Help us find the Rising Stars

Top leaders are important, but it's the rank-and-file talent that makes agencies run. And with FCW's Rising Star awards, we'd like your help in finding those individuals who are doing great things today -- and who are likely to be filling the senior slots tomorrow.

The trick, of course, is knowing where to look, since these individuals are often in the background, making their bosses look good.

Not sure what makes for a Rising Star? In many ways, it's the same criteria used for the Federal 100 awards, focused in on early-career phenoms -- those whose leadership, innovation and all-around extra effort are having a powerful and positive impact on federal IT. You can get a good sense by looking at last year's winners, but here are five points to remember:

1. Anyone in the federal IT community is eligible: military and civilian, career and political, contractor, academic and association expert alike.

2. Winners go above and beyond — whatever their level or rank. A fancy job title is not required, and just doing one’s job well is not enough.

3. You can make multiple nominations. Do so early and often.

4. Impact matters. The judges need to know not only what a nominee did but also what all that work accomplished.

5. Age does not matter, but nominees must be less than 10 years into their work in the federal community.

So if you know someone — or several someones! — who should be considered, please be sure to nominate him or her at FCW.com/2016risingstars. And please spread the word to your colleagues so we can get the best possible batch of winners.