We all know plenty of people who followed a vocational path to a second “career.” The Wall Street Journal today profiles Linda Watt, Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal Church and a former foreign service officer, in its Second Acts Column. Noting that the two paths are not as disparate as they might seem, the article examines Watt’s background in-depth.
By the time Ms. Watt went to college, she already had her sights set on working for the U.S. Foreign Service in Latin America. Her interest was born out of her summer visits to her father, who worked as a Latin American specialist with the Army at embassies in Venezuela and Nicaragua.
While she knew the life of a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) was a tough one — little choice of where she would be posted and frequent moves every one to four years — Ms. Watt’s passion for diverse cultures and languages led her to join the service immediately after she received her masters in Latin American Studies at the University of New Mexico. “My father encouraged me to think more broadly about the workplace and directed me to the State Department in particular,” says Ms. Watt. But she also knew that, similar to the military, as an FSO you were either promoted up or out.
Ms. Watt went up. The next 29 years took her to some of the most diplomatically delicate places in the world: Nicaragua during its civil war; Russia at the time of an attempted Coup against then-leader Boris Yelstin and the Dominican Republic during Hurricane Georges. Among her many assignments at these locales and, Ms. Watt served as an Embassy management officer (a chief operating officer) supervising several hundred American and host country employees and managed multi-million dollar Embassy operating budgets.
Watt was named ambassador to Panama in 2002, and held that post until her retirement at age 53. But scant months later, she saw the posting for the COO position–and felt called. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori added her own comments about how Watt’s diplomatic background prepared her for her work in the church.
The presiding Bishop of the church says Ms. Watt’s years as a diplomat – and the skills she gained in that capacity – have been an asset to the church. “(They) have been not only valuable, but essential, to her work with the Episcopal Church Center,” says Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.
“The diplomacy intrinsic to an ambassador; the ability to relate constructively to a broad cross-section of the public; well-honed administrative and management gifts; and the ability to lead with vision as well as insist on accountability and performance” are all carried over from her first act career.
Read the whole thing, and Watt’s tips for vocationally oriented career-changers, here.