The Veteran Stereotype

Thank you for your service . . . but . . . you're just not what we're looking for. Thank you for your service, but if you want to work here, you're going to start at an entry level position. Thank you for your service, but you don't have the people skills necessary to"lead" civilians. Thank you for your service, but based on what I've seen on TV and at the movies, I'm worried that you're too unstable or won't fit in here.

Recent research has exposed what many transitioning service members already knew - there is a negative bias toward veterans in the post-9/11 era. A number of studies have validated it, the narrative about the broken veteran and post-military employment potential reinforces it, and as veterans, we've even helped to perpetuate this bias. That's the bad news. The good news is that we can do something about it. It starts by acknowledging that the Veteran Stereotype exists and actively changing perceptions through our example as veteran leaders.

The Research and Public Narrative

Recent research has shown that many civilians view veterans as unstable. As it pertains to leadership opportunities in corporate America, new research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business suggests veteran job candidates are unemotional, don't play well with others, and are likely to be overlooked for jobs that leverage emotional intelligence and interpersonal and leadership skills. What is remarkable about that statement is that the military is perhaps one of the most people and leadership centric professions. While most professions promote and develop managers based on functional competence (i.e. the best engineers become engineering managers), the military educates, trains, and develops an individual's identity and potential as a leader from the very first day of entry level training.

The narrative about the 'broken' veteran is widening the civil-military cultural divide and impeding a veteran's growth potential in life beyond the military

The public narrative about contemporary veterans isn't helping. Just turn on your television during prime time hours. All of the characters with military experience seem to be struggling with some degree of post traumatic stress. Try and find a Hollywood portrayal of a post-9/11 veteran as otherwise. To be sure, these are serious health issues that demand our attention, but these conditions only represent 11 to 20 percent of the post-9/11 veteran community. How often do you see popular culture showcase the success stories of the other 80 percent of our community? You don't. When veterans comprise only 7 percent of the population, this characterization might be the only exposure that many Americans have to post 9/11 veterans.

One Example of the Veteran Stereotype

One of the prominent examples of the bias against the veteran demographic involves the controversy around the hiring of retired General Robert "Bob" Caslen as University President for the University of South Carolina. I'm not debating any procedural issues to his hiring, and to be fair, there may be substantive issues with the selection process. I question whether or not the objections would be as vocal or persistent if he were a non-veteran.

The objections to his hiring center on two issues. The first is about his credentials. He doesn't have a doctoral degree. That's fair. The other dissension that comes from many faculty, students, and alumni centers on his his participation in the Iraq War. In other words, his status as a veteran in the post-9/11 era. That's not fair. Service members don't get to pick and choose where elected officials tell them to go and fight. When we channel our discontent for foreign policy decisions onto the service member, we harken back to a time almost 50 years ago and succumb to the very behaviors we promised the sons and daughters of this nation that we would never do again. No service member should be punished for doing what their nation asked them to do.

What is lost in this controversy is the fact that this officer was the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy. In other words, he ALREADY WAS A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT! More notably, West Point ranks number 2 in the nation for public schools while the University of South Carolina ranks 44th for public schools. Despite these statistics, a group representing University of South Carolina faculty unanimously passed a vote of no confidence for General Caslen in July of this year. No confidence? Unanimous? To their credit, the board hired the retired general anyway, but would a non-veteran candidate have received the same scrutiny and unanimous vote of no confidence?

Confirmation Bias Reinforces the Veteran Stereotype

Confirmation Bias: The search to for a reason to say "no" instead of finding an opportunity to say "yes."

You experience this confirmation bias every time a recruiter or career services adviser tells you to "step back" or "manage expectations." Instead of educating and engaging corporate leaders and hiring managers, we are marginalizing the potential of veteran leaders. Selective reliance on functional experience in marketing, specific product segments, accounting, and business operations provides the excuse to dismiss the potential of CEO caliber leaders from commensurate opportunities despite the fact that post 9/11 military leaders are best prepared to navigate the challenges of the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) corporate environment. Furthermore, the greatest leadership challenges facing corporate America - lack of trust in management, retention of top talent, and employee burnout - are the very organizational and team dynamics that military leaders are most capable to address.

