How To Be a Gov't Procurement Champion - PART 5

Continuously adjusting to new environments to increase your growth….

In this series, I am outlining FIVE SKILLS to develop and cultivate.?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.?

If you have not done so, check out my first 4 articles on my profile page!

SKILL #5:?Always Be Ready for a Job Change (don’t stay anywhere too long)

This final skill concludes my 5-part series on how to be an incredible asset to your procurement organization.?

If you are growing in the first four skills listed above, you will start to be in demand.?You will be making the time to grow in your knowledge of the FAR through continuous learning (Skill #1).?You will be mindful of the human skills that are needed for you to succeed in your job (Skill #2).?You will start to look beyond simple rule compliance, and instead respect the rules by applying critical thinking to them (Skill #3).?And you will be a team player by dedicating yourself to your agency’s mission (Skill #4).

Skill #5 touches on the results of your growth in the first 4 skills. You will start having opportunities and options.??The more of an asset you are, the greater the opportunities you will have for job growth. ?This is a simple fact.?

So your challenge will be in deciding which opportunities provide the most beneficial impact for your career (and help you provide the most impact to others).?You will need to learn how to make these decisions because there will be many forks in your road. Therefore, this skill must be cultivated as much as the other skills.?

First, you must always be mindful of the point in which you will have outgrown your current job. ?Try to find it in advance (while you are still working your current job), and then draw that line in the sand.

Second, you must examine your geographic flexibility and/or your ability to achieve impact remotely.?The potential for the latter has grown since COVID, and new doors are open for career success in procurement that otherwise were not available.??Ultimately, it is up to the culture of the hiring agency, and some have not jumped on the train yet.?But as the hunt to draw in top talent into the government gets more refined, such accommodations and growing technological advances are inevitable.

Finally, you must consider your position on government work verses private industry. ?More on this later.

One quick note:?There is a difference between moving on in your career, and “quitting” an environment out of frustration.??A procurement champion strives for personal excellence, which includes the avoidance of negativity and bitterness. ??A procurement champion does not quit – they adjust their paths to achieve more optimal impact.?Even if the environment you leave is hostile, toxic, or otherwise not receptive to the value you have brought in – the procurement champion will strive to leave with unburned bridges and an appreciation for the positive aspects of all previous jobs (even if the only positive experience was a string of lessons on what not to do!).?

But… also don’t stay when it’s not in your best interest.

Know when You Outgrow

You should be striving to outgrow your current job. Sometimes, contract offices will allow that room for growth and move you into increasingly difficult assignments.?In most cases, however, you will eventually find the limit to the complexity and variety.

My daughters love these little animals you can get at the Dollar Store that start small but grow 10x size in water.?They are fun, but we constantly have to keep changing the size of the Tupperware containers of water so that the animal has room to get even bigger.??Don’t be a rubber animal in a Tupperware container that is too small!

I don’t mean to use the term “outgrowing” in an arrogant way.?It is not to suggest that you will become better than your current office colleagues and therefore you must move beyond them.?That’s preposterous! However, at some point you may find yourself struggling between two choices: (1) stay in your current office and sacrifice career growth; or (2) Using the skills you learned in your current office to get a new job that offers new challenges.

Here are some questions to think about:

-?????????Have I experienced the breath of my current office’s portfolio?

-?????????Would my skills be more meaningful or impactful in another environment?

If either of those questions can be answered with a “yes” – this may be an indicator that your continuous growth demands more space (a new Tupperware container) for you to grow bigger. ??

One final point on this: Sometimes, you encounter two paths that have equal growth potential. The choice here is much harder - and a good time to call upon your mentors for advice (side note: you need to have at least one career mentor). The great aspect of these types of choices: either option will leave you on a path of continual growth!

The Times Are Changing… and so is the rule that mobility = opportunity ?

Since I married my wife in 2008, we have moved 9 times. Most of these moves were because the job moved us there (my wife has been a homemaker since we started having kids).?I knew she was not crazy about the moves, but she encouraged us to make them because, at the time, career growth was associated with geographical flexibility. And career growth was good for the family. But deep down, she wanted to settle somewhere permanently.

Then, COVID happened to us all. ?Considering the many terrible aspects and tragedies surrounding the unexpected epidemic, it is hard to talk about silver linings.??But I would be remiss not to mention the technological leap that COVID forced many government offices to make. ?My office in the DoD increased in proficiency and even initiated remote work details (I worked for some forward-thinking directors in the JAIC).?We had a much closer working relationship with contract offices that were located several states away.?My team itself could work in several states and operate just as closely and in sync with one another.?We called it “geographic dispersion/digital unification.”??

