A Time to Transition: Making Plans for the Future

So, you've decided it's time to hang it up, to leave or retire from the service and begin life in the private sector. As you travel this path, there is good news and some not-so-good news. The good news is that you have valuable skills, knowledge and ability that could benefit most civilian companies. The not-so-good news is that you've spent most of your life isolated from civilians in the private sector. They don't know much about the military and you don't know much about the business world. You need to approach this new challenge in much the same way as you have planned every major military operation in the past by assembling the right team, collecting information, developing and analyzing courses of action, deciding and then executing your action plan. Rest assured we all go through the transition but some manage the process better than others. In some ways it will be a culture shock so you need to be prepared. The bottom line is that you've never failed at anything you've done in the military and you are not likely to fail at this new challenge.

In spite of all the gloom and doom about unemployment and stagnation in the workplace, opportunities abound. According to a recent blog post "employers across the globe are concerned that they are faced with a workforce that is aging and a talent pool that is under-educated, or under-motivated and showing talent shortages in many critical areas." Some would argue that now is a great time to be entering the workforce as we begin to climb out of "The Great Recession."

I recently published a guest column in the Kansas City Star entitled, "Liberal arts, military experience offer preparation to adapt (and) lead." I commented that "the enemy in war is like the competition in the private sector that is always creating, innovating and adapting to changing consumer tastes, leading change and innovating to maintain their competitive advantage." After 13 years of war in two completely different environments, military leaders have been creative, innovative and adaptive in response to the constantly changing conditions on the ground. They have done so in an environment where the consequences of failure are often devastating. I believe that the skills, knowledge and abilities of mid to senior-grade leaders prepares them to assume leadership and management positions as managers, directors and vice presidents where their primary concern may be loss of market share, not loss of life. I know that military professionals have a great deal to offer a private sector employer.

Scott Samuelson writing in the Wall Street Journal notes that a study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, found that that "the overwhelming majority of employers are desperate to hire graduates who have a demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems." These are exactly the skills possessed by nearly all senior military professionals.

While you are an accomplished leader, leadership in the civilian sector is different. It's really classic leadership because you have to use your communication skills to persuade others, not direct them to get things done. In the military you wear your authority on your shoulders and your accomplishments on your chest. In the military this "resume" may be impressive, but unless your can contribute meaningfully to a company's bottom line, they don't care who you are and what you have done in the past. The only thing that matters is what you can do for them and their company. Get used to the fact that the janitor will call you by your first name and your boss and the president of the company will expect you to call them by their first names. "Yes sir, no sir" makes them nervous and normally, it is neither required nor desired.

Job security?—only if you are making yourself indispensable by contributing to the mission and profitability of the company. Most employment is "at will." Unless you have a contract, you can walk anytime you want and the company can dismiss you anytime they want. The concept of lifetime employment is a thing of the past. While this may be a bit disconcerting, your peers in the civilian marketplace have operated in this environment for their entire working lives. Lifetime employment is a concept of a bygone era. In the information age, the pace of change, created by innovation, means that some employees are treated like commodities. Some companies recruit and hire teams to accomplish short-term tasks and when those tasks end, team members are rolled into a new task or let go. This is the model frequently used by the defense industry. In this "at will" era employees have come to think of themselves as free agents always looking for a better opportunity and the chance for upward mobility. Jack Welsh, former CEO of General Electric, was quoted as saying "Loyalty to a company? It's nonsense."

You will come to realize that companies will not retain non-productive employees. I remember a time when one of my colleagues came to work to find that he could not log in to the company network so he called the IT manager. The IT manager suggested that he speak with the Chief Operating Officer (COO). When my friend visited the COO, he was told to come in and shut the door. In this meeting he was told his services were no longer needed. Thirty minutes later, my friend emerged to find a security guard holding a cardboard box. The guard escorted him to his office and watched him clear out his desk. My friend was then escorted to the door. His job with that company had just ended. What he failed to realize is that it was about "the numbers."

You will learn there is a big difference between overhead and billable hours. Most senior people in companies are overhead. That means they are vulnerable to losing their job when revenues, "the numbers," go down. Employees who are generating revenue are usually secure during an economic downturn. Revenue is normally tracked...