Leadership Lesson from War Story 

One of my earliest experiences in leadership was when I worked as a civilian IT engineer for the Royal Australian Air Force. I was leading a team of about 20 civilians, and we worked very closely with the military.

I quickly learned 3 important leadership lessons while working on this military base:

Lesson #1: I could not help but notice the sharp difference between military leadership vs civilian leadership. In the military, officers have the legal authority to issue orders, and the enlisted must obey without question. That was a legal power I did not have as a civilian leading a team of civilians. I could not order my team members around for that would create nothing but resentment.

Lesson #2: Instead of ordering my team members, I had to inspire them. And I had to inspire them using what’s inspirational to them individually, not what’s inspirational to myself. What’s an effective motivating factor for one individual may or may not work on a different individual — for everybody is “uniquely different”. I had to explain to my team members how each of the tasks I assigned to them would benefit them, and that was the essence of “Influence & Persuasion”.

Lesson #3: In order to inspire them using what’s inspirational to them, I had to learn about them. Their lives, their aspirations and their ambitions. What are the things they want? What are the things they want to avoid? How badly do they want them? I had to become more effective at making people feel comfortable about opening up to me.

That was a great learning experience for me! I am glad I got those lessons at such an early stage of my career. Fast forward to today. I get ex-military attending my leadership training seminars from time to time. They tell me point blank:

“I came to learn how to be a civilian, again. I was a great military leader, and I just found out the hard way: that style of leadership does not apply in the civilian world, I don’t have the legal authority to order my team members to do 20 push-ups. I need to unlearn what was good for that environment and relearn something new for this environment. So, teach me the way of the jedi, teach me how to be a civilian leader in the business world.”