Bottom line here:??The days of “you have to move to advance” are ending. Many agencies are already embracing the idea of remote work (not to be confused with telework, which is not quite as flexible or accommodating). ??And because of emerging technologies, you can become an integral part of a team that is scattered throughout the country/world.?And the geographical dispersion can actually have advantages, as my team at the JAIC experienced.

If geographical moves don’t interest you, look for those offices that are embracing remote work.

Stay in the Government or Move to Private Industry?

For many of us in government procurement, the question of whether to work in private industry is not a question of if.?It’s a question of when. ?

Here is a little secret:?You don’t have to be a government employee with a warrant (and performing inherently government functions), to make a difference in government procurement. ?In fact, you may find that you can help inspire greater change and impact from the outside.

This is an eye-opening revelation for many government procurement professionals.

This is recent the path I took after 15 years in DoD Contracting.?I was very careful, however, and wanted to ensure that I joined a government consulting firm that was completely aligned with my own mission to help government acquisition and modernize the procurement professional.?I found an awesome firm that relies less on salesmanship and more on helping the government acquisition community get better.??I was looking for this kind of authenticity and found it. Those firms are out there, and you could be a great addition to them (and they in turn can help your growth), so take your time and look carefully…

For those interested in moving from a position of government duty to contractor advisor (performer), there is no hard-and-fast rule on the best timing for making the jump.??I would personally advise that you put in enough years to (1) have good experience in being a CO or PM; (2) have some experience in managing and leading a team of government workers.??Plus, the longer you stick it out in the government, the more marketable you will be for companies.

Many people return to government after experiencing some incredibly valuable lessons working from the industry perspective.?Such experiences may include insights on the time and effort it takes to submit proposals, or challenges relating to contractual performance, or obstacles to equitable competition or particular contract vehicles. Such perspectives have great impact on government missions, and procurement leaders with this kind of experience are sought after - especially at the higher levels.

Of course, many people stay in Government all the way into their “big R” Retirement – and that’s beneficial too.??Just keep in mind that moving to private industry in the government procurement space does not remove you from government procurement. In fact, it can have tremendous advantages!

Be positive…

Finally, I’ll repeat something I mentioned earlier in this article.?Don’t be that person who leaves an office (or the government) spewing slanderous justifications for his/her departure. You may have seen these, with disgruntled folks posting all-too-common reasons for quitting: “I left because leadership was too resistant to change.”?Or “They could not handle my ideas” or “government procurement is broken, they cannot be helped...”??

Nothing new here.?It’s a common frustration.?But to me (and many others), publicly lamenting about it sounds like a dentist quitting because the patients are still not flossing regularly.??Yes it’s a problem… but so what? The real procurement champions are the ones who actually stay and help create transformations, one small change at a time. That is unsung grit.

But it is true that sometimes it is best for you to provide impact elsewhere.??Personally, I have not regretted any office I have worked in and hold on to the great lessons and experiences I have from all of them (positive and negative). ?My strong recommendation is to not spew venom as you leave and instead look with positivity at where you are going to, and even where you came from.??

Summary of the “5 Skills” Series

For those that have read through this entire series, I hope you enjoyed them and found them useful. Feel free to provide feedback (too long? too short?), it will help me know if I should provide more of the same.

There is a common theme in all 5 of these skills:?You must actively take control of your career in government procurement.??The government is not going to hand you your own greatness.??You become a procurement champion on your own.?You’ll have to make your own time for knowledge growth (Skill 1).??You’ll have to decide to work on your own human skills, which is very personal (Skill 2).?You’ll have to proactively shift to critical thinking despite pressure to stay exclusively in rule compliance (Skill 3).?You’ll have to be the one to decide that your agency’s mission is worth your dedication and hard work (Skill 4).?And finally, you’ll have to take charge in the future steppingstones in your career path (Skill 5).

And you will never stop improving in these skills - you will always be a work in progress. Looking at these for myself, I can't say I have mastered any of them. But I am continually growing, and the journey has been fun and rewarding.

Please decide to unleash your greatness because America desperately needs people like you.

Good luck

Mr. William (Will) Roe Roberts is Director of Acquisition Solutions for ASI Government, LLC. He was previously first Acquisitions Director 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.