Most CEOs who are asked to consider the possibility of hiring a retired career military officer to fill an important executive position envision some sort of variation on George C. Scott's Patton -- a tough guy (or gal) who is stern, authoritarian, humorless and chews nails as a primary leisure-time activity.
Nothing could be further from the truth in the modern military. Today's Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines produce some of the best-trained, most sophisticated leaders in the country, and every year dozens of these highly skilled officers retire, often at a comparatively young age.
Many of these former officers become lobbyists for defense contractors -- a business in which they can make use of long-established connections but have no opportunity to employ many of their hard-won executive and leadership skills.
Consider these facts about today's military leaders:
- Most must leave the armed services after 32 years unless they obtain a special Congressional extension. This means many generals or other top-ranked officers leave the military when they are in their early 50s and still quite vigorous and looking for new challenges.
- Many are exceedingly well-trained and well-educated, holding master's degrees and often a PhD.
- Transferred every two years or so to different parts of the world, military leaders often have had an exceptional exposure to different geographies and settings and have developed an open-minded, genuinely global perspective on the world.
- More often than not, they have served, not in a traditional command and control setting based on issuing orders and eliciting obedience, but in environments in which influence, persuasiveness, collegiality and team building were the primary skills required.
- Military pay for a general who may oversee tens of thousands of people serving on military bases around the world, is about at the level of a junior corporate manager who is just a few years out of business school. The former military officer, therefore, is less likely than other candidates to make unrealistic demands in terms of overall compensation.
Most executive recruiters don't consider retiring military officers because it just doesn't occur to them that the military is a significant source of executive talent. Military people are off the standard radar track for recruiters and many employers, but should not be.
A recent example was a retiring major general, who was recruited to head a leading construction industry trade and research organization. In addition to having a strong record as a soldier, this candidate had overseen a $4.5 billion annual budget and managed thousands of military and civilian personnel around the world. He had also testified before Congress, worked extensively with the Environmental Protection Agency and lectured widely at leading universities. His compensation package represented a 50 percent increase over his military compensation, but was still quite reasonable in terms of current standards of executive pay.
Particularly at this moment in the nation's history, Americans are being reminded of the sacrifices U.S. military people make daily to protect their fellow citizens -- and of the sterling qualities and intelligent planning that enable them to perform effectively.
This is also a good time to think about the value an experienced military leader can offer to the country's business sector when the military leader's service is completed. Leading companies should consider the pool of retiring military officers as a source of outstanding candidates for certain executive positions. This is a good way both to serve a client effectively and also to make maximum use of one of America's best resources.
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