While Emily's experience and education are impressive, it's not just her passion for her work that is making an impact – it's her commitment to leveraging her unique leadership style to shape culture and build a sense of community with her team.
Emily, who has been selected numerous times to represent General Dynamics Mission Systems at college career fairs, really connects well with prospective employees and effectively shares the importance of our vision and mission. As a result of her passion for her work and ability to represent our culture, she has influenced numerous applications.
"Emily compliments her strong engineering skills with her emotional intelligence of people, and she is leveraging this to help us attract our next generation of innovative engineers, which is invaluable," said Lauren Faulkner, advanced talent acquisition specialist with General Dynamics Mission Systems. "Internally, Emily is diving headfirst into employee engagement opportunities, always giving 100 percent, is positive, and great with everyone she works with."
Added Lauren, "She's also highly involved with the Fair Lakes ForWARD chapter, a women's employee resource group, and she works with our intern program as both a lead for the Fair Lakes intern group as well as an ambassador during orientation. She makes herself available even though her schedule is crazy with work and school – Emily's currently working on her master's degree in computer science – but you would never know it!”
Sharing Her Perspective on Changing Culture
For Emily, there are two parts to motivating and engaging her team members. "First, it's important to create a team culture since we are all working towards a common goal, and when the team is successful, it should be celebrated," Emily says. "On the other hand, when the team is going through a rough patch, having a sense of camaraderie and a 'we are in this together' mentality can be really motivating."
"The second part is I try to engage people's interests and find opportunities that play to their strengths," Emily adds. "While it's not always easy to combine both, ultimately you come out with knowledge and experience that you didn't have before."
Bringing Her College Experience to General Dynamics Mission Systems
Emily is committed to driving the type of culture and sense of community she experienced at Virginia Tech at General Dynamics Mission Systems. "Without engaging with my classmates in college, I would have missed out on so many opportunities and new interests, and so I try to bring the same type of engagement to the workplace," she says. "I think there's always something to learn from others, and some of my best ideas have come from collaborating."
Currently, Emily is expanding her reach and making an impact on programs she's passionate about. "I like to learn about the current process of a program and come up with ways I can improve it," she adds. "Right now, I'm involved with the engineering internship program, college recruiting, the ForWARD employee resource group and the ELP."
Emily encourages colleagues to join her and play a role in creating a culture at General Dynamics Mission Systems where everyone can thrive. Her advice is to set the tone by leading by example. "Be inclusive, take time to engage with your colleagues on a more personal level, both individually and in a team setting, and look at starting an employee resource group to meet others that share your same passions/interests."
