Activator • Innovator • Collaborator • Educator • Cheerleader for the Greater Good
CX LEADERSHIP
Activator
Reputation
Opportunistic idea connector
Community builder
Fixer
Toolbox
Data
Design
Inspiration
My Principles for Leadership
Approach
all situations with an awakened heart, a sense of curiosity and wonder, and a desire to have fun
Courage
to seek feedback and solace in self, team, and tribe
Honor
the dignity of others by being fully present
Power
through self-disclosure, radical candor, and vulnerability
Thoughts from the Office of Customer Experience
Jeremy Emmert, CX Strategist
I have been working since I was in high school. Off-hand, I have worked for bosses in the private sector, in the military, in Congress, in education, and in the federal government. I have never had a boss more committed to ensuring that employees realize their full potential than Jeleen.
I can say that I am a better employee and leader in my own right because of Jeleen. I gained so many new skills under her leadership that I can truly identify and that enhanced my understanding of leadership on a practical level.
Lianne Hibbert, CX Strategist
Jeleen's leadership strength is demonstrated by her ability to energize and transmit the vision of a future state to staff. I relished the opportunity to work in an environment where creativity, innovation and collaboration was highly encouraged, as evidenced by the idea that together we test and learn so that we "fail forward."
Lula Wallace, Chief of Staff
THE POWER OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
"Government empowers others to empower themselves"
Click video below to learn about the Zoo Animal Health Network, a cooperative agreement I oversaw between the US Department of Agriculture, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the University of Illinois. Truly a customer experience effort, where I pulled in those most impacted by our government policies and regulations to design their implementation. I brought together zoo and aquarium specialists, university scientists and federal and state emergency responders to co-create best practice all-hazards preparedness guidance for captive exotic wildlife.
Curious to see where the project went after 2013? Still going strong, since it was built by the people, for the people most impacted. ZAHN is now the Zoo and Aquarium All Hazards Partnership, with a list serve of over 1000 members, multiple annual regional preparedness meetings across partners, a biosecurity strategy, and a grant program for captive wildlife facilities planning for disasters. Click the website image to check it out!
LINKING EMPLOYEES TO THEIR CUSTOMERS
Over the last year that I’ve been serving as the Acting Chief Customer Officer for the US Department of Agriculture, the most accurate warning I’ve heard about Customer Experience in the federal government is this: You will be hated until you are loved.
Getting a 100,000+ person organization comfortable with curiosity—humility, even—for wondering what their customer really thinks of how they’re serving them is no small feat. Feedback, pain points, and radical candor are really inconvenient when they get in the way of best-laid plans. But in the last year—even though I definitely haven’t gotten to that “loved” stage—I have seen, inch-by-inch, the power of connecting your employees and customers together to jointly solve mission critical problems.
One of our CX Strategists defined CX as “the perfect antidote to the me-first attitude,” which so accurately captures what happens when public servants firmly tether their “why I come to work” to the people they serve. Equipping your organization with human-centered design skillsets and the ability to visualize real-time customer data ignites employees' engagement with their work and unifies an organization towards a common cause with exponential and infectious impact.
I saw the truth in this at USDA's recent Impact Expo, for which I led the planning from concept to implementation, where we celebrated the success of many of our customer-focused initiatives. Click video and buttons to learn more about the Impact Expo.
