What's the hardest part of transitioning from the world of Army Special Operations to the private sector?
This question, posed by a grizzled, ten-year veteran of a West Coast-based Navy SEAL Team, hung in the air.
It was in response to my address to a group of Navy SEALs from The Honor Foundation, an organization dedicated to "bridging military and private sector careers … for members of the Special Operations Forces community."
I had been invited to talk about my successful transition into the private sector after serving in two wars, including five combat deployments in the 75th Ranger Regiment, the Army's premier Special Operations raid unit. I currently work at MuleSoft, a San Francisco-based enterprise software company.
After pausing to reflect, I replied, "You can generally expect people in the private sector to demonstrate a drastically lower level of receptivity to negative feedback than you would encounter in the military."
Veterans are the products of an extremely direct culture, profoundly different from the traditional, corporate environment. This directness is necessary when serving in combat, as the stakes for a miscommunication or misunderstanding can be the difference between life and death. It must, therefore, be ingrained into every aspect of military training.
In my own experience, I often challenged senior field officers — offering candid feedback to help mitigate the very real possibility of danger to my team. On one occasion, equipped with knowledge from my pre-mission planning, I responded directly to a brigadier general who happened to be sitting in on a pre-mission brief.
He'd suggested an alternative location to employ my sniper team. Having conducted a thorough map reconnaissance of the area, I explained that not only would his suggested position silhouette my team against the full moon, but that the position would also restrict my ability to provide overwatch for the main body of the assault force. Standing firm in my challenge to his reasoning, I proceeded with employing my team as planned.
When veterans get out of the military and make the switch to engaging with civilian colleagues, they are frequently surprised to find this new audience much less receptive to such brusque feedback.
In conversations with friends in similar situations, I've come to recognize a key theme: Veterans transitioning to the private sector often run the risk of coming across as overly direct. While veterans are excellent at providing direct feedback — a skill in which I think the private sector would benefit from developing — we often find ourselves ill-equipped to convey it in a way that demonstrates empathy.
Radical Candor in action
Kim Malone Scott of Candor, Inc. coined the phrase Radical Candor, which is "the ability to give both praise and criticism in a way that challenges people directly and shows you care about them personally."
Scott shared a great example about a time when her boss criticized her early in her career at Google, after she presented to the founders and the CEO. While Scott felt that the meeting went well, her boss, Sheryl Sandberg, approached her to go for a walk and debrief after the meeting.
She started off discussing the positive things in Scott's presentation but gave feedback that Scott said "um" a lot. During the conversation, Sandberg could tell that Scott wasn't getting it, so she decided to be even clearer, saying: "When you say um every third word, it makes you sound stupid." At that moment, Scott understood the feedback. While it wasn't positive, the constructive criticism showed that Sandberg cared about Scott's professional growth.
Scott adds that for most professionals, offering this kind of feedback is an "unnatural act." But for many veterans, Radical Candor comes much more naturally to them than other kinds of responses. Unfortunately, it leads to many veterans delivering feedback that Scott describes as "obnoxiously aggressive."
For example, I once found myself going over the top in my criticism toward a team member who was presenting in a team meeting. After the meeting, I realized that, without context, this type of negative feedback in front of the broader team had likely bordered on "obnoxious aggression."
Recognizing this, I found that individual and started off with sharing my intent in giving the feedback during the presentation. I then asked if I could share "radically candid" feedback and discussed how the presentation had felt unrehearsed and off-message at certain points.
I further inquired as to whether or not that individual felt the same. And they agreed, citing that they were overwhelmed at the time and had crafted the presentation last minute. I empathized, sharing my own experience on delivering under tight timelines and offering to coach them through their next iteration. The team member then understood where my feedback came from and appreciated me for holding them accountable.
Transitioning veterans may struggle with this culture clash, trying to reconcile delivering effective, direct feedback in the private sector while demonstrating that they care on a personal level. Many view the delivery of this feedback as their duty. But if they omit the demonstration of empathy, they widen the gap between themselves and their colleagues.
Why the best bosses deliver direct feedback
In conversations with other veterans and through my own personal experience transitioning into the private sector, I've come to understand that the level of Radical Candor can vary — not just from one organization to another, but also from one individual to another.
At MuleSoft, for example, our executive team made a commitment to be more radically candid. We foster a culture where giving and receiving feedback creates a "healthy dose of friction"– something that is written into MuleSoft's cultural manifesto and greatly valued.
Instead of being perceived as a weakness, a veteran's ability to deliver criticism and push back when warranted needs to be recognized as a business strength. Sydney Finkelstein, author of "Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent," writes, "Superbosses are all about giving feedback anywhere and everywhere, and if employees don't get it, they've got a problem." Veterans, already comfortable with this, are well on their way to establishing themselves as exceptional leaders and should encourage others to follow suit.
Even at a company that espouses Radical Candor, however, delivering it isn't always easy. While many top-performing members of the private sector view direct feedback as an opportunity to learn and grow, not all of them are as receptive to it. This can create a gap in how comfortable veterans and members of the private sector are in balancing direct feedback with a level of personal caring.
Recognizing this gap is critical — both for transitioning veterans who wish to succeed in the private sector, and for executives hoping to tap into this crop of potential "superbosses." Once a balance is reached, veterans can turn the military culture into a corporate advantage and become a powerful asset to any company.
Steven Broudy is the head of account development for the Americas at MuleSoft, provider of the leading platform for building application networks. He was formerly in the U.S. Army, where he spent nearly six years in the 75th Ranger Regiment serving, among other positions as a Sniper Team Leader. Connect with Steven on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
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