# Innovation, motivation are hallmarks of award recipient’s leadership style

/ Published Oct. 12, 2021
Richmond, Va., 
Workplace motivation is one of the great challenges faced by today’s leaders. Dan Oros meets this challenge head on by demonstrating how his team’s work contributes to Defense Logistics Agency’s vision to be innovative, adaptable, agile, accountable and focused on the warfighter always.

Oros, a supervisory chemical engineer in the Hazardous Info Program Division of DLA Aviation’s Engineering Directorate, is the DLA Aviation July Leadership Award recipient.

                (Courtesy Graphic)                            White receives March Leadership Award: nurtures success through relationships                            (Courtesy Graphic)            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: Natalie SkeltonVIRIN: 200826-D-D0441-1001The award recognizes leaders who promote and demonstrate the four dimensions of transformative leadership: idealized Influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Summer Conley Payton, a supervisory chemist within the division, nominated Oros for the award.

“Dan provides inspirational motivation by presenting a clear vision of how the Hazardous Info Program Division’s mission fits into DLA’s strategic vision,” Conley Payton said. “He has connected DLA’s hazardous materials sales volume to the health and safety data, which the division processes into the Hazardous Material Information Resource System, and he has emphasized the impact of missing safety data sheets on material availability and the potential impacts on the warfighter.”

Oros also guides his team with transparency and organizational awareness, Conley Payton said. Regardless of position, every team member is given insight into the division’s impact on agency-wide initiatives and on how those initiatives affect each team member’s work processes.

Oros said team members at all leadership levels should understand their work’s impact on the strategic vision and vice versa.

“All employees, regardless of position, want to know that their work is valued and has a positive impact on others. Our division is staffed with dedicated professionals who execute a unique program—the [Defense Department’s] Hazard Communications Standard, which impacts the health and safety of our service members and civilian counterparts worldwide,” Oros said.Oros said his team understands that if a hazardous material user is exposed or at risk of exposure, that user depends on the team to help protect and preserve his health. “It’s a mission we take pride in and that we’re humbled to execute,” he said.

As a leader, Oros continually challenges his team to set high operational standards, encouraging them to practice innovation at work.

“As an example, Dan challenged the division to establish [safety data sheets] and national stock number verification processes. This inspired his team to create a compliance screening tool and establish verification standard operating procedures to ensure that our warfighters are not only properly informed of the material hazards utilized in the execution of their respective missions, but that they are also protected from possibly receiving non-compliant assets,” Conley Payton said.

Oros makes sure to take the extra step with his team members, recognizing and rewarding individual exceptional performance. Under his leadership, Conley Payton said, six employees have been recognized as division Employees of the Month, and two have received this recognition on the DLA Aviation level.

“I’m blessed to work on a team of superstars who are dedicated to the production work we execute, and we recognize their achievements as much as possible. Because of the culture we have established, employees will volunteer to take on special projects—the results of which have made the employees more productive,” Oros said. “I am in my 22nd year of federal service, and I can honestly say I have never worked on a team that is more willing to share their knowledge and skills for the betterment of others. I couldn’t be prouder of being part of this team.”