The Secret Weapon to Business Success in the Era of Covid-19: Military Veterans.

Part 1

As we adopt necessary public policies such as social distancing, mobility restrictions, and the closing of non-essential firms to stem the tide of Covid-19, the impact across sectors and industries is dramatic. With few exceptions, businesses large and small are scrambling to deal with this crisis, often without knowing what the next day will bring. Underlying it all is a very reasonable worry about our general health and welfare.

Despite some magical thinking about a quick return to some semblance of “normal”, the reality is that—in the US, at least—things are going to get worse before they get better.

These are truly times of unprecedented challenge.

Who can business leaders turn to in this climate of rapid flux, uncertainly, and fear? One group of your workforce is uniquely well-suited to thrive under these circumstances: your veterans.

At GE Aviation, I have the genuine honor of running a program called JOLP, which exists to recruit military leaders and turn them into business leaders. A mainstay at GE for over 24 years, JOLP has long graduated veterans into high-impact leadership positions throughout our businesses and functions. We have veterans with backgrounds in special forces, intelligence, aviation, logistics, Navy subs, and more.

As you can see, it’s not about a veteran’s former military job, it’s about proven performance under pressure. Indeed, one non-negotiable qualification for admission into our 2-year program is a demonstrated record of high-stakes leadership under times of great uncertainty.

The rationale is straightforward: we believe if someone can lead and perform in the context of high-stakes military operations, they can perform elsewhere, be it the private sector, non-profits, academia, or more.

"It's about proven performance under pressure".

We’re not alone in this thinking. Many firms have caught on and veteran employment numbers are solid. Yet while veteran unemployment is at a near-record low in the US, veteran underemployment remains a problem.

The result is a shockingly high turnover among most veterans, with estimates from the US Department of Labor and Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) showing that about 50% of all US veterans leave their first post-military job within 1 year.

There is a fundamental reason for this: though organizations increasingly hire veterans, many still distrust them to perform in high-impact positions, often due to some vague trepidation about their (perceived) inexperience in business settings.

Now is the time to trust them.

From the scholarship on crisis leadership, resiliency studies, organizational behavior, and related fields, plus my personal insights gleaned from a career as an Air Force fighter pilot and at GE Aviation leading JOLP, the following is Part 1 in a series about why your veteran workforce is perhaps your greatest untapped asset in this era of Covid-19.

First, a disclaimer (or three): These are my personal opinions and not those of my employer(s), including GE, the US Department of the Air Force, or the US Department of Defense. Second, I run the risk of accidentally portraying veterans as a monolith, a logical fallacy I regularly take great pains to point out to others. Third, I ought to make clear that I am not claiming veterans are somehow better than other key populations—rather, I believe they are uniquely well-suited to deliver outsized value in this time of crisis, and overlooking their skills now is at your business’s peril.

Part 1: Pushups in the dirt

Bootcamp, so popularly conceptualized by Hollywood and our collective imaginations, really is a life-changing experience. And it really does involve doing pushups in the dirt.

Though it’s hard to imagine a military operation’s success or failure has ever directly hinged on one’s pectoral strength amongst soil, it’s reasonably safe to say that 100% of military veterans have partaken in this element of the curriculum. The same goes for pull-ups, shining shoes, bad haircuts, running, getting yelled at, and more. It really is a rare example of commonality among an otherwise very diverse population.

There are a lot of reasons—stated and unstated—the military has bootcamp. In fact, it’s widely studied in the social sciences. It’s not a stretch to say bootcamp remains the epitome of “resocialization”. Unsurprisingly, it functions to resocialize individuals to new norms of behavior in preparation for a military lifestyle.

Some training occurs, too, though the initial recruit phase is rudimentary as far as technical skill-building goes. In fact, a recruit graduates bootcamp only to quickly move on into more specialized training, sometimes lasting years in the case of aviation, nuclear engineering, and other highly technical fields.

What does all this have to do with employee performance? In fact, if the movies are to be believed, isn’t bootcamp actually “bad” with all this resocialization? Isn’t it a place that instills attitudes that run contrary to what we want in our 21st-century services-based economy employees? You know, things like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, risk taking, and so on?

In short, no.

Despite what outsiders likely think, the aims and objectives of basic military training aren’t about de-individualization and aggression-building, but about team bonding, instilling resiliency, and, in the words of one well-regarded blue-ribbon panel report, “building an optimum learning culture”. 

What does this mean? While recruits are being trained and instructed on some technical skills (and, yes, shining their shoes) it is more about fostering and growing the needed interpersonal skills to operate successfully in the complexity of modern conflict.

