Lockheed Martin Corporation
Sonya V. Stewart — Vice President, Diversity &
Equal Opportunity Programs
Sonya V. Stewart is the vice president for Diversity & Equal Opportunity
Programs for Lockheed Martin Corporation. In this role, she has responsibility
for development and implementation of enterprise-wide diversity and EOP
strategies, policies and programs, as well as ambassador of diversity to
Lockheed Martin’s industry partners and customers.
Prior to joining corporate headquarters, Ms. Stewart served as director of
Global Mission Solutions, Lockheed Martin Technical Operations, providing mission critical solutions and operations to the intelligence community at large.
She has held progressive leadership positions throughout her career in program
management, engineering execution, change management and new business
capture within Integrated Systems & Solutions.
Ms. Stewart is a graduate of several Lockheed Martin leadership programs,
including the Executive Assessment & Development Program, Program
Manager’s Development Program and Technical Leadership Development
Program. Additionally, she has completed the Wharton Executive Education
Program, Finance and Accounting.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin Corporation, Ms. Stewart served as a captain in the United States Air Force. She
has Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science degrees in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University.
Q&A with Sonya V. Stewart
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in
now?
My background is electrical engineering, and I pursued an advanced degree in engineering. Early on in my career, I learned
to harness my domain expertise. I had different types of assignments that provided breadth in my career field. I also spent
time soliciting feedback from peers, leaders [and] subordinates. This included the great feedback I wanted to hear and the challenging things I needed to hear as I was trying to grow and develop. Taking feedback seriously and integrating it into my
development has been key in arriving where I am today.
I also had the opportunity to be mentored and mentor others. I had goals regarding what I wanted my career to be about, and
learned along the way that the plan has to change and adapt as the environment changes, as you change, and as you come to
understand who you are and what you desire to achieve. Bringing these attributes together has been very effective in getting
me to the position I am in now.
When did you first realize that the field of engineering and Lockheed Martin
interested you?
I grew up liking math and science and the idea of problem solving. When I entered high school, people began talking to me
about being an engineer. I learned of Lockheed Martin when I joined the Air Force, where I had the opportunity to work with
contractors. When I separated from the Air Force, Lockheed Martin was recruiting, looking for diverse talent, like we do today.
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I have a very strong appreciation for our national defense and the importance it has for our nation, what it does for the men and
women in the field, and how Lockheed Martin is integrated into it. This is what attracted me, and it is also what keeps me
here, because of our mission, how well we do and the excellence with which we execute that mission.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Learn all you can about the business, and from different perspectives. Relationships are vital. It is not beneficial for you to
go for results at all costs if in the process what you sacrifice is the relationship with your customer, your team, a peer or a leader
along the way.
Throughout your career, people will always tell you who you need to be, what your strengths and weaknesses are, how you
need to change. One needs to come to terms with those things that you can change and those things you can’t. One needs to
be open to learning and recognize that while you’re learning, you’re growing, you’re developing, and you need to know that
there are some characteristics about yourself that are what they are. Then you have to decide how to take those characteristics, good, bad or, indifferent, and use them to your advantage.
You need to know your leadership team, know who you are working for, know their vision and their values, because that is
going to be important in your ability to connect with them. Excellence is important, but so is the ability to have other people
know who you are and what you are doing. You can be very good at your job, but you also have to help people understand
what you are doing in your job. If you never communicate it, then they may not recognize who you are and what you are contributing to the organization.
One of my adages is, “This is just business, so don’t take it personally.” When you’re being critiqued, recognize that it’s about
the business, that it’s not a personal attack on you, and don’t personally attack someone else. If you’re offering criticism, talk
about the business, talk about the results, talk about the data and the bottom line. Don’t attack people.
Another adage I follow is that I manage my personal business enterprise, Sonya Stewart Incorporated, and there are certain
capabilities I have, which are being leveraged in the business relationship I have with Lockheed Martin. I make sure that my
business enterprise stays optimal so that Lockheed Martin always wants to engage Sonya Stewart and always wants to utilize
Sonya Stewart in this business enterprise. I have to manage my growth and development, public relations, how my knowledge
is leveraged within the corporation [and] my results. I tell people to look at themselves as an enterprise and make sure that
they are managing their business enterprise. I have also learned in business that everything is not fair, and as much as you’d
like it to be, it just isn’t. Some things happen sometimes that are not the way that they should be, but you cannot allow them
to limit you.
I’ll conclude by citing integrity. A lot of events happen in a career, there will be mistakes, but when you have integrity and
people know it, they are more forgiving of your mistakes. They are more willing to help you grow and develop, as well as
trust your results. That is an important part of a career.
