The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Awards were announced Oct. 11, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 30.
Next is National Security/DHS Executive of the Year (Private Company) finalist James Kennedy, who’s head of the Security Services Department and chief security officer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Below, Kennedy responded to a series of questions on leadership and his experience. Here’s what he had to say:
Be true to yourself, and be authentic. Trying to be someone you are not or saying things you think people want to hear won’t get you there. Have unshakeable faith in yourself.
This is advice that I live by, and give to those who want to follow in my footsteps. We are all a product of our history, and throughout the four decades of my career, I’ve been an individual contributor and leader in different organizations. I’ve had the chance to see and learn from inspirational people, see things that worked, things that didn’t, have had leaders that I’ve never wanted to be like, and leaders that I aspire to be like. I’ve taken all of those bits and pieces and patched them together like a quilt, to become who I am today ⏤ from being a security officer to chief security officer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
To rewind a few years, after receiving my MBA, I felt it was time for me to move out of security and into a business. I had come to a crossroads ⏤ should I go in another direction, or stay the course? I was feeling that the security discipline was a fading career, and then 9/11 happened. After that, I decided that where I need to be is security, as that’s where I can have the most impact.
At the same time, I had an epiphany of who I was. I was not a security professional operating in a business, but a business professional operating as a subject matter expert in security. As a business person, I then realized that what was most important to me was growing and developing future leaders.
Ultimately, I took control of my career. I no longer waited for someone or something to move it along, but became an active participant. I was willing and able to make big moves to continue growing and developing, and that’s what I impart on rising leaders. Your career is not a spectator sport, you have to manage and drive it!
I’ve been the architect of multiple re-engineering efforts, where I have taken teams that lacked direction, identity and purpose, and focused them to see past themselves to something bigger. I’ve been able to change hearts and minds. The ability to form high-performing teams is something really special that has allowed me to be far more successful than I ever thought I could be.
Leveraging my experience, expertise and skills, I’ve been able to drive organizational change with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Security Services Department. The transformation of the department this year has been beyond a shadow of a doubt the most profound thing I have ever done in my career.
Right now, we are focused on innovation, technology, process and people. We have to look at what kinds of solutions can help us move forward, then strategically and thoughtfully figure out where to make investments, and implement them across the organization. Ultimately, you need to grow and develop your talent ⏤ it’s a focus on the people, and most importantly, it’s the culture and soft skills that you need to concentrate on.
Organizations need to understand their culture and embrace it, because the world that we live in is so dynamic, and the people are so different. Technical competence comes with time, but soft skills, building culture, and being able to meet people where they are, is crucial. People are the business that we are in.