Two master degrees, one being a MBA, and countless positions and companies later, I am still amazed at how much the Army and my time as a Non-Commissioned Officer taught me about business. Don’t get me wrong, the Army didn’t teach me about discounted cash flow, P&L statements, revenue recognition, or numerous other necessary things that a business leader needs to know in order to be successful. This isn’t another one of those articles that questions the value of colleges and MBA degrees in particular. Nor is this an article about how employers just don’t get the value of what men and women learned in the military and how that is preventing them from getting the jobs that they want.
Just because you successfully led men and women in the military doesn’t mean that you have all the tools to be a business leader.
Rather, on this Veterans Day, and over this past year in particular, I am constantly reminded about lessons that I learned while in the military.
1- Stop several steps before getting to the casualty and walk up to them (if you can)
Combat is intense. Saving a life is personal. As a Medic, I was taught, and taught the men who served with me, that the deal which was struck between Medics and infantrymen, tankers, scouts, etc, is that we were given the respect of being called Doc, because it was our duty to run out of cover to save their lives when everyone else was taking cover.
The one problem with running out to save a life is that you get tunnel vision. You focus solely on one point, the casualty, and if you run completely up to them, you’ll miss key signs that will help you save their lives. So, if possible, you always want to walk the last few steps up to the casualty so that you can take in everything.
In business, you often find two types of people, the person who won't move until everything has been analyzed, and the other person who rushes out without anything being analyzed. Neither persons’ way of conducting business is optimal. Rather, like it was as a Medic, I believe in moving vigorously towards an objective based on available information and collecting more information to inform my actions on the way towards the objective.
2 - You are responsible for your team
In the Army when something goes wrong, the first thing that every soldier learns to say is “No excuse.” At face value this seems like a flippant statement. However, it is anything but. In combat, there are no excuses for mistakes. This is ingrained in servicemen and women. The “no excuse” concept is imminently important in business.
This doesn’t mean that one can’t fail or make mistakes. It’s taking ownership for those failures and mistakes and not pushing them off on someone else.
We’ve all worked for that boss who was never at fault. He didn’t just throw you under the bus, he kept that bus parked on top of you and revved the engine whenever he felt. Sure, there are those characters in the military, but the best leaders took the reprimand on the chin, then went back to their team and corrected the issue with them.
Leaders understand that they are the ones who are accountable for the actions of their team members. While they can delegate team members to do something, that team member is only responsible for doing the work. Their actions' success or failure role up to the person who is ultimately accountable.
Remember “the buck stops here” or in business terms RACI Chart.
3 - Indecisiveness gets people killed
In the military it is ingrained in leaders to make a decision based on the information that they have on hand. The one thing a military leader can’t do is not make a decision.
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
As both a young private and later as a NCO, hopefully, I made more right decisions than wrong decisions. But, when I did make a wrong decision, I learned how to own up to my mistake and move forward. The Army didn’t allow me, or my fellow soldiers, to succumb to analysis paralysis. Neither, did it allow us to not react and change plans as situations developed around us.
Today, as a business leader, from time to time, I find myself taking part in meetings in which my fellow colleagues are allowing the unknown to prevent them from making a decision. Sure, the idea of “let’s figure out what we are doing before we move forward” sounds reasonable, it even can be, but there are times when the “let’s figure out what we are doing” mentality turns into analysis paralysis and prevents the forward momentum that is needed to figure out if what you are doing is right or if your product needs to pivot.
4 - If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training
The best leaders in the military are constantly training their men and women. The best soldiers in the Army always want to get to the next level of capability. They want to improve their skills. As a leader in the military, it is your responsibility to put your men and women through training that improves their skills. It’s your responsibility to make sure that they have the opportunities to push their careers forward.
As a business leader, that responsibility to make sure that you are providing opportunities for your team to improve their skills and progress in their careers is important. You don’t want a team member who is happy to be stagnant, unwilling to learn new skills or plus up their current skills. You need to care about them and do your best to understand where they want their careers to lead and then provide them with the opportunities to get there.
There are a ton of leadership lessons that all veterans learned which are applicable to business. Just don’t let those lessons make you believe that you are completely set to lead in business. Realize that if you are just coming out of the military, you probably need to gain additional skills and knowledge to lead in the business world.
Joshua has 3 exits and is an angel investor. You can follow him on Twitter @AlertingMainSt and connect with Josh on LinkedIn.