Fort Belvoir, Va. –
Editor’s note: This article is part of the Women’s History Month series featuring some of DCAA’s women leaders’ perspectives on leadership.
Jacque Hlavin, Corporate Audit Manager, Northrup Grumman Corporate Audit Directorate, has been in a leadership role for over 20 years. Jacque credits her mother with giving her the determination to keep growing and learning. Her mother was a good role model and encouraged not only her but her sisters to strive for the best and to make a difference. Her advice for future female leaders is “Don't ever give up. We are all capable of doing an excellent job. Show your talents to all you work with and for.”
Jacque has followed this guidance as she progressed down her personal leadership path, which took many twists and turns, including a career change. Along each stop on her path, she grew her talent by learning new skills. She began with DCAA in California where she worked for the former Los Angeles Region and got her first supervisor position. Back then teams were larger and Jacque supervised a team of 10 auditors, eight of them trainees. It was a significant challenge, but working as a team and talking with each other about issues was a great benefit. From there, she became a Program Manager at DCAA headquarters and learned how to feel comfortable working with senior management. She then left DCAA, became a lawyer and was a council for a small disadvantaged business. She quickly established herself as a leader and also build a reputation for providing credible advice that, when followed, had positive outcomes. She then returned to accounting and was a manager at PwC, learning how best to interact with clients to make sure they got what they wanted and that laws and regulations were followed. Finally, she returned to DCAA and continued moving up to positions of more responsibility. In each position she became more comfortable working with others, senior management and those outside of the organization. “When you are a leader,” says Jacque, “don't be afraid to speak up but at the same time, think about who your audience is when you are briefing or just having discussions; and most of all have fun (it's good to laugh).”