You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Eight Transitioning from a Military Leader to a Civilian Leader

After retirement from the Army, the biggest obstacle I faced was to find a position in a non-military contractor position. I wanted to expand outside of the military arena so I began searching for civilian/commercial position. As I applied for positions and was rejected numerous times, it seemed to me the majority of civilian employers didn't value my military experience. Many of them assumed I would yell at their employees like the stereotypical Drill Sergeants do in the movies. I knew from experience, civilians also tend to think soldiers are like robots who just blindly follow orders. During my interviews, I needed to convince potential employers nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, good soldiers do follow orders, but they follow orders with more enthusiasm when they come from good leaders who are respected.

The first civilian job I landed was as a program manager for an engineering firm. This job was destined to be my crash course in turning my military leadership skills into usable civilian leadership skills.

The first impression I had of my new company was a realization that many of my engineers considered their career as just a job. There was a noticeable lack of pride among some of the employees. This outlook required some adjustments on my part. In the military, your career is a massive chunk of who you are; the civilian world views the work/family relationship somewhat differently. For many employees, the job is just there to provide for the family. It took me awhile to fully grasp this concept and respect this point of view. After a few weeks, I understood that a fair work/family balance is a good thing for employee satisfaction.

Don't forget your employee's and your children are only young once. You only get one shot at being actively involved in their upbringing. Provide your employees with the balance they need, and you will see increases in productivity and workplace satisfaction. My new workplace provided a better home/work balance than I had ever experienced in my life. In the end, I finally managed to do a better job of balancing my own work and home life. My family greatly appreciated this fact.

Another issue I needed to overcome was the fact, that I was an adrenaline junkie. After all the years of travel and excitement...it was difficult come down. I was now working the 40-plus hour per week civilian office job. My job excitement level had just dropped by a factor of ten.

Working twenty years in any military or government position effectively institutionalizes an individual. Many military personnel have various levels of difficulty adjusting to civilian life. It seems the adjustment phase takes around a year, depending on the individual and job. My adjustment phase took about a year. At one point, I was on the verge of depression wondering what had happened to my life, but with the help of my family I was able to pull myself together and make the transition. Talking with other military retirees made me realize, I wasn't the lone wolf having difficulties transitioning...it happens to everyone.

As I was learning to lead at my new job, deep inside, I knew military leadership skills do transfer to the civilian workplace, but I needed to learn to use these skills with a little more finesse. Talking with my employees about a light subject, such as family, movies, the weather or music, and then moving to business seemed to work well. This took away some of the rigid military officer stereotype, I battled against for the first few months at my new job. A few minutes of daily conversation also gave me the opportunity to develop friendships with some really great people.

Another of my early goals as a program manager was to get everyone excited about their projects. One easy technique I employed was to be truly excited about the company's ongoing projects. For me, this was simple since I am an optimistic and curious person. I let my excitement and interest show and watched it spread through the company like a contagion.

One important culture I was determined to embed in my employees psyche was my pride-in-ownership theory. I let the engineers know they owned their project and were responsible for the final outcome. Working for a turnkey company, most of them already knew the pure satisfaction to be found when they designed a product, built it, and ran it through final testing. I could sense they truly understood the great feeling of witnessing their projects perform to the contract specifications. The key piece they were missing in the process was interaction with the customer.

To implement my plan, I included the engineers in engineer design reviews and update meetings with the customers. This cost some extra money in billable hours, but the outcome was worth the cost. The engineers felt they had more input from and for the customer, they also experienced the smile of a satisfied customer or the occasional wrath. The former is a great feeling everyone can take home to the dinner table.

After a few months, one ironic thing I sensed was some of the company's managers wanted me to play "hard ass" with a few of the employees. I didn't want to take this path and lead through fear; instead I wanted to build a team. Building a team takes time, but produces excellent long-term results instead of the immediate short-term effects gained by leading through fear.

After a while, my boss started to notice the positive effects of my changes taking place. He wanted to take the changes a step further. During one of our weekly meetings, he asked me how we could duplicate the military dedication to duty and work ethic in the company. The question proved very difficult for me to answer. I asked my boss if I could get back to him with an answer the next day.

I slept on the question. The next day when I met with my boss, I suggested management should offer ownership in the company through an employee stock-purchasing plan. My idea would allow employees to have their investments automatically deducted from their paychecks. I recommended the stock pay dividends, so employees could realize the benefits of their hard work. I believed this plan would create a sense of pride, because the employees would actually own a share of the company.

My second suggestion was to assign engineers as project leads with limited decision-making authority. As leads, engineers would have more say and more ownership of their projects. At weekly meetings the leads would update me on the progress of their projects, so I could hold them accountable for their budget and schedule.

Furthermore, I recommended the company should reward project leads with bonuses for their successes. This plan would also save the growing company money, by eliminating the need to hire an additional program or project manager.

My boss agreed to the last two suggestions, but not the first. This was understandable since management wasn't willing to water down their shares in the privately-held company.

As I implemented the plan by assigning project leads, many engineers balked at the responsibility and additional work. I still went forward with the plan. The most important thing I did was to take the time to coach and assist the engineer leads with the transition. I provided the necessary training so they could effectively do their new job. There was an open line of communication directly to me, so I could quickly answer any questions and give guidance when needed.

I saw the pride-in-ownership start to shine through at our weekly update meetings as my engineers enthusiastically gave their project updates. When necessary, they argued their case for additional resources to keep their projects on schedule and budget. With the help of our project leads, the company was becoming more efficient.

If you are going to implement major changes, have a training plan for the affected employees. You can avoid frustration and employee resentment through training and coaching. You don't want a lull in productivity while your employees are struggling to learn new tasks.