Frasier believes in creating conditions that will let her colleagues succeed. Give people the right resources, office setting, equipment and training and they will live up to their responsibilities, she said.

Her role as manager is “to guide, serve as a resource and point [employees] in the right direction,” she said. “People are our greatest resource. We are a team. It’s important that people who work with me operate as a team—with the emphasis on with.”

Teamwork not only means doing the work together, but giving credit where it’s due. If her colleagues shine, she is not stingy with recognition because, she said, their success reflects well on her and the organization.

Last October she and her team completed a restructuring that reduced the number of acquisition offices at NIH from 18 to 10. Instead of simply ordering certain offices to be shuttered, she brought together her own people, representatives from program offices, NIH executive officers, human resources and other stakeholders. The result was a highly visible process that stayed on the front burner at her agency, she said.

What’s wrong with top-down? “To make [a restructuring] work, you need to have everybody on board,” she said. Her team “worked tirelessly” with people who had concerns. Committees were established and colleagues talked with those who voiced objections until everyone recognized the benefits of the restructuring and were willing to support it.

The collaborative approach also made everyone aware of a major issue facing her office—the aging of the workforce. Almost a third of her people are over 50 and only a handful are under 30. She has implemented a number of programs to address the problem, including large-scale hiring, training and internship programs and the employment of presidential management fellows—all programs thaat will help the leaders of tomorrow emerge, she expects.