That isn't the reason. It's that the leadership training and experience of someone who has been placed in command of a large military unit is roughly equivalent to the demands placed on a corporate executive. In many ways, we're perfect targets, not just because of the leadership training and experience, but the extreme devotion to mission and personal sacrifice. Where else are you going to find people who regularly worked 20 hour days 7 days a week for up to 15 months in a foreign country? No matter how much you ask of an employee, you can't possibly ask more than the military did. Every time I read about Amazon employees pissing in bottles, I can't help but think of how many times I did just that when I was commanding tank crews. Working yourself to death and never taking a break is just an ordinary day in the service.
Where we struggle is in what others have identified in this thread. As a military leader, you're used to having complete control of your subordinates. You can confine them and in some cases execute them for not following orders. It takes some getting used to being in a situation where your reports have personal liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and you have to follow labor laws and what not. I've seen a lot of former military officers struggle with this. My wife's ex boss (and part of the reason he is now an ex boss) reported a hospitalization incident all the way up his chain of command, seemingly unaware of the existence of HIPAA. Soldiers don't have privacy rights, but ordinary citizens do.
There's also a dichotomy. Companies following rules, doing things the way they always did, inevitably leads to stagnation. You need creative people that break these rules and innovate. Sometimes even burn off parts of a companies portfolio that are still successful, to get to the next thing. Just from my brief study of personality types.
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That isn't the reason. It's that the leadership training and experience of someone who has been placed in command of a large military unit is roughly equivalent to the demands placed on a corporate executive. In many ways, we're perfect targets, not just because of the leadership training and experience, but the extreme devotion to mission and personal sacrifice. Where else are you going to find people who regularly worked 20 hour days 7 days a week for up to 15 months in a foreign country? No matter how much you ask of an employee, you can't possibly ask more than the military did. Every time I read about Amazon employees pissing in bottles, I can't help but think of how many times I did just that when I was commanding tank crews. Working yourself to death and never taking a break is just an ordinary day in the service.
Where we struggle is in what others have identified in this thread. As a military leader, you're used to having complete control of your subordinates. You can confine them and in some cases execute them for not following orders. It takes some getting used to being in a situation where your reports have personal liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and you have to follow labor laws and what not. I've seen a lot of former military officers struggle with this. My wife's ex boss (and part of the reason he is now an ex boss) reported a hospitalization incident all the way up his chain of command, seemingly unaware of the existence of HIPAA. Soldiers don't have privacy rights, but ordinary citizens do.
There's also a dichotomy. Companies following rules, doing things the way they always did, inevitably leads to stagnation. You need creative people that break these rules and innovate. Sometimes even burn off parts of a companies portfolio that are still successful, to get to the next thing. Just from my brief study of personality types.