Joan Michelson* interviews Rainia Washington who believes the way to the top for women is a mixture of courage and careful preparation.
You’re an innovative thinker and want to work in an organisation where you can climb the ladder.
At your current job, you point out unusual trends that could represent significant advantages 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 organisations want women like you with skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
First, you want to figure out why your ideas are falling flat.
Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion at Lockheed Martin, Rainia Washington (pictured) told me that, while your courage is terrific, 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.
“The key is building the right relationships based on trust and credibility, before you walk in to the meeting.
“It also requires understanding the culture.”
Ms 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 comprised the beliefs, values that you see rolled out and 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 stated ‘values’ on the website.
Understanding these unwritten values is crucial, because they could make or break your career.
To identify them, look at what behaviour they are reinforcing by how they operate, communicate and reward people.
The language they use and how they use it matters.
Many organisations have an overall culture, and their individual business units and locations have their own unique cultures.
Lockheed’s mantra commemorating its centennial is ‘innovation with purpose’, and in today’s world that has multiple meanings.
Ms Washington said that to Lockheed it means “purposefully identifying areas where we can make a difference,” which is sound career advice too.
Here are questions she suggested 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.
As career advice, Ms 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 that your values and the values you grew up with really align with the organisation in which you work or are applying to work.
Step three, is what she calls her “3 C’s of leadership”.
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.
Courage: Getting the information in order to challenge the status quo.
When I unpack Rainia Washington’s story, I see one other key step: Asking for and seizing opportunities.
When she started at Lockheed as an engineer, she was given the option to do job rotations which presented the option to work in other areas.
By saying yes to those new opportunities, and making the unconventional choice to also work in human resources, she was able to find where she thrived.
As a result, she has advanced up the organisation for more than 20 years.
* Joan Michelson is host of the podcast Green Connections Radio and interviews women innovators and leaders in STEM. She tweets at @joanmichelson.
This article first appeared at www.forbes.com.
