NAVAIR Leadership Development Program Spotlight

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — Using skills learned in a leadership development program, a NAVAIR program manager recently contributed to an award-winning Navywide information technology (IT) initiative.

JoAnne Wallmark and the IT Acquisition Approval Process Team won a Department of Navy Chief Information Office IT / Information Management Excellence Award for their work implementing the Navy Information Dominance Approval System (NAV-IDAS). This Web-based, automated Navy tool tracks IT expenditures and provides a process by which the Navy can achieve IT procurement transparency, reduce its IT footprint, better contain costs and ensure compliance with IT statutory and regulatory requirements.

Originally developed for use within NAVAIR, the team built the new system in just six months. Beginning in January 2012, they also standardized the process across the entire Navy. Wallmark and the team continue to update the system to integrate new functionalities and incorporate customer feedback.

As part of the NAVAIR Leadership Development Program (NLDP), Wallmark served on a rotational assignment for the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon. There, she shared the new process with Navy echelon II command information officers and oversaw the NAV-IDAS rollout and training effort over eight months.

Wallmark credits her success with leading a project of this scope and complexity to the time she spent in NLDP, where she said she learned valuable lessons on fostering teamwork, encouraging collaboration and influencing people to help create cultural change. While working at the Pentagon, she also learned about Department of Defense and Navy operations, she said.

“The classes really opened my eyes to how NAVAIR fits in the big picture,” she said. “One of the best lessons you get out of NLDP is teamwork. In several of NLDP’s leadership courses, we worked through teambuilding exercises that consistently demonstrated the importance of teamwork to the success of a project.”

Stephanie Gleason, NLDP program manager, said the classes are experiential in their approach and offer hands-on leadership training simulations.

“In these times, leadership skills are more critical than ever,” Gleason said. “I am reminded of a quote from NAVAIR Commander Vice Adm. David Dunaway: ‘While each of us brings something unique and valuable to the table, our greatest strength and opportunity is our ability to work together to solve problems and share our successes so that others may benefit.’ JoAnne’s work on the NAV-IDAS project put her problem solving and leadership skills into practice, so now individuals across the Navy can benefit from this project’s success.”

NLDP, the command’s flagship leadership program, is designed for high performing NAVAIR employees with demonstrated leadership potential, such as Wallmark. The three- to five-year program focuses on leadership and AIRSpeed Black Belt training. AIRSpeed helps reduce cycle time and cost and ensures NAVAIR’s processes contribute value to the end product or result.

Wallmark said the opportunities she has had in NLDP — mentoring, rotational assignments and job shadowing senior leaders — enriched her life, both personally and professionally, and strengthened her ability to lead.

“NLDP, and my experiences at the Pentagon, certainly tested many of my preconceived notions and helped me learn so much about decision- and policy-making within higher echelon commands,” she said. “In the past, I had always felt a bit ambivalent about career development programs; I soon changed my mind after a short time of being engaged in the program. NLDP is well structured and offers valuable opportunities.”

Find out more about Wallmark’s team and their award.