My personal favorite is the assertion that you cannot place a military leader in a commensurate civilian leadership role because "you wouldn't put a civilian in charge of a battalion or brigade." That's true, but we're forgetting that most military officers also don't get the chance to command a battalion or brigade (most NCO's don't get the chance to be a command sergeant major). Furthermore, civilian authorities and elected officials outrank and wield authority over military leaders, yet military experience is not a prerequisite for elected officials or civil service in the Department of Defense. You only need to walk the halls of the Pentagon to find plenty of non-military personnel who never wore the uniform in significant positions of authority over those who do. We don't consider that. Instead, we leverage the confirmation bias to generalize one example across the whole population and marginalize the potential of military leaders for corporate leadership opportunities.

Here's a test worth taking: Imagine a successful corporate leader from one industry is transitioning to a completely different industry. He or she was a chief executive in an organization of several hundred - maybe even thousands of people. Their assets were valued in the hundreds of millions with an eight-figure operating budget. When that person goes to look for a new job, are executive recruiters and career managers telling them to "step back?" Are they being advised to obtain certain credentials before employers validate their leadership potential? Why is the answer "no" for civilian leaders but "yes" for military ones? What does this say about how we value - or marginalize - military leadership experience?

The Way Forward

As a nation, we need to spend more time educating corporate America on how the military develops business skills like marketing, accounting, business development, and strategy through modern military service and deployments. Is there a greater marketing challenge than selling security to a tribal culture that speaks a different language with multiple stakeholders in a high threat environment? Because the veteran's education occurs outside the classroom doesn't make it any less valid or applicable. We summarily dismiss these examples instead of exploring how they might apply. That said, we - as veterans - own some of the responsibility for perpetuating the Veteran Stereotype.

As a community, we have to take the first step to change perceptions. We have to release the idea that we are owed something from our service. We were volunteers. Many of us (myself included) would do it again. We have to let go of this entitlement mindset. There are more than 40,000 veteran nonprofit organizations. Many evoke sympathy for the broken veteran narrative as their core strategy for revenue generation. Many organizations deliver remarkable value to our community, but have we reached a point where we are shaming America into discounts and free services at the expense of our premium potential for opportunities beyond the military? Is the charity focus limiting the perceived potential of veteran leaders in society? You can't raise your hand to lead while your arm is extended for a handout.

The first step to proving that veterans can stand to lead civilian organizations is to live an example that defies the image of the broken veteran

Your most important challenge through the transition process is to resolve the identity crisis that comes from spending years - if not decades - behind the cover and concealment of your uniform. You have to uncover your purpose, your values, intrinsic strengths, common factors to your success, belief in yourself, and what you truly want for the second half of your life. You must step with confidence into your identity beyond the military. If you can't recognize who you are without the uniform, the rest of society won't either. It starts with acknowledging that you are more than the uniform. The uniform didn't make you great. You make the uniform great.

Failure to address the bias we have toward veterans poses a threat to the long term viability of a all-volunteer force. We must inspire men and women to military service through the examples that our veterans set as successful leaders both in and beyond the military. We have our challenges, but we are much more than the current narrative suggests. We spend plenty of time translating military skills to the civilian sector, but we don't do enough to communicate the value and universal qualities of leadership that are forged through the military experience. As a veteran community, we need to take personal responsibility for our lives and stand to lead. We've inspired men and women in uniform, and now it's time to inspire them beyond the uniform. Let's turn Thank You for Your Service into Thank You for your Leadership and provide the examples our society so desperately needs.

Jason Roncoroni is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Army and an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) from the International Coach Federation. As the President of Ordinary Hero Coaching, he created an innovative program to resolve the identity crisis and inspire veterans to live meaningful lives in the service of others beyond the military. His forthcoming book, Beyond the Military: A Leader's Handbook to Warrior Reintegration is set to be published by Lioncrest Publising on Veteran's Day. For more information, please email Jason at [email protected].