Recipient of the 2010 Excellence In Leadership Award

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CITATION FOR 2010
USGS EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARD

Deloris F. Gale

Deloris Gale consistently demonstrates that leadership qualities are a natural and integral part of her personal life and work ethic. As the Administrative Officer of the Mississippi Water Science Center, Deloris encourages her staff to exemplify an attitude of service and respect to all staff members regardless of position or grade. She is a natural communicator and peacemaker when conflicts arise and encourages co-workers to focus on the positive aspects of any challenge they face. As a minority female she is keenly aware of the importance of diversity and is personally invested in those efforts. She actively recruits minority students and solicits human resource funding to support minority students throughout the Center. In 2010 Deloris volunteered for the Eastern Region Diversity Sub-council. In recognition of her leadership qualities she was immediately elected to chair the group and in short order gained RD approval to fund an annual award for the Center that demonstrates outstanding commitment to diversity. As the AO she is at the crossroads of financial and human resource issues and actively promotes collaboration among the Center’s three sections to assure a smooth and successful operation. As a result, the staff has come to appreciate and rely on her services and communication skills to insure their success.

Deloris has outstanding interpersonal skills as recognized by the broad spectrum of people she comes into contact with both at the MSWSC and at other levels of the agency. Whenever she has occasion to interact with another Center to provide assistance she inevitably is praised for her competence, positive attitude, cheerful spirit, and exceptional communication and motivation skills.

Deloris’ management style is focused on customer service and cooperative working relationships. She is frequently required to meet strict deadlines and adjust workloads to accommodate changing priorities but she manages to accomplish these tasks with a minimum of drama and stress. Her personal attitudes regarding cooperation and service are contagious and have transferred to her staff to the extent that her unit routinely receives praise from staff members at all levels of the organization.

Updates to agency policies and systems have generated more change in administrative processes than any other aspect of Science Center operation. Travel, purchasing, time & attendance, and financial accounting systems have all gone through significant changes in rapid succession. Deloris frequently volunteers to be a pilot location for new systems which gives the agency the benefit of her exceptional skills and experience, keeps our Center ahead of the curve, and puts her and her staff in a position to provide assistance to other Centers when the new systems are rolled out. This dedication to facilitating organizational change has provided far-reaching benefits to our Center and to the USGS.

Resource management is a critical skill for successful project and program management however; most project managers receive little or no formal training on this topic. Deloris and her staff provide an exceptional level of support to assist Center staff in this area. Deloris has designed mechanisms and products to summarize and convey the status of funding and human resources for each individual project account and takes the initiative to organize individual discussions with project staff in advance of scheduled project reviews so that project managers are completely appraised of their situation at critical times during the year and have the opportunity to make the adjustments necessary for project success. This effort is typical of the initiative and attention to detail that Deloris applies to resource management.

Deloris’ technical competence has been recognized repeatedly as she has been called upon to participate in administrative reviews or provide direct assistance to other Centers during closeout or the launch of a new system but was most notably recognized this year when she was asked to become the Acting Chief of the ER Branch of Fiscal Services. The complimentary response to her performance during this detail was typical of virtually every situation in which she has opportunity to demonstrate her excellent leadership capabilities.

During the frequent accolades Deloris consistently defers credit to others and serves as an ambassador for the MSWSC and the USGS. It is unlikely that a more deserving candidate exists for the 2010 Excellence in Leadership Award.

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