“War belongs to the province of business competition, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities.”
-Karl von Clausewitz
In Part 1 of the Heroic Journey Series, we looked at mastering the mindset of the inner work of success. This is an inside-out perspective, building the inner foundation of success. In the second part of the Heroic Journey we will take an outside-in perspective.
At this stage, your transformation occurs. In the classic hero’s journey, the protagonist faced a transformative crisis, overcame stiff challenges and discovered his treasure. In applying this wisdom to your military transition, your true treasure is found by discovering the world of business and aligning this discovery with your skills, strengths and passions.
Discovering the World of Business
You need to begin by going outside and discovering the world of business. Before you begin work on your resume and interviewing skills you need to take a higher perspective and understand what environment you are getting in to. Here are several ways to help your discovery process:
Learn the language of business.
Think about the first time you traveled outside of your home country. For many of you that was your first deployment to places like Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caribbean or South America. Some of you may have had training in the local language and culture. For many I bet it was your first experience with a foreign language. Entering the world of business is in many ways very similar, with one important difference. Instead of living on the base or in a military community with those who speak the same language, you will be in a new environment. This new world of business has a different language and culture than what you’re used to.
Your new colleagues may be speaking English but it is a whole new language. Balance sheet, benchmarking, brands, diversification, globalization, innovation, lean manufacturing, outsourcing, mergers & acquisitions, profit and loss, segmentation, six sigma, total quality management and value chain. These may be English concepts but most of these ideas are foreign to your everyday use in the military. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all these concepts but the best way to approach this new vocabulary is to treat it like learning a new language.
Realize that business is similar to the military…
The world of business has organizations, with chains of commands that create specific missions and objectives with finite resources – such as personnel and equipment. These organizations face strong competition, gather external intelligence and create strategic plans and tactics to achieve victory by exploiting the weaknesses of their opponents. The leaders of these organizations will motivate the troops to increase morale and improve unit cohesion.
One of my favorite books on this subject, Marketing Warfare: 20th Anniversary Edition: Authors’ Annotated Edition, begins like this:
“The best book on marketing was not written by a Harvard professor. Nor by an alumnus of General motors, General Electric or even Proctor & Gamble. We think the best book on marketing was written by a retired Prussian general, Karl von Clausewitz. Entitled On War, the 1832 book outlines the strategic principles behind all successful wars.”
-Al Ries and Jack Trout
The idea that business could be warfare by another name has taken hold of many business leaders.
…but appreciate how the military is different to business.
Before you get too excited that your military experience is an identical match to the business world, I need to burst your bubble. A number of aspects of your military career translate directly to business, many others don’t. The main difference is in the mission and ultimate purpose of each type of organization. The military’s focus is one of security – to fight and win our nation’s wars. The purpose of business is to promote the interests of their stakeholders: creating value for all constituencies such as investors, employees, partners and the community. More consciously developed companies are even practicing a triple bottom line: profit, people and planet. Preparing and fighting wars is very different than managing profitability, growing market share and buying assets.
Aligning with Your Skills, Strengths and Passions
After you have begun to learn the language of business and understand its similarities and differences to your military experience, you need to align this new found knowledge with your internal skills, strengths and desires. Aligning the needs of the business world with your abilities and passions is where true transformation takes place. Here are 5 elements to keep in mind:
Head, heart and guts leadership
“There are many intangibles in business…but nothing quite as intangible as leadership. What is that follow-me-through-fire magic that leads the way and lights up the troops? Consultants and academics would love to isolate it, distil it and sell it in bottles, but no one has done that just yet.”
-Edward Russell-Walling
Leadership experience is the most important differentiator for you compared to your civilian counterparts. Companies of all sizes are realizing that complex times require strong leadership throughout the entire organization. But not just any kind of leadership. A recent book by executive development consultants talked about the need for complete leaders: those who use their head (rethinking the way things are done), heart (balancing people and the organization’s needs) and guts (taking risks with incomplete data), Head, Heart and Guts: How the World’s Best Companies Develop Complete Leaders. What profession develops these types of skills? You guessed it – the military.
On-time, on-target execution
Another management trait that’s in demand by all organizations is effective execution. A highly successful CEO, Larry Bossidy, even wrote a book about this topic, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, stating: “Execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success and the cause of most of the disappointments that are mistakenly attributed to other causes.”
This is another need of the business world where your experience can provide tremendous value. I like to call this skill set – on-time, on-target execution – from my days in the Artillery. Whatever your branch of service, making things happen on-time and on-target is invaluable to business leaders.
Strategy is a military word!
I excelled at the strategy courses in my business school. My classmates who were consultants and bankers wanted to know the secret. Here is what I didn’t tell them – strategy is a military word. The word strategy comes from the Greek word strategos, which means general derived from the words “stratos” meaning army and “ago” which is ancient Greek for leading, moving and guiding (there are those Greeks again 
. Business leaders who have read books by Clausewitz and Sun-Tzu have come to realize that business could be warfare by another name. Take heart that you are a strategic thinker – and you probably don’t even know it.
Technical skills from the best training organization in the world
In addition to the “soft” skills of leadership and management, your future manager will most likely review your “hard” skills – your technical abilities. Lucky for you, you have worked for one of the best training organization in the world – the US military. The military trains thousands of soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines each year in skills such as engineering, IT, medical, logistics, maintenance, communication, aviation, electronics, finance, intelligence and transportation. Many of the positions in the business world will use these exact same skills but adapted for a commercial setting.
Uncover your passion
Finally, but arguably most important in your career change, is the ability to uncover your passion. Many of you will have discovered what lights you up and gets you excited in the military. For others, this is a work in progress. Use your military transition to not only review existing skills developed in the military but also take the time to explore untapped passions from your past. For example, I combined a passion for communication from my youth with military skills of management and leadership in an international setting to develop a career in international marketing. What passions can you uncover from your past?
We’ve come to the end of probably the most important stage in your journey. Going outside to discover the world of business and bringing that knowledge inside to align with your skills and passions is where your transformation occurs. Successfully completing your work at this stage results in an excitement and belief that you’ve got what it takes to succeed in the world of business.
In the next article, Heroic Journey Series, Part 3 – Return, you will learn how to translate your skills, strengths and experiences into tangible value for your prospective employers.
Begin Your Heroic Journey!
Related Posts:
- The Leadership Link: 6 Military Leadership Skills Which Translate to Success in the Business World
- Heroic Journey Series, Part 3 – Return: Land Your First Business Job By Marketing Brand You
- Heroic Journey Series, Introduction – The Map of the Terrain
- Duty, Honor, Planet: Why Sustainability May Be the Best Business Opportunity in the 21st Century for Military Veterans
- Heroic Journey Series, Part 1 – Departure: Master the Mindset of the Inner Work of Success