The Serious Problem Of The Leadership Deficit (And Why Veterans Are The Solution)
America, we have a serious problem.
Leadership is at a deficit in our country, and it’s not just in politics. Business executives today are deeply concerned about their leadership bench -- 85% of executives say that they are not confident in their leadership pipelines. And that’s not all. The supply of leaders isn’t the only problem, the [lack of] leadership development in companies today are as well.
According to a Deloitte study, 86% of companies rated leadership development as being “urgent” or “important,” but only 13% stated that they do an excellent job developing leaders at all levels. Essentially, companies are nearly prioritizing everything else other than developing their management teams.
Why is this so important? Because there is a very high cost of a lack of leadership for companies; the average company is forfeiting over $1M a year in untapped potential as senior executives have assessed that their workforce is operating only at 60-65% of their potential. An organization with engaged leaders goes to your bottom line!
So what is a company to do? There are two obvious choices: 1) Start training your workforce and developing your leaders or 2) Bring in exceptional leaders to add to your leadership culture -- here are 5 reasons why experienced military Veterans are the answer:
1. Leadership is rooted in service. The people who choose to serve in the US military do so voluntarily. Though some may be incentivized to get a free education or want to fast track becoming a US citizen, each Service Member ultimately chose to sacrifice their personal freedom to protect the freedoms of others. And this ‘mindset of service’ is how Veterans are trained to lead.
As a young cadet at West Point, my professors demonstrated very simply what it means to be the leader in an organization. Despite a traditional org. chart showing the officer being “at the top,” they then took the diagram and simply turned it upside down. This is what leadership means, to serve others especially those who follow.
2. Mental toughness builds courage and team resilience. There is a physical element for each selection or training component in the military; you may know of some popular military training schools like Ranger school, BUDS, and other Special Forces selections. This is important because being able to overcome hardship and endure physically strengthens your mind and builds courage and confidence. This in turn allows people to depend on you and emulate you during hard times.
Can you survive the cut? Special Forces training: team week.
In 2016, I was running a small manufacturing company in Indiana. Sales have taken a huge hit due to tanking oil prices that year and the company was about to lose one of our oldest (and most reliable) maintenance employees to retirement (he had announced his retirement for 2 years prior). He had all the knowledge to keep our ancient machines running smoothly and in usual small company fashion, all of it was in his head. The entire company knew the inevitable and was worried of the outcome, so what did we do? I hired a Marine.
Our young Marine mechanic came in and started digging into all the knowledge of our manager prior to his exit. He learned the people and culture. He learned our process and jargon. Three months later, he had developed a SOP book (standard operating procedure) capturing all the do’s and don'ts of our equipment. He built training programs to get everyone up to speed and build in redundancies (bullet #3 below). He brought confidence back again into our operations employees -- he brought in grit. And with that he allowed us to sell the firm and confidently continue our production capabilities. Gotta love those Marines!
3. Team training and development is a priority. A Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (a Green Beret team) is comprised of 12 individuals. Apart from the four in the leadership section, the remaining eight individuals are all broken down into specialties: weapons (18B), demolitions/engineering (18C), medics (18D), and communications (18E), 2x soldiers per specialty.
Special Forces medic treating local children in Afghanistan, circa 2012.
Why? Because if one fails (is wounded or dies) the other can take over. And we don’t stop there, if both our weapons specialists are incapacitated, someone must know how to handle the mortars systems and air support assets; if our medics are out, we must all know combat trauma and how to stop the bleeding, etc.
We constantly train to ensure that mission completion can occur -- no matter what. Even our missions are carefully planned so that if the mission leader is dead, we know who is stepping up to take over the element. Each individual must know the mission, the routes, the details, and what everyone is doing. Hence, we are always cross-training and developing one another to take our place. The corporate sector can emulate this mindset and prevent one employee from holding a key position and keeping the entire organization afloat.
4. Communication and feedback are formalized tools for continuous improvement. As in any organization, leaders must set expectations for their teams and provide guidance on “course corrections.” Hence, Veteran leaders have the experience to administer very clear and formalized processes for performance reviews. There are blocks of training in the Army for “counseling” and reviewing past actions. I recall sitting in my boss’ office receiving quarterly counseling sessions on where I was, how he viewed my achievements and how I could continue to improve.
Even after planning sessions or mission executions, we would go through our 4-step After Action Reviews (AAR’s) to dive deeply into: 1) what happened; 2) what should have happened; 3) what went right and wrong; and 4) how do we do better. Each of these were learning tools to improve communication flow and continue to improve.
5. Everyone’s efforts are “nested” to support the bigger purpose. “Mission first, people always.” This is our mantra in the Armed Forces. Though we take care of our own through values-based leadership, we always remember our purpose -- and that is to accomplish the mission.
Every operation and/or military movement requires a mission statement, even at the very top, which contains two arts: the task and purpose. Though tasks may adjust and differ for each circumstance (e.g. defend, block, destroy, attack), but the reason, the purpose stays true up and down the chain of command. It allows everyone to align for the “why” they are there.
As Simon Sinek articulated this concept in “Start with Why,” Veterans ensure that the “why” can inspire at every level. In my previous job, when I was a general manager in a multi-billion dollar, privately-owned, specialty construction holding company, and we had an honorable purpose: “Building Great Leaders.” The Veteran founder of the company developed this “higher calling” to inspire everyone to learn and act as a leader, at every level. Leadership was the topic of discussion at each annual conference, at the executive summits, and it was taught as part of a corporate curriculum in each of the 50+ portfolio companies. This was a huge contributing factor to the profitability of this large 5,000+ employee firm that ultimately led to the successful sale to a public firm.
Yes, there is a leadership deficit in our country now. But with the involvement of military Veterans, we can help close the gap. Many Veterans are proven leaders and carefully selecting those to join your firm, who have the knowledge of your industry, can be the game-changers your organization deserves to win.
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Freddie is the Founder + President of MilSpec Talent, a boutique Veteran recruitment firm that connects businesses with proven Veteran talent to elevate their culture. They focus on a niche of exceptional Veteran leaders who have 3-15 years of experience in industry and have already “learned the ropes” at someone else’s expense. MilSpec Talent’s client-centric focus allows them to build a highly customized approach to find and source the best Veteran leaders who fit the client’s unique culture and needs.
Freddie is a West Point graduate, Kellogg MBA, 4x All-American boxer, and former Army Ranger and Green Beret. He is a student of leadership and currently lives with his wife (Suzy) and dog (Jinjoo) in North Carolina.
