US Army Audit Agency: Building an Agency of Leaders

"Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I learn." ~ Ben Franklin

The head of the U.S. Army Audit Agency, Auditor General Randall Exley, and his leadership team are on a mission. After 43-plus years of federal service, he has learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't in an organization. And his mission is to involve everyone at the organization he leads--the U.S. Army Audit Agency (USAAA)--in creating a culture of empowered employees and building an "agency of leaders" at all levels from top to bottom.

His team has been very successful so far. The Army Audit Agency has been named one of the top five Best Places to Work in the Federal Government by the Partnership for Public Service and has earned this distinction an unprecedented 5 years in a row. What makes the culture at USAAA so unique is how the staff--from entry-level personnel to senior executives--is empowered to lead. "It doesn't matter if you're a GS-7 or an SES; we all have something to learn from each other and we all have the capacity to lead," says Mr. Exley. He adds, "We are all leaders -- whether we like it or not. The way we behave, act, interact, and approach our lives and our jobs sets an example (good or bad) for others to watch and emulate. We may as well make it a good example!"

Established in 1946 during World War II, USAAA's auditors examine the full spectrum of the Army's operations and programs. USAAA's workforce of approximately 578 staff is organized into 17 functional and geographic audit teams and a support staff directorate. USAAA's headquarters is based at the agency's operations center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and has staff at 20 field offices--17 in the continental United States; the other three offices are in Germany, Hawaii, and the Republic of Korea. The agency's overarching goal is to be recognized as a model audit organization with an engaged workforce of respected professionals, guided by innovation and integrity, helping the Army overcome challenges in high-risk areas. Its core values are service, ethics, and progress, and its objectives are to help Army leaders solve problems.

Mr. Exley knows that leadership is not one-dimensional. According to him, it means identifying a higher purpose for the organization (meaningful work) and broadly communicating that vision through a variety of means and through personal example, such that you inspire your workforce to "take risks, embrace change, innovate, and eagerly follow your lead--even when faced with uncertain future outcomes."

"It involves being totally transparent, having the courage to act, setting the tone for high integrity from the top, and always doing the right thing, regardless of the consequences," he continues. "It means holding all accountable for their performance and conduct and persuading even the most skeptical followers to go beyond mere compliance and become advocates for the mission and the direction you set."

Mr. Exley became The Auditor General in 2010. From the start, he and his executive team sought to turn the traditional concept of leadership on its head. "We wanted to build a strong culture of totally open and free-flowing communications, constructive feedback, and sharing of new ideas throughout all levels of our organization. We wanted to institutionalize total transparency in our communications and in our culture." With this mantra of communicating broadly and deeply and leading transparently, he and his team has sought to "blow communications wide open and watch the walls crumble and productivity soar."

Mr. Exley's campaign to develop an organization-wide culture of leaders began several years ago, when, at his direction, the agency's human resources team developed and presented a comprehensive course on effective communications to 220 agency managers and first-line supervisors in a series of two-day workshops. That began the journey. Mr. Exley's team then created a handbook of communications principles from the course materials, and best practices gleaned from course attendees and an agency-wide survey. This book was disseminated to the entire workforce, and it continues to be updated as staff discover and implement new and better ways to communicate.

One persistent challenge in communicating is that USAAA's employees are geographically dispersed. When you never interact with your fellow team members except through email, texting, and telephone, it's challenging to build strong relationships. To address this in the second part of the journey, Mr. Exley's team created a course called "Partnering to Lead Teams" to foster stronger communication between and among various levels of supervisors and the teams they direct. During the weeklong course, GS-13 and 14 supervisors learned how to better communicate with each other. They were coached on improved partnering techniques, as well as job standards to take them through how they should work together on an audit's various phases. Supervisors got to know one another, understand each other's needs and expectations, and learn how to communicate more freely. The course fostered conversations most of the supervisors had not had with each other and when they returned to their respective field offices, they were armed with tools to help them lead their teams to even greater productivity and engagement.

This fiscal year, at the suggestion of one of his executives and for the first time in years, the agency is convening each of the 17 audit teams for weeklong team-specific meetings, giving many staff their first opportunity to meet their fellow team members. One day is devoted to a personality assessment exercise called "True Colors?." This is phase three of the journey, during which every team member, from GS-7 to GS-15, is learning about their own personality "color," and those of their team members, and how best to communicate with everyone as individuals each having different traits and tendencies.

