Emerging Leaders Program – Investing in Our Greatest Differentiator.

Evolving challenges within the federal landscape and rapid company growth demand new strategies to maintain excellence and foster continued innovation. Alpha Omega’s Chief Human Resources Officer Tanja Guerra sat down with the Marketing Team to talk about its new Emerging Leaders Program. This inaugural class of 25 participants will collaborate with Alpha Omega leaders and Kent Wessinger, PhD to:
 🔹 Strengthen core leadership skills
 🔹 Foster cross-functional collaboration
 🔹 Align leadership with Alpha Omega’s mission, vision, and values

The Challenge: Doubling the Size of Alpha Omega in One Day

In mid-January 2025, Alpha Omega acquired two companies within thirty minutes of one another, entering a pivotal phase defined by both opportunity and complexity. With the integration of Macro Solutions and SeKON into the organization, Alpha Omega was not simply merging teams and capabilities. Tanja stressed that the real challenge was weaving together diverse cultures, work styles, and histories into a shared identity. That integration has been a two-part challenge:

Becoming a company with over 800 people overnight, Tanja assessed the need for more than just operational alignment but also for cultivating a common language of leadership that empowers people at every level to lead through change. “Our goal is to create one Alpha Omega culture — rooted in trust, inclusion, and shared accountability — where every employee understands how they contribute to the mission and feels equipped to lead within it,” she said.

The Opportunity: Cultivating Leadership at Every Level

This fall, Alpha Omega kicked off its first Emerging Leadership Program (ELP). More than a training initiative, it is a cross-generational and cross-departmental gathering of Alpha Omega team members committed to collaborating with senior leaders and facilitator Dr. Kent Wessinger to drive cultural and strategic transformation. These seminars are designed to challenge traditional roles, establish new ways to communicate and listen, and ultimately build teams that truly work together to create value and innovation. The concept centers on distributed leadership: the idea that leadership is not limited to titles or hierarchy but resides in every decision, every interaction, and every person who chooses to make an impact.

Dr. Wessinger said there is no one formula for helping people make good decisions, but small group mentorship builds collective consciousness and fundamental habits. “When we lead people with intentional organizational behavior, we increase communication and trust because we build a crucial tool bag for leadership that also overflows into whole life growth, how we elevate each other, and make each other better.”  

The ELP is designed to:

This leadership development effort is directly tied to the company’s evolution toward a solutions-based firm. Building future-ready leaders ensures that decision-making, innovation, and client delivery stay aligned with Alpha Omega’s mission-driven approach and aligned centers of practice and expertise.

The Goal: A Unified Leadership Culture

The goal of the Emerging Leadership Program is to create a scalable leadership culture that sustains performance, empowers innovation, and reinforces belonging. By next year, the ELP initiative will:

Tanja’s approach blends human-centered development with practical business alignment and connecting personal growth to organizational success. She said, “We cannot build a solutions firm without first building leaders who think like solutionists; people who ask, ‘How can I make this better?’ and have the confidence and support to act on it.”

Stay Tuned: What’s Ahead Over The Next Ten Months

With the early sessions completed, Alpha Omega has laid the groundwork establishing the tone, defining expectations, and introducing the behaviors that model authentic leadership. The next ten months will focus on deepening practice, embedding accountability, and scaling impact across the enterprise:

Future sessions will focus on growth and application, embracing projects that align with company priorities. Mentorship pairings will look to develop feedback loops and accountability across functional and cultural lines. Leadership “labs” will focus on decision-making, innovation, and collaboration. Final sessions will focus on Reflection and Reinforcement, with group presentations that showcase applied leadership projects, measurable outcomes, and lessons learned. By the program’s close, participants will not only have strengthened individual skills but will have become cultural ambassadors, embodying what it means to lead at Alpha Omega.

The Future: Leadership as a Strategic Advantage

For Tanja, this program is not just a human resources initiative; it’s a cornerstone of Alpha Omega’s strategic future. As the company continues to expand and take on more complex, mission-critical work, leadership development will remain central to sustaining that growth ensuring that every employee, at every level, sees themselves as part of the solution.

“Leadership is the through line from our people to our culture, to our mission. When we lead with purpose, we deliver with impact.” Tanja Guerra, CHRO, Alpha Omega