had about the Corps itself, where we were going, and what some of the issues are.”
One issue discussed during the meeting that hit close to home, McIntyre said, was leadership acknowledging the additional skill sets and value of employees who have deployed with USACE.
“I have been deployed, so I understand the difficulties faced by those returning from a deployment. Leadership wants to ensure a full one-year reset for those coming back,” he said. “They also discussed acknowledging the accomplishments of those who had deployed, as well as acknowledging those who had covered for their jobs while they were away.”
McIntyre said that overall the meeting enabled him to better understand the importance of communication skills which were highlighted as a key talent during the meeting by USACE leaders.
“Surprisingly to me, listening was stressed more than most other parts of the communication process,” he said. “Once I learned this, I immediately realized how well some of our foremost leaders are doing this. They were able to process what they had heard earlier in the week and then communicate these comments, as well as their thoughts, to others later in the week.”