Mr. Exley's years-long initiative to build an agency of leaders and develop a culture of empowered staff will culminate in FY 16 with the fourth phase, the first year of implementing annual 360-degree assessments. These assessments will provide a recurring and ongoing source of constructive feedback from team members, bosses, and peers on areas where a supervisor's leadership skills can be improved. Mr. Exley believes this final phase, learning to freely give and accept constructive criticism and feedback without defensiveness, and then act on it, is where the big payoff will come. Once everyone learns to share openly and frankly, unencumbered by the fears that commonly hold people back, they will have the means to continuously improve themselves and each other. He says, " We can then go from being among the best internal audit organizations in the Federal Government, to becoming 'the Secretariat' of the horse race far outpacing the competition. "

Mr. Exley understands that it will be hard for some supervisors to immediately embrace the 360-degree assessment concept. For that reason, he says the assessments will not be used in the supervisory rating process. Instead, the feedback will be used by the supervisors for self-improvement. Over time, supervisors will become more comfortable with receiving frank assessments of their leadership and the feedback will begin flowing openly.

Building an agency of leaders has involved a variety of approaches and numerous levels and aspects of the organization. For instance, eight to 10 GS-13s and 14s are regularly invited to formal Agency Leadership Meetings (three per year, previously attended by only GS-15s and SESs). Here, they observe the agency's collective leadership in action discussing organizational and audit policy issues, annual audit planning, organizational strategic planning, annual workforce survey results, and so forth. And, they are also asked to participate in the discussions and provide their perspectives. Staff members at all grade levels are also invited to monthly Audit Operations Meetings, either in person or via video-teleconference. During these meetings, leadership addresses performance metrics and reviews the status of USAAA's most important audits. Again, these guests are asked to provide feedback on their observations as well as their ideas. They are engaged and involved.

Leadership has also become a critical factor in being promoted. Rating and ranking leadership as a separate qualification factor requires panels and selecting officials to deliberately consider the leadership and interpersonal skills of candidates. Leadership is weighted as 20 percent for GS-13 Auditors-in-Charge, 30 percent for GS-14 Audit Managers, and 40 percent for GS-15 Audit Program Directors. "In this way we're making sure we promote people with the best combination of leadership and technical skills and not just the best technicians," says Mr. Exley.

Mr. Exley and his executives regularly visit agency field offices, using town hall meetings to inform staff of Agency happenings. Mr. Exley also personally presents a 3-hour course on leadership to everyone at every level in the field offices to help them understand the principles of leadership and their roles as leaders, and to talk about the differences between leading and managing. The distinction is important and so is imparting his belief that everyone is a leader whether they know it or not. "Whether it's their kids, their friends, their coworkers, or their clients--how they comport themselves and act is setting an example for those watching--good or bad," Mr. Exley says. "You learn from everyone--what to do from good leaders and what not to do from bad leaders. Our capabilities as leaders are shaped by our education, experiences, and what we take away from our observations of how others lead as we progress in our careers."

It's also critical that staff knows and believes in the agency's mission--to serve the Army's evolving needs by helping senior leaders assess and mitigate risk, and by providing solutions through independent auditing services. To that end, Mr. Exley developed a "We Serve Proudly Because . . ." message for both the workforce and the agency's clients to explain why we do what we do. It speaks to why the mission is important--the work auditors do benefits American Soldiers and civilians, their families, the Army, and the nation. "We wanted all to have a clear and succinct way of understanding and communicating why we do our work," states Mr. Exley. Every dollar we help Army avoid spending is another dollar available to better train, equip, protect, and support our Soldiers in combat, keep them safe, bring them home sooner, and care for them and their families. In doing our work the very best we can, we honor those who have sacrificed so much for us. The "why we do" message is on a large poster hanging in every field office, is printed on every publication and briefing, and increases the clarity of how USAAA's work directly and indirectly contributes to successfully accomplishing the Army's mission, goals, and objectives.

The ultimate goal of Mr. Exley's leadership team in breaking the bonds holding back free and open communications is to greatly increase the flow of ideas to ignite the organization's passion for success. He knows that there is a treasure-trove of opportunities those ideas will create, if they are successful in building an "agency of leaders."

Garnering a finish in the top five subcomponent organizations in the Partnership for Public Service's assessment of the Federal Government's Best Places to Work for 5 years running is an enviable achievement, but to Mr. Exley, it's an acknowledgement of what he already knows--that his organization is unique among many because his staff feels engaged and empowered to lead.

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U.S. Army Audit Agency