We all have strengths and weaknesses. I wise organizations harnesses folks strengths and keeps them away from areas that they don't do well in. Not everything from the military translates well to civilian orgs. In the military, I was always at Division or below. My bosses were always very intolerant of meetings and staff/cdr training the didn't seem much use. One Bde Cdr required that all staff meetings were to be conducted standing up, and each staff officer had only 2min to say his piece. Periodically we'd get a new staff officer and he wouldn't really believe the guidance from his peers. After 2min, the officer was reminded by the Bde Cdr, like a teacher chiding a student, to "sit the fuck down dick".

I'm not very good in long inefficient meetings nor HR's required training. My boss, in contrast, is a saint in this respect. His ability to "get along" in these environments that make me crazy, is really quite amazing.

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"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Personally I think a military background could sometimes be the worst thing to have in a civilian office environment. I was never in the military but grew up as a base brat with my dad a career officer. I remember a lot of the "yes sir, no sir, how high should I jump sir" bullshit growing up. It was either barking out orders or being barked at and then obeying without question. That can be very toxic in a civilian environment since there is often limited negotiation in that type of management. Its true that some people need that sort of thing in their lives and then the military can be good for them, but I've seen a number of military lifer types who have difficulty adapting to civilian life once they retire but seek employment on civy street.

Absolutely. I work at a defense contractor. We hire a LOT of former military, particularly those who operate our products. We see a lot of the ones who come straight across the street to us eventually get frustrated with the rather flexible nature of the civilian chain of command...and the lack of clear direction, poor leadership, etc. Almost all of them leave, searching for something more akin to the military ("it can't be this bad everywhere!"). Some come back after they realize that its the same everywhere, and at least they can support the "cause" here.

I know my dad had a tough time when he got out of his military career and took a job in the civilian world. I remember one time him saying "We are supposed to start at oh-eight hundred and I try to set an example by being there at oh-seven-thirty and they still walk in fifteen minutes late as if it was nothing." Fortunately dad mellowed fairly quickly and adapted. Became a totally different guy within a few years.

Hmm. That's not been my experience. I see strong military types being only hugely successful, as long as they land in a decent environment. Strong military types bring so much tenacity, self discipline, obsessive personal responsibility, and leadership skills that, imo, very few civilian types can compete with them, specific job skills being equal. Not only do the strong military types make great leaders, but they make great subordinates too.

Sure, there's going to be exceptions. It's easy to imagine some Sgt Major taking over some blue collar group and riding roughshod over them. But that's because that SGM wasn't strong enough to change his approach to fit his different environment. As you said, he wasn't flexible enough. The strong former military types are fabulous. But they're not all strong, some are slugs. I've just not worked with former military slugs.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart