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Government Leader home > June 2005 issue
June 2005; Vol. 1 No. 2
FOCUSING ON EXECUTION
By Richard W. Walker
For Gwendolyn Sykes, NASA’s chief financial
officer, the ticket to successful leadership is
keeping a relentless focus on execution.
“By relentless focus, I mean the discipline associated
with translating a vision or a strategy into a desired
result,” she said. “You have to recognize that there will be a
lot of hard work, organizational changes and cultural
changes that you’ll have to work through to make sure
you stick to the vision and get the desired result.”
Sykes knows all about executing a strategy and seeing
it through.
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| | "We’re holding the managers accountable for execution and performance." Gwendolyn Sykes, NASA’s chief financial officer | |
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When she arrived three years ago as deputy CFO for
management, NASA was beginning migration to full-cost
accounting to comply with the Government Performance
and Results Act and to improve program performance.
Talk about cultural change. The new approach required
NASA’s managers, largely scientists and engineers, to play
an integral part in budgeting and financial management.
“We’re engaging [managers] in a full-cost environment
that brings them to the table with us when we’re ready to
put together a budget for their programs or projects,”
Sykes said. “We’re holding the managers accountable for
execution and performance.”
Many scientists and engineers, whose minds are usually
on more celestial things, didn’t get it at first.
Sykes’ answer was to launch a financial-management
training program for nonfinancial managers. One-week
courses are led by budget and financial staffers from
NASA headquarters and from its centers.
“It creates a forum for [nonfinancial managers] to
have conversation with the CFO’s office,” she said.
Sykes’ career in government finance began in 1987,
when she took a post at the Defense Contract Audit
Agency. Before coming to NASA, she helped streamline
financial-reporting requirements and develop electronic
financial-management reports for the Under Secretary
of Defense Comptroller’s Office.
She was named NASA CFO in November 2003. “I’ve
been having fun ever since,” she said.
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