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GCN Home > 04/19/04 issue

Clinton Swett - DFAS: Adapt and improvise

By Richard W. Walker, GCN Staff

At DFAS, Swett combines Corps values with open lines of communication

In the Marines Corps, leadership style has few nuances. You issue an order. You expect it to be obeyed.

But as CIO and director of the Technology Services Organization at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Kansas City, Mo., Clinton Swett has had to modify that one-way-street style of leadership.

At TSO, he leads six divisions and about 380 software engineers. Staff includes government-service employees, active-duty Marines and industry contractors.

“A pure Marine Corps leadership style has to be adapted to work in this environment,” Swett said. “It’s a little tricky to try to manage three diverse groups and keep them all working homogeneously.”

One reason is that his employees don’t always just accept a directive without question. They ask why.

As a result, a free and unrestricted flow of information is central to his approach to leadership. Swett said he has had to adopt more of a coaching and communications style. “I’m a firm believer in a lot of communications both ways.”

To facilitate communication, generate team spirit and foster a unified commitment to achieving common goals, Swett devised a comprehensive communication plan directed at all his employees.

Every week, for example, he sends out a Director’s Corner e-mail to employees—he calls it a mini-state-of-the-organization address.

“I’ll admit that it’s a chore, but I won’t miss a week for anything,” he said. “I’ll even do it remotely if I’m on vacation.”

Frequent meetings also are a staple, including strategic planning sessions with division heads and top staff members, monthly meetings for middle managers, Marine officers and GS-13s and above, and monthly Director’s Chats with employees randomly chosen from all levels.

Swett also holds All-Hands Meetings at least quarterly. “I’ll usually pick a topic and try to pass on the organizational strategy and direction to everyone so they can see how they fit into the bigger picture,” he said.

To encourage feedback, he caps All-Hands Meetings with a question-and-answer session he calls Stump the Chump. “Everyone is allowed to submit anonymous questions,” he said. “Everything’s a fair question. They’ll try to ask me questions that are tough and hard to answer—which is what I want.”

Swett has even taken Stump the Chump online. Employees can submit queries via a box on the organization’s internal Web site. Swett tries to post answers within a week.

While altering his leadership style to cultivate communications and dialogue with his employees, Swett retains a core element learned during his 20-year career in the Marines: He instills a refuse-to-fail attitude in his managers and employees.

“We will accomplish the mission. We refuse to fail at anything we do,” he said. “My style is still very Marine Corps.”

Swett, 42, enlisted in the Marines out of high school and became a computer technician and programmer on command and control systems.

Along the road in his Marine career, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics system management from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and a master’s in IT management from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

Swett arrived at DFAS in 1995 when he was still in the Marines. After four years, he retired as a major, then spent a year as a contractor before becoming a government-service employee. He was named CIO and TSO director in the summer of 2001.

TSO’s chief mission is to develop and maintain applications for major customers including the Marine Corps, the Navy and internal DFAS business lines.

Thus he has to provide leadership on the technology front.

“We need to be out there always looking for the next business opportunity—to be automating something and making it more efficient,” he said. “We can’t just sit here and assume that when we finish what we’re working on, we’re done. You’re never done.”

Keeping a sharp eye open for new technologies is crucial. “It’s an ongoing challenge to stay abreast of the latest technologies—to keep everybody looking forward to the next big thing and not be worried about last big thing,” he said.

“It’s like being a shark,” he added. “If you’re not moving forward, you’re going to suffocate.”

But leading his troops through challenging technological seas is no problem for Swett.

“His depth of experience and technological expertise are uncommon in upper-level management,” a DFAS colleague said.
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