Developing Leaders from the Military

Bill Simon, the chief operating officer of Wal-Mart U.S. and a 25-year veteran of the US Navy and Naval Reserves, had a suggestion. What the company should do, he argued at the time, was create a programme to recruit junior military officers - the lieutenants and captains who had recently led soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen.

Regardless of where you fall on the favourable-of-military-and-war scale, the fact is the military is a leadership-training hotbed, particularly in wartime.

According to General David Petraeus, the man in charge of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"Tell me anywhere in the business world where a 22- or 23-year-old is responsible for 35 or 40 other individuals on missions that involve life and death. Their tactical actions can have strategic implications for the overall mission. And they're under enormous scrutiny, on top of everything else. These are pretty formative experiences. It's a bit of a crucible-like experience that they go through."

Recently GE CEO Jeff Immelt gave a speech at West Point called "Renewing American Leadership". In the speech he said that 21st-century leaders:

• Need to be better listeners.
• Need to be comfortable with complexity.
• Must be willing to delegate so that the organisation can move quickly.

Even the US Army Training and Leader Development Panel concluded in 2001 that it needed officers with two basic qualities: self-awareness and adaptability.

Does this mean that the military is the only place you're going to find:

• Better listeners.
• Those comfortable with complexity.
• Self-awareness.
• Adaptability.
• Those who take strategic risk and fail with certainty.
• Those who are comfortable leading self and others.

No, of course not, but this definitely provides a learn-by-doing framework from which to source future leaders within and without your organisation.

Maybe they came from the military, or public safety (police and fire), or another company, or even your own firm (when you weren't looking) where existing leadership trial by fire and brimstone has forged the new millennium of management talent.

Identify them. Nurture them. Train them. Allow them risk and responsibility.

Developing Leaders from the Military