Lauren Weiner is the founder and former chief executive officer of WWC Global, a federally focused management consulting firm serving the U.S. departments of defense, state agency for international development, Homeland Security and other federal agencies. She previously worked in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, before starting WWC Global.
In 2022, she navigated a successful sale of WWC Global to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, and currently serves as the parent company’s chief growth officer.
HOW DO YOU CONTINUE TO EVOLVE AND GROW AS A LEADER?
I surround myself with people who actively challenge me—mentors, my “village” of support, my team—and call me out when I am not growing. I strive specifically to be a “Level Five Leader” (as described in the Jim Collins book Good to Great), which is a mix of personal humility and indomitable will, ambitious for the cause and the team that they lead, rather than their own personal glory. I certainly don’t always meet that goal but I am consistently asking myself if my actions as a leader are meeting that ideal.
I’ve found that giving honest, and forthright, advice to others going through their own leadership growth trajectory clarifies and crystalizes my own thoughts about leadership and how to be a good leader.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT?
We’ve had so many great successes, as a team, over the years but the most salient (and most visible) moment was when we won the U.S. Special Operations Command training and exercise contract. It was the largest award—by far—ever to a woman-owned business in U.S. Special Operations Command history.
