LeadershipITE Class of 2014 – The First Chapter
Amir Rizavi, PE, ENV SP
Senior Project Manager, VHB, New York, NY
(Previously published in the Transportation Consultants Council Fall 2014 Newsletter)
The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) 2014 Annual Meeting was held in Seattle, WA in August. On Sunday, August 10, 2014, a day before the main events of the conference commenced, a small graduation ceremony was held for 30 individuals from the LeadershipITE Class of 2014. It was the perfect validation to an idea that was envisioned several years ago—the first of, hopefully, many such celebrations to come. An idea that started as a vision at a meeting of the Transportation Consultants Council (TCC) Executive Committee has now become reality under the chairmanship of Michael Sanderson who championed the program, and, with support from the ITE Executive Board, had the conviction that the program would be a success. Looking back, it feels like our scholastic year in the program went by swiftly. The memories and friendships, however, will be everlasting. It was truly an honor for me to be part of the first graduating Class of LeadershipITE, and I would like to congratulate all my classmates and thank them for a terrific year.
ITE established LeadershipITE, a program to identify, develop, and engage leaders for the future of ITE and the transportation profession. The application process was rigorous requiring us to provide well thought out responses to questions/issues such as: identifying the three biggest challenges to the profession in the next 20 years; how we planned to use the experience gained from the LeadershipITE program to advance ITE as an organization; how transportation currently fits into and influences society and quality of life; and how we think the profession should change, etc. Recommendation letters were an integral part of the application process as well. The “Class” comprised 30 individuals from across the US and Canada with diverse backgrounds (public and private sectors), and together, we embarked on a yearlong journey during which time we established lifelong friendships, while learning skills essential for leadership within our respective organizations and within ITE.
The leadership development workshop took a three-pronged approach. It encompassed a two-day workshop during each of the three times the “Class” met in-person. The workshops were focused on aspects of team building, networking, soft professional skills, and included assessments and interactive activities. The training armed us with information and awareness on critical elements such as Leading Change, Leading People, Leading Strategically, and Leading Collaboratively.
We all first met in Washington, DC in November 2013 to kick start our training sessions with Glenn Tecker (of Tecker International), and with the intent of meeting ITE Staff and spending time with the ITE International Board of Direction (IBOD) members. While in Washington, DC, we were also briefed by experts on the latest transportation policy issues in Congress and the Administration. We all left Washington, DC thrilled that we were part of what seemed to be a promising program, and with ideas for our class projects which we would then work on for the next nine months. We were divided into five groups of six individuals each. The following topics were chosen as individual group projects since it was felt that these issues were important to the profession and to ITE:
- Recruitment and Retention of Young Professionals
- Enabling the Incoming Workforce to meet Projected needs of the Transportation and the Engineering Professions
- Breaking the trend of Auto Dependency
- Defining ITE’s Role in Transportation Advocacy
- ITE the “Go To” in Complete Streets
The “Class” met, in person, again in Miami, FL at the ITE Technical Conference in March 2014. The individual project teams had started to talk amongst themselves with ideas for a preliminary draft presentation to the IBOD during the Technical Conference. It was in Miami that the group truly bonded as we had spent more time together. It was sad leaving Miami because we felt that it would be five more months before the group got together again in Seattle, WA in August 2014. However, the wait was certainly shortened between working on our group projects, and participating in webinars along the way. The webinars that we participated were informative and thought-provoking. The topics included: Advocacy; Online Reputation Management and Branding; Communicating Technical Topics to Non-Technical Audiences; Business Etiquette; Six Tips for Getting Noticed and Getting Promoted; Time Management (Work-Life Balance).
Class of 2014
The final in-person get together dawned on us quickly, and before we knew it, we were polishing our group projects to present our final thoughts and ideas to the IBOD. As I mentioned earlier, the topics were “real” issues that the profession and/or ITE has been grappling with. All of us were aware of the importance and potential implications of our recommendations—ITE was looking to adopt and implement some of our ideas. I felt that all five groups did a terrific job and exceeded expectations. I am also proud to say that the IBOD adopted some of the recommendations suggested by the group that worked on “Recruitment and Retention of Young Professionals”. This, in itself, was a huge success for our “Class”.
The benefits from LeadershipITE are intangible—there are the obvious advantages of learning and understanding various leadership aspects; however, for me, the biggest value coming out of the program were the friendships, the exposure, the “reach”, and an elevated level of thinking. These aspects coupled with opportunities for participation in national committees, international exposure, and engaging with ITE at the highest level make this program an invaluable one.
I would like to express sincere gratitude to VHB for the support and flexibility that I was offered for this program. I would like to thank Paul Eng-Wong, John Kennedy, and Marty Taub for their continued encouragement and support through the years. I am also deeply appreciative of the Northeastern District and the Met Section of NY & NJ for their support.
Amir Rizavi
LeadershipITE - Class of 2014