Five Pivotal Moments: Military Leadership Lessons I Still Share with Business Leaders
November 1, 2024
By: Josh Ensign, CEO
Standard disclaimer – any veteran who tells you that you can improve X by doing it just like the military does is not telling you the truth. That said, there are a million lessons, experiences, or skills that veterans take from their military lives into the wider world that are absolutely relevant. And just as the active duty military often borrows from the world of business, there are some actual lessons that business leaders can learn from their military counterparts.
I transitioned from active duty in 2010, in the midst of a global economic meltdown. I did not know what regular people really did for work and certainly not how they did it. And as a stranger in a strange land, the whole world being on fire was just the new normal. I made more mistakes than I can count and did my best to learn from them.
Throughout this transition- as I tried to keep my wits about me- I found myself remembering five key moments from my military career. When a leader said something critical, provided a tangible model for me to emulate. In my post-military business life, I have carried these with me, coached others on the same lessons, and have done my best to live up to those lessons. This is the first time I have written them down.
1. You can do the right thing, no matter what anyone else does.
The first pivotal moment happened as a result of my inaugural leadership class in the Navy, but didn’t actually happen in class. I was new to the command, so my supervisor asked me to come by and check in during the lunch break. When he asked me how the class was going, this was the post-Tailhook scandal, post-CNO suicide for wearing the wrong ribbons, Marines still getting in trouble for hazing and pounding jump wings into each other. I said that the class seemed a little hypocritical, since it acknowledged the problems in the past but seemed to hand wave away all of the things that were still going on, all the work yet to be done.
Marty cut me off and told me the thing that I have never forgotten– you can do the right thing, no matter what anyone else does. Whether others are making the right choices or living up to the standards does not mean anything on whether you choose to. Acting with integrity provides a model for other people, and when enough people act according to their values, the world changes for the better.
I am still trying to live up to his advice today.
2. Wrong answer. It’s “being organized.”
Some roles, billets, or schools require you to participate in a selection board, to get the endorsement of people who have already qualified for it in the past. The second pivotal moment happened when I was standing in front of a board and the chair asked me what I thought the most important trait of a leader is. When I answered he told me I was 1) wrong and 2) the real answer was being organized.
When a leader is disorganized it creates a vast amount of work that the leader’s peers have to do in order to coordinate with that person. Work that should not have to be done at all. A disorganized leader creates more work for the boss, who has to sort out what the disorganized subordinate is doing, trying to do, or failing to do unnecessary work that should not have to be done. And, worst of all, the disorganized leader inflicts a massive labor tax for the entire team they lead, as the team tries to operate without clear goals, communication, structure, expectations, and often with last minute arbitrary deadlines– all because the team lead can’t be bothered to spend some time to get their act together.
If this is you, you are doing it wrong.
3. Always take care of your sailors because your sailors will take care of you.
This one should be obvious but is another that too often gets left by the wayside. I first heard this from my fleet skipper as was about to release a bunch of brand new branch and division officers into the wild, including your humble author.
If your team is operating smoothly, has what they need to do their work, and have the right balance of structure and creativity to keep their innovations within the rules, then you, the leader, have very little to worry about. Take care of your people. Loyalty is earned, but once you earn it, your team will make you look like a superstar. Then you can be humble and give all the credit to your team, since they did the actual work.
4. Any fool can sit in the back of the room and throw stones.
In 2007, I was briefing a different skipper on the status of the ongoing training for an upcoming exercise and I must have made him mad when I told him bluntly that it was not going well. He cut me off and set me straight.
Any fool can sit in the back of the room and throw stones, he said. I need you to be a leader, the squadron needs you to be a leader, you want to lead, so lead. Don’t ever sit in the back and just say this is all jacked up. I need you to say, this is all jacked up and here’s how I want to fix it.
I have never forgotten this moment.
5. Nope. We are not doing that.
This was a different commanding officer, responding to a proposal that would have completely blown up squadron operations in order to ensure that we absolutely would not violate, or even potentially violate the rules for handling classified material.
Not that the material in question was classified. But we were training non-US citizens as part of our ongoing operations, and the concern from the intelligence shop was that the software loaded into the equipment had not been positively approved for them, even though the students were Five Eyes members, our closest allies. So the proposal was that the foreign students would use segregated equipment for training that was loaded with different but also unclassified software.
After listening to the intelligence folks make their case, and then listening to Operations lose its mind (not enough to go around in the first place, undermanned training squadron, barely making production as it was, impossible set of requirements to perform), the CO said that we weren’t going to do it. Intel had to figure out how to have one software load that would work for everyone. Which they did.
Look, rules matter. You have to follow the rules and stay on the right side of regulation, safety, and compliance. But sometimes when you follow the rules, you still end up in an illogical place, with a conclusion that is nonsensical. In that case, it doesn’t matter that you followed the rules. Be sure you are giving your outcomes a reality check.
Parting Shots
Looking back, I've been fortunate to learn from exceptional leaders, both military and civilian. Every leader provides an opportunity to learn and expand your leadership toolkit. These five moments have shaped my approach to leadership and continue to guide my decisions today.
GxSpeed offers leadership seminars, workshops, and speaking engagements to help elevate and inspire your team. Contact us at info@gxspeed.com for more information.