What are some ways that people can recognize that work issues are not
necessarily personal, especially when they are beginning their careers?
When young people come to me and they have received a critique and take it personally, I always try to get them to look at the
data that was provided, evaluate that data and respond to that data. By the same token, when I am offering [a] critique to somebody, I am offering [a] critique about the data that they provided and not about their personal characteristics.
At Lockheed Martin we have what we call “full spectrum leadership.” It’s a leadership model that not only measures what you
deliver, but how you deliver it. You can deliver excellent results, but if you wore your team out, drove them past the edge in
order to make the deadline, in the end what you have are people that have low morale and are disgruntled, it is ineffective leadership.
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Part of the data that we have to observe is how someone accomplishes something. When we are critiqued on the “how” piece,
we may not only take it personally, but we may begin to feel like it defines who we are. No one can define us. What people
do is tell us what they observe and what our impact has been on them. Who we are is ultimately who we believe ourselves to
be, and if what others perceive is not what we intend, then we have to work at helping others understand our true meaning, by
changing our message or action.
Do you think there is a glass ceiling in your industry? If so, how can minorities avoid hitting that glass ceiling?
I feel that there is a drive for excellence in every industry, and I believe that if you can deliver the excellence and the results
that an industry is looking for, including the softer core skills, the leadership skills, the visionary skills, the ability to influence
and persuade people, then companies will come find you no matter how you look or where you’ve come from.
Two of our five executive vice presidents are female-one of whom happens to be a minority female. This is in a day and time
when people still believe that there are glass ceilings, but when I look at both of these women, Joanne McGuire and Linda
Gooden, and the level they have achieved—one level below the CEO, reporting directly to him—they have built large enterprises for the corporation. They both have somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 employees in their organizations, and are
able to mobilize their employees to achieve results. When you do that, nobody really looks at your gender, nobody really looks
at your ethnicity; they are looking at what the bottom line is and how you’re going to deliver that and how effectively you
accomplish it while modeling our Full Spectrum Leadership values.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most
like to change?
I like the domain that I’m operating in. I like what we do at Lockheed Martin; I like the fact that we are producing products
and solutions that deal with national security. We defend the frontline and make sure men and women who are out there in the
field are getting what they need so our nation is secure. This sense of purpose runs deep through me, that’s why I served in
the Armed Forces and pursued a career at Lockheed Martin.
What would I most like to change? As the diversity EEO program lead for Lockheed Martin, I would like to see a day where
the diversity EEO office has no need to exist; when it is so ingrained in the fabric of who we are and it’s so innate to Lockheed
Martin that people wonder why we have an office to emphasize diversity and EEO. We are well on the way to attaining that
level of integration with everything we’ve done for diversity over the past six years. Because of the executive leadership
involvement that begins with our Chairman, President and CEO Bob Stevens, our organization takes diversity seriously and is
making it a part of the fabric that comprises Lockheed Martin. This is why I accepted this position to contribute to our change
in culture and environment. I hope that one day my function will not be needed anymore because it will be second nature for
the entire Lockheed Martin team.
What made you switch from the military to a corporation?
I come from a military family. My father retired from the Air Force, and I entered through the Reserve Officer Training Corps
program on an Air Force scholarship. The Air Force then allowed me to return to school and receive my advanced degree during my first two years on active duty, and then my remaining four years were spent serving in a military activity. Part of what
spurred me to make the transition to the corporate world was reductions the Air Force made to certain job specialties in the
early 1990s. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to leave the Air Force as much as being young and not understanding that things
were cyclical. I thought maybe I should make a transition while I was still young.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you
have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
My work life has had a very positive impact on my personal life. I’ve learned a lot of things in my leadership at Lockheed
Martin that I’ve been able to leverage into my personal life. Lockheed Martin has also allowed me to have a great quality of
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life in terms of the types of things I do. Having good and reasonable compensation allows me to have a full quality of life.
From a work/life balance perspective, I think it’s about priorities. I don’t necessarily believe it’s about the 50/50. When you
know what your priorities are, you have to be intentional about what is important to you. Sacrifices are made to make your
priorities come true. So when you set priorities for work, priorities for family, decide where all those line up and remain true
to them; you will end up being where you want to be as you go through life.
I’ve moved for my career, I’ve taken certain jobs that demanded more time out of me, because those were my priorities, and
as a single individual, children were not an impact. But if I’m trying to raise children, having a job that might require a lot of
my personal time out of my life might become unacceptable because my priorities will have adjusted, and therefore I have to
be willing to recognize that comes with a sacrifice. When people try to sell the idea of 50/50, I think it is idealistic; that’s why
it’s important for one to know what’s important for them and to be dedicated to it.
