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Original post can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/organizational-leadership-transitioning-from-military-primeau/

There are many challenges for organizational leaders transitioning from the Military to Industry, away from strong hierarchies and rigid bureaucracies. But what stays constant?

Leadership!

Here’s a short article based on my observations, aimed at those planning to transition and the multiple service providers in this space.

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Working in a flat organization as typical of the IT Industry can be absolutely liberating, especially after experimenting the organizational paralysis of many military organizations and the hellish depths of government bureaucracy. But only for some. For those not truly talented as organizational leaders (such as a good communicators with initiative, confidence and a deep sense of mission), the same sort of putrescent apathy that contaminates their “will” in a bureaucracy can appear in industry. After the excitement of new beginnings subsides, these folks can be found hiding behind roles and committing as little energy as they can to develop or support other people’s idea. Turns out its human nature – not bureaucracy – that tends to make some act like wolves or beavers and others like sheep. Self-interest is not a driver for organizational change. So no matter what someone feels is their leadership spirit animal before transition, they are unlikely to really change in sustainable ways when the environment does around them.

Good leaders in hierarchical organizations are also the good leaders in flat organizations. Positional authority – such as rank –  is a social construct. It does not exist in nature. It was created to control the masses and prosecute warfare. And even in the military, leaders relying on positional authority alone fail at the first instance of friction. Because good leadership is never about title or rank, its about who someone is. What works everywhere is Expert leadership (the leader knows more), Referential leadership (the leader is known to lead to success), Empathic leadership (the leader cares about others), and Charismatic leadership (the leader is liked). When transitioning, its therefore useful for veterans to ask themselves what they can learn from their new boss or leading team partners, if they would like to follow in their footsteps, if they feel this leader cares about them, and if they like them as individuals. And its useful to consider if themselves – as leaders – are all that they can be there. For me personally, its definitively lifelong continuous learning.

Lastly, in both the military and industry, the concept of regular and fixed daily working hours is most often counter-productive for leaders. Highly creative people know this intuitively. Good ideas don’t come solely from sitting in front of a computer : they emerge while running, sleeping, etc. The subconscious carries a load. And so “work” happens in their brain regardless of time of day or whatever work hours they “punch” into Salesforce. The “trick” in transitioning should not be about shortening the work hours. It should be about lessening unwanted brain drains; liberating cognition by eliminating unnecessary “noises” (like mandatory and archaic online training, bureaucratic process work, etc). Veterans should free themselves by having their brain spend time on challenges and problems they like to think about – even at rest. They should also not fill their new teammates calendars if they expect them to come up with good ideas on their own.

In conclusion, leadership is contextual, but good leadership is a constant. What talent the military leader knows to have before transition will remain the fuel for success after. In re-designing a new career in Industry, the military veteran seeking to make an impact should look not only at what they need to change to succeed in the new environment, but also what of this new environment will empower their talent and their interests to emerge. Organizational leadership is learned and earned.