Critical thinking, emotional intelligence, risk taking? Precisely.

Also: integrity and values-based leadership, compassion and empathy, effective problem solving, and so much more. That’s what recruits are being resocialized for: their ability to learn these skills, quickly and continuously, over the course of a career.

"Integrity and values-based leadership, compassion and empathy, effective problem solving, and so much more."

It may seem like empty rhetoric, but the militaries of the world have rapidly recognized that modern warfare requires those in the profession of arms to have skills and competencies without precedent through the annals of human conflict. In the first world war, soldiers were valued for basic fitness, marksmanship, and unbending loyalty to superiors, a core set of traits that goes back to pre-history.

Soldiers today are valued for their technical knack with digital products, conflict resolution skills, cross-cultural literacy, and program management talent, among others.

So, yes, your workplaces's veterans did pushups in the dirt. Physical fitness remains important, and the rites-of-passage associated with joining a rarified community are important. But those pushups also embody something else unique about bootcamp that applies to today’s business climate: building resilience.

Put succinctly, a veteran is rewarded with a lifetime of confidence knowing they can beat tough times. When you’ve been pushed to the edge—physically, emotionally, and mentally—and can reach deep down in a well of personal resilience and keep going, you know you can meet any challenge, overcome any obstacle, and perform under pressure.

Studies surrounding personal resilience abound, and self-confidence and self-efficacy are salient among them. These two concepts are also intertwined with research about coping and positive psychology. While the boundaries among concepts overlap, the key takeaway is that military bootcamp really does instill a heightened self-efficacy among its participants.

"a veteran is rewarded with a lifetime of confidence knowing they can overcome tough times"

Isn’t it more about who chooses to join the military rather than the training itself?

Perhaps surprisingly, no. Even when controlling for who self-selects into military training (even considering conscripted or “drafted” members alongside volunteers), the results are robust and consistent across multiple variables including sex, race, nationality, ages, and time: for those that didn’t already have it, bootcamp creates a “can-do” spirit. For those that joined with that already, bootcamp heightens it.

And this “can-do” spirit isn’t simply about run-of-the-mill confidence, it’s about having a deeper well of personal resilience. It’s a next-level self-assurance that one can perform under pressure and bounce back from setbacks, whatever they may be.

Does this translate into overconfidence? Are veterans at risk of being more subjectively confident in their abilities relative to objective measures of those abilities?

Well, yes, but not because they’re veterans…it’s because they’re humans.

We know from behavioral sciences us naked apes routinely suffer from an innate overconfidence bias; the data are clear that humans normally and fundamentally believe we are better at tasks than we really are. Taken on a whole, this isn’t necessarily destructive (we’ve all ignored the map at times), but as biases go, it certainly can be detrimental when considering outcomes in various settings, like when needing to deliver on-time and on-budget for an important project at work.

The literature has very little to say about veteran overconfidence specifically, though one fascinating study of veteran CEO’s found they were significantly less risk-averse than non-veteran peers…which tended to lead to positive financial outcomes for those firms!

Most veterans are more prone to embody the appropriate blend of confidence rooted in humility. In fact, this is a normal part of the bootcamp syllabus!

Part 1 deals with bootcamp in no small part because that’s the first chronological step in a veteran’s career journey. But in truth, bootcamp is but a small part of that journey. Yes, it’s life-changing, but perhaps it’s more apt to describe it as “life-preparing”. It’s the launchpad, rather than the journey itself.

"Most veterans embody the appropriate blend of confidence rooted in humility."

The veterans in your workforce are used to struggle and setback. They’re forged in a team mentality, driven by values and eager to learn. They’ve had dirt kicked in their face (literally) and still managed to perform.

When crisis comes to your organization, and you need followers and leaders with experience in high-stakes decision-making among times of great uncertainly, change, and fear, consider the talent you've already recruited and hired. The veterans in your workforce are ready to take on the toughest challenges because they've done it before, whether in training or combat, over the span of months or decades.

In this terrible era of Covid-19, look to those who “can-do”. Look to your veterans.

-Mark Fogel

Mark Fogel is a Sr Human Resources Manager at GE Aviation where he leads recruiting as well as organizational and talent development of JOLP. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dayton, where he teaches graduate students in both the MPA and MBA programs. Previously, he served 12 years as an active duty US Air Force fighter pilot, chief of training, and instructor. Mark is currently a Lt Col in the Ohio Air National Guard where he commands the unit responsible for education and training, HR, services, and other support functions at the 178th Wing.

(Be on the lookout for Part 2, coming soon!)