Who is/was the most inspiring person to you in your career path?
The most inspiring person in my career path right now is Bob Stevens, our chairman, president and CEO. Mr. Stevens is a very
inspirational leader. He is genuine and sincere, and tells us clearly what he’s looking for from everyone on his leadership team.
I think he’s visionary in his leadership in terms of how he sees the direction of the corporation and the way he makes himself
available to the corporation to ensure its ongoing success. I have the opportunity to be around him in different forums and he
is the consummate professional. He exhibits everything that we talk about with full-spectrum leadership, and particularly when
you talk about diversity. Diversity is the popular subject in the industry, but for Mr. Stevens, it has always been an imperative
through his career; it’s not something that just became the latest topic. When he became CEO, Mr. Stevens made sure that he
was directly involved in leading the corporate diversity strategy. He chairs our executive diversity council and he actively participates in shaping the corporation’s culture. It is not just about the dollars—although that’s important and he definitely pays
attention to it-but he sees the whole picture. He inspires me to be an effective professional leader, and you can apply that skill
set across many domains.
What advice do you have for a young person considering a career within
your company/industry?
Being in a technology-driven industry in a technology-driven world, clearly math and science are important. Lockheed Martin
invests 50 percent of our philanthropic contributions toward education endeavors, with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math. I have a nephew who has an excellent technical mind and loves to take things apart. I encourage him in
math, I encourage him in science, I expose him to Lockheed Martin, to the things that we do, from the building of aircraft, to
helping with the space shuttle, to building interesting computer systems. I expose him to all of that because I want to keep that
vision alive in him. So not only do you need to learn math and science, but look at how it’s applied every day. It’s all around
you, it is part of your daily life, in your home, at school.
The other aspect that I encourage, particularly when you start talking about middle school, high school and college students,
is to know yourself. Know your strengths, know your weaknesses, be able to receive feedback from people, know that all of
life is about learning and growing, not just your mind but your whole person. The sooner one learns to be open and combine
it with intellectual capability toward math and science is when one opens oneself up to a world that is phenomenal. You can
enter an enterprise like Lockheed Martin and achieve your career goals.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Yes, inside and outside Lockheed Martin. My personal philosophy is that anyone who asks me to mentor them, I absolutely
will do it because I see mentoring as opportunity. I see mentoring as a way for me to learn, because the mentoring relationship is a bidirectional learning relationship. I have a few mentees around the corporation, and recently, someone from another company within the industry called me after a recommendation from one of my mentees. I am now mentoring outside the
corporation. I thought it was extremely complimentary and such an honor that somebody would seek me from the outside. We
all have a responsibility to help develop other people’s careers by sharing what we have learned.
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We facilitate roundtable mentoring, in part to help address the fact that a great percentage of our workforce is nearing retirement or are at the point when they can retire, and we need to develop talent at every level in the corporation. I see myself as
part of that imperative. Each of us as leaders needs a personal commitment to talent development because we are to equip the
next generation of leaders. If you are talking about retaining and developing talent, I’m very concerned for people or organizations who believe they can accomplish the goal without mentoring. Mentoring is vital to retention and career development.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Early on in my career, I did not have a direct one-on-one mentor in the way people think of one-on-one mentoring, but I was
very observant and I would watch people who were in roles that I wanted to be in one day. I watched how they performed, I
watched what received praise, I watched what was discouraged, and I became very astute at watching people with the type of
excellence I desired to exhibit.
Lockheed Martin as a corporation recognizes the need to mentor people, so now we have a very aggressive mentoring program.
We make sure that everybody from our executive leadership down to the director level is directly mentoring individuals within the corporation. We have both formal and informal types of mentoring and provide resources to encourage all employees
to identify a mentor. I belong to a Lockheed Martin forum, the African-American Leadership Forum, and I receive informal
mentoring from workshops offered.
It takes initiative to reach out and ask for mentoring. You can always ask people, and you don’t have to have the top person
in the field. You can ask people all along the way, as long as they are further along than you and they exhibit the professionalism and the excellence that you are looking to emulate. I find most people are willing to provide this type of assistance.
If you were not in your current position, what would your dream career be?
I’m in my dream career. My career is enhanced by learning, developing and exercising my capabilities in different places within the corporation. I look forward to my next opportunity and how Lockheed Martin will see me as a leader in another aspect
of the corporation.
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