{"id":29224,"date":"2021-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/managing-up-and-moving-up\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T14:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T19:48:09","slug":"managing-up-and-moving-up","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/about\/impact\/managing-up-and-moving-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing up and moving up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/i>Back to Impact<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n
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Managing up and moving up<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

How the Excellence in Government Fellows program helped one federal employee lead at the State Department<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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For more than 30 years, the <\/em><\/a>Excellence in Government Fellows program<\/em><\/a> has helped federal employees develop the leadership skills to solve government\u2019s biggest challenges. Today, EIG is the premier leadership development course for career civil servants working in GS-14 and GS-15 positions. Offering a rich curriculum, personalized coaching and ample networking activities, the program instills in government leaders the core competencies and values of our <\/em>Public Service Leadership Model<\/em><\/a>, the new standard for effective federal leadership. Manuel Medrano is one of thousands of government leaders who have enrolled in\u2014and benefited from\u2014EIG. Read more below to learn how the program helped Medrano become a leading cybersecurity expert at the State Department.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manuel Medrano realized he wanted to become a public servant during a family vacation in Washington, D.C. Impressed by the grandeur of the city\u2019s federal buildings, Medrano\u2014then a college student\u2014pledged that he would one day work in one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Medrano is on the cusp of a 10-year federal career that has taken him from working as an information technology specialist at a USAID outpost in Kabul, Afghanistan to serving as a supervisory cybersecurity specialist at the State Department\u2019s Cloud Program Management Office in the Bureau of Information Resource Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this role, Medrano oversees, directs and monitors cybersecurity programs that protect the office\u2019s enterprise cloud assets\u2014tools that store and process data, such as servers, databases and data storage architecture. The office has been critical in helping State Department personnel work abroad safely and effectively, supporting \u201cmobile diplomats\u201d who work overseas and regularly need to share and communicate information electronically with foreign organizations and individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medrano\u2019s career might have evolved differently had he not enrolled in the Excellence in Government Fellows program. The program\u2014or EIG\u2014offered Medrano top-notch executive coaching, practical curriculum and new network contacts that enabled him to become the leader he is today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Manuel Medrano, supervisory cybersecurity specialist, State Department<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Initial skepticism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before Medrano joined EIG, he viewed training programs as obligatory commitments that did not help him do his job better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest, I was very skeptical when it came to training. I was like, \u2018Oh, here we go, another check-the-box training,\u2019\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Medrano carried this attitude into the EIG program. He missed the first session due to a work commitment and did not expect anyone to notice until his coach called to follow up. When Medrano insisted he had to miss the first meeting, the coach warned him that he would have to work doubly hard to catch up and encouraged him to keep an open mind about the course.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medrano called the conversation a \u201cgame-changer\u201d that illustrated how direct and honest communication could resolve sticky situations. He has drawn on this lesson to be a more communicative leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>After that, I felt more confident to be open-minded and actually have those crucial conversations. That\u2019s important to become a better leader,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Managing up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This confidence enabled Medrano to deliver change and earn promotions at State. When he joined the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in May 2018, for example, he pushed his supervisors to begin collaborating with the private sector to beef up the bureau\u2019s threat intelligence. They initially rejected the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medrano credited the EIG program\u2014and a book it assigned called \u201cCrucial Conversations\u201d\u2014with providing him the communication tools to get his bosses to buy in.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to manage up and get my boss to support me and the director to support me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing up eventually helped Medrano become the deputy division chief of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security\u2019s Cyber Threat Analysis Division. He believes that the EIG program played a critical role in this promotion by making him a stronger communicator and more confident innovator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medrano\u2019s coworkers noticed the change. When he left the bureau, they gave him a spoon as a going away present in recognition of his ability to \u201cstir the pot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy director said that he had noticed a transformation that I went through while doing [EIG],\u201d Medrano said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“My director said that he had noticed a transformation that I went through while doing [EIG].”<\/p>\n