How to Be A Gov't Procurement Champion - PART 2

How to Be a Government Procurement Champion – Part 2

If you are a government employee in the procurement field, I have some great news.?You can rise in the ranks very quickly.?You can get really cool assignments.?You can posture yourself as a subject matter expert and a trusted partner with industry.??You just have to make the choice to be that kind of person, because no one is going to tell you to excel.

In this series, I am outlining FIVE SKILLS to develop and cultivate in order to be an incredible asset to your procurement organization.?These are the skills I focused on in my own career, and trust me – they work.?If these skills continue to grow in you, I guarantee that you will be an unstoppable asset to your organization.?

It can start by just reading these upcoming articles– not many will.??That’s a leg up!

(If you have not done so, check out last week’s article on Skill #1: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/will-roberts-06372045_acquisition-governmentcontracting-procurementleaders-activity-6967819953764737025-52E-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop):

Skill #2: Cultivate Your “Human Skills” (i.e.?Be Likeable)

I’m going to get a little soft with this week’s skill.?In the DoD environment, many recoil or wince when they hear words like “soft skills” or “culture.”??The reality is, you need soft skills (I’ll call them “human skills” - thanks, Danielle Fitzpatrick Clark ).??But the good news is you don’t need to make people wince because you don’t need to talk about it.?You just live it. As you practice these skills (without mentioning them) – the most culture-adverse environment will be naturally drawn to you.

You probably know government acquisition professionals who have incredible knowledge in the FAR, but lousy human skills.?Conversely, I have known acquisition professionals who still had much to learn (don’t we all!), but maintained and exercised excellent human skills.??Which of these two types do you think provided more impact on their mission??Elevated up the career ladder faster??Built a stronger network of colleagues and industry partners?

Continuous knowledge in contracting helps you work the system.?But in my opinion, human skills are even more essential in helping you work the system. ??And by “system” I mean our government bureaucracy.?In contracting, it may feel as if you have to traverse an arctic tundra to get from Point A to Point B.?Human skills can act as those tennis racquet-looking snow shoes.

I’m not talking about bringing in cookies for the office or being witty or popular.?I am referring to the human skills that actually yield mission impact, effective contracting, and career success.?I’m going to list three: humility, tact, and transparency. To use the antonyms, this means that a government procurement champion is not:?arrogant, impolite, or deceptive/unclear. ?

Why humility??

As you start to build in Skill #1 (self-initiated knowledge growth) you will begin to build a distinct and noticeable expertise in your field. ?This is a great step in your career, but here is the follow up step: be humble about your expertise.

Federal procurement is hard and complicated. If you are conceited about your handling of all things acquisition, you are lying to yourself and to others. No one has this career field 100% figured out.??The most influential acquisition professionals I know are humble.?The most well-read acquisition professionals I know would surprise anyone who discovered they are well-read.?That’s an incredibly attractive level of humility. And because of this, it strengthens the impact of their knowledge and expertise.?

How can humility strengthen the impact of your expertise? A healthy and self-aware perspective will embrace learning from others and celebrate when others have better ideas on contract processes, FAR interpretations, innovative contracting ideas, etc. ??This will result in people being comfortable around you and more responsive to learning from you.? With humility, you will not insist on being the sole "contracting expert" of the office, but instead you will encourage your team mates to be experts, thereby fostering team growth, innovation, and diverse ideas. This is the environment where your growing expertise will shine much more effectively.

To sum that last paragraph up:?When you exercise humility, people want your expertise.?Since you embrace others’ expertise as well, you put less pressure on yourself to be perfect or the sole expert in your field. Since mistakes happen in government procurement, highlighting yourself as “the expert” is a recipe for poor credibility and a bad reputation whenever things go wrong (and they will). Not good for your career. Work in a team. Embrace the success of others. ?Humble yourself, and you’ll be lifted up.

Why tact? ?

