Feeling Stuck in Mid-Career? Tips from Lockheed's VP

You’re an innovative thinker and want to work in a company where you can climb the proverbial ladder, maybe even to the C-suite. At your current job, you point out unusual trends that could represent significant competitive advantages for your company and you suggest creative solutions.

Too often, your ideas are not as well received as you had hoped, and you’re discouraged. You’re considering looking for a new job and see that most companies want women like you with skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). But first, you want to figure out why your ideas are falling flat.

Rainia Washington, Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion at Lockheed Martin, told me that, while your courage is terrific – and one of her “3C’s of leadership” (explained below) – the key is to prepare before you walk in.

She said, “It’s important that you deliver…and have a track record of performance that supports you in those challenging moments,” adding that the key is “building the right relationships,” based on trust and credibility, before you walk in to the meeting. That way, you have expertise and support behind you while you’re presenting your ideas.

It also requires understanding the culture.

What is Culture?

Washington was a great person to ask about culture, since her most recent title at Lockheed was Vice President of Culture, Diversity and Equal Opportunity. She told me that, “culture at the end of the day for us, it’s the beliefs, it’s the values that you see rolled out and/or implemented every single day in the business.  It’s how people operate.  It’s how people communicate….It’s how people reward people.” These go beyond the company’s stated “values” on their website.

Understanding these unwritten values is crucial, because they could make or break your career there.

To identify them, look at what behaviors they are reinforcing by how they operate, communicate and reward people. The language they use and how they use it matters. Many big companies have an overall culture, and their individual business units and locations have their own unique cultures, which are important to grasp too.

"Innovation With Purpose”?

Lockheed’s mantra commemorating its centennial is “innovation with purpose,” and in today’s world that has multiple meanings. Washington said that to them it means “purposefully identifying areas where we can make a difference,”which is sound career advice too.  Where can you make a difference?

Here are questions she suggested asking to answer that question, and to identify innovative solutions to current issues:

• “How do we innovate for the future?”
• “What does tomorrow look like?”
• “Do we have the right talent to compete tomorrow?”
• “Are we thinking about technology and innovation from the right perspective to bring those ideas to the table and be able to bring them to fruition?”
• “How do we ensure we are building for tomorrow, and...what tomorrow is going to bring?”

At the heart of innovation is asking questions, often a lot of them and challenging ones, that’s why it’s so important to have relationships built on trust and credibility in the room before you ask them.

The 3C’s of Leadership – Advice for Mid-Career Women

As career advice, Washington said step one, is figuring out what “making a difference” means to you.  I would add that it will likely evolve as your career evolves.

Step two, she explained is determining, “Do your values and the values in which you grew up really align with the company in which you work” or are applying to work?

Step three, is what she calls her “3 C’s of leadership” – in addition to performing at a high level:

• Communication – Learn to communicate effectively (speaking and writing);
• Character – Follow through on what you say you’ll do, “operating with integrity and with honesty in everything”; and
• Courage – “Getting the information in order to challenge the status quo, for me,” Washington said, “has been extremely important.”

When I unpack Rainia Washington’s story, I see one other key step:  Asking for and seizing opportunities.

For example, when she started at Lockheed as an engineer, she was given the option to do job “rotations” which present the option to work in other areas of the company.   By saying “yes” to those new opportunities, and making the unconventional choice (for an engineer, which was to work in human resources), she was able to find where she thrives.

As a result, she has advanced up the organization over 20+ years.