Page 4 - The Leadership Line: October 2022

Paul Marshall

Vice President
How and in what capacity did you start working with Nasir?
I started working with Nasir when I first came to MIL as he supported the Taleo and Deltek
systems. He supported my efforts in recruiting and business development using those systems.

Please explain how Nasir learned about RPA. Did Other examples of interdepartmental collaboration
he express a desire to learn more? that you would like to share?
I’m not sure if Nasir had learned about RPA before I I like to collaborate as much as possible for multiple rea-
mentioned it, but I remember mentioning we should use sons including supporting proposal development based
RPA to automate some internal MIL processes. He was on work we do across the firm, giving staff a chance to
interested to learn about it and taking it on. rotate to new positions and grow in their career, and
How did Nasir prepare for the RPA role (new skills, having folks learn what we are doing on other projects
certification, seminars)? to bring those ideas to my projects and vice versa. Some
collaborations I have led include standing up our MIL
The first step was to take online training. UiPath pro- RPA Community of Practice (COP). We meet quarterly,
vides a multitude of free, online RPA training as well as share ideas, and have a Teams site, and a SharePoint
a free version of the software to play with. Nasir took the site where we share use cases, presentations, points of
classes and basically taught himself. He also worked a contact, training materials, and more. I’ve also collabo-
lot with a colleague who was an RPA expert and provid- rated often with VPs in DC and Charleston to give staff a
ed a lot of coaching and support. chance to take on new positions. We recently transferred
an RPA/AI developer from my team to Charleston and
I brought on a tester from another DC team onto my
project as an RPA developer, something he had not done
before and learned on the job.

Sydney Spells
Systems Administrator, Senior Analyst

Ensuring that employees grow personally, developing their ability to achieve more in the
workplace, retain top talent and meet the organization’s goals is important to MIL.
We recently chatted with Sydney Spells, Systems Administrator, Senior Analyst who has been
with MIL for 15+ years.

His focus and commitment to growth are obvious in his For Sydney, he began with finding a mentor. Sydney
journey with MIL. His career started as a Jr. System Ana- states that his mentor helped align him with the tools,
lyst and throughout his time with MIL, Sydney has held resources, and support he needed. “He gave me a list of
positions as an IT Technical Manager, Systems Adminis- goals to accomplish to get me to my development point.
trator, and his current position. He also allowed me to ask questions and participate in

Sydney spoke about his career growth at MIL and how some of his activities.” For Sydney, motivating other
team members can motivate each other in developing team members is about connecting with others that
their career goals. have similar goals and working together. Sydney states
that the best way to connect is through training and HR
socials.