Tact is hard, because it requires patience and diplomacy toward all personality types. But using tact skillfully in communication is a priceless talent.?You work in a large regulatory bureaucracy, and you must wrestle with a myriad of compliance standards.?Most likely, you will have reviewers looking over your shoulder to double-check your compliance.?This can lead to some tough cookies in your review chain.?Do you know any in yours? Maybe in policy??Maybe legal??Maybe your supervisor? Sometimes, these individuals are not mission oriented, and you cannot force them to think differently. They may mean well, but they'll create that tundra-expanse for you as you strive to get to Point B. ?You have to use tact as your snow shoes. Without it, many a CO will fall into (1) giving in and losing speed, effectiveness, and morale (dredging the snow at snail's pace); or (2) aggressively resisting and building tense and unproductive workplace relations (burying your legs in the snow).

I learned the value of tact the hard way. As a contract officer, I often disagreed with comments from contract reviewers, lawyers, and middle management. I still think back at one meeting where I mercilessly rebuked some ‘tough cookies’ -- fueled by my desire to serve the mission and customer -- giving case law and FAR cites to justify my position. Needless to say, this was completely fruitless. ?Why was it fruitless? Was I technically in the right from a ‘procurement knowledge’ perspective? ?Did I have the mission and customer's interests at heart? Answer: ?Who cares. I was offending the very people I needed to help me get to Point B. So I got nowhere.

Successful procurement professionals know better, and I soon wised up after that incident. Procurement champions know how to work with the ‘tough cookies’ in order achieve great wins.?Sometimes you have to 'kiss the ring'. Other times you diligently build strategic relationships and bring the good out of even the most difficult personalities in the office.

One final note: The trick is to combine tact with boldness.?As you build Skill #1 (knowledge growth), you will undoubtedly start to respectfully disagree with your colleagues about a multitude of various contracting issues. This is very healthy, since Federal procurement law is not black and white and diversity of thought is advantageous. Just learn when to yield vs. when to stand your ground – and do so with civility, kindness, gentleness, professionalism, and tact. ?

Why transparency??

With the first 2 human skills, I focus mainly on our relationships among government colleagues.??In this last skill, I am thinking mainly about the procurement champion’s relationship with industry partners.

You must begin to live under the mantra: “If you have nothing to hide, don’t hide it.” The exceptions are, of course, protected source selection info and certain classified information.?However, we government employees sometimes err on the side of not communicating to industry in order to stay out of trouble.?The irony is that a “batten-down-the-hatch" mentality almost always causes more trouble.?Lack of transparency leads to suspicion, which leads to a lack of trust, which leads to protests and bad relationships.

If you want to grow into a federal procurement champion, you need to build a reputation of integrity and a network of industry professionals who trust you. ?You want be seen among businesses as someone who is open and honest, and someone who will help them understand (like in a debriefing) exactly why you decided what you decided and how businesses can posture themselves better for the next effort.

Don’t be sketchy with industry. Conduct your contracting in a manner in which you have nothing to hide, and then don’t hide it.

Final thoughts: ?

I encourage you to be self-aware of the human skills you need to improve.??At some point in my career, I started to really analyze my need to be more tactful in order to increase my success.?I had to work on my choice of words and building a good rapport with people I had historically struggled with on a professional level (I had to couple tact with humility!). It worked very well. Whatever it is for you, make sure Skill #2 is growing just as much as #1.

If you have made it all the way through this article and have some essential skills I missed (there are many), put it in the comments of the article post.?You will be helping others!

This wraps it up for Skill #2.?Stay tuned for Skill # 3….

Good luck!

Mr. William (Will) Roe Roberts is Acquisition Lead for the DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and was the first Chief of Acquisitions for the DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC).?Will is a member of the Florida Bar and has over 15 years of experience in Government Procurement. His notable work includes the creation of guides, trainings, and contract vehicles to assist the DoD in acquiring and delivering emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.?