Key Tenets of Military Leadership that apply to business

I was lucky enough to get an ROTC scholarship for my college. The luck was not really about paying for college, although at the time that was extremely helpful. The luck I am talking about is that the military provided me with amazing leadership training that has set the tone for how I lead people in business.

I was taught that there are 11 key tenets of leadership. I will share them here and talk about how they apply to business life as well.

1. Mission First, People Always: Accomplishing our goals is critical to business success, but the truth is that goals cannot be accomplished unless the team does the work. Success in getting your team to pull off the mission depends on ensuring their readiness, safety and morale always while doing the work to accomplish your objective.
2. Personal Responsibility: Leaders set the standard for behavior. If the leader cuts corners, the team will cut corners. If the leader bends the rules, expect the team to do the same. Set the tone for how you want your team to act by demonstrating that behavior.
3. Decentralized Command: Leaders empower subordinates to market decisions, which ensures adaptability and initiative to accomplish the mission. As long as your intent is clear, your team will make the right choices without your micromanagement.
4. Accountability: Leaders take all of the blame and none of the credit. As a leader, you must accept ownership of failures and strive for continuous improvement.
5. Competence & Continuous Learning: You must be an expert in your field and stay on top of the environment and the changes. You should have knowledge of what each of your team has to go through to perform so that you can properly support them.
6. Effective Communication: Listen actively to feedback and be clear, concise and direct with your communications to ensure that intent is well understood.
7. Moral and Ethical Integrity: Trust is central for you to earn the right to lead your team. Your decisions and actions should align with your values...especially in high stress situations.
8. Adaptability and Flexibility: You need to be able to read and react to situations quickly and with decisive action. Know when to stick to the plan and when you need a new plan to accomplish your mission
9. Motivating and Inspiring Subordinates: You set the culture on your team with your actions and values. The team will respond to how you lead.
10. Discipline and Standard Enforcement: as a leader, you set the standard for your team. Your team will reach the bar that you consistently maintain.
11. Situational Awareness and Decision-Making: Your team will look to you to give them the course of action. You need to gather, assess, and act on information to balance speed with accuracy...especially in high-tempo environments.

Without a doubt, the best leaders that I have worked with in civilian life have come from a military background. These principles are not just for military life and when applied effectively allow the leader to inspire confidence and achieve the objectives for your business; even under extreme stress.