Excellence, competition and training are only a few of the terms that are often equally applied to business and the military. Here are two new releases that give insights into the continually growing parallels between the two.
“The military has a system for everything,” says author and veteran Chris Hallberg (also known as the Business Sergeant), “and those systems can help you harness the energy of your employees and lead them to greatness.” His book, “The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual: Military Grade Business Execution Without the Yelling and Push-Ups,” is a modified version of military training for business leaders at every level.
Hallberg’s book is not a military autobiography, though his military career and combat
experience are responsible for the development of many of the approaches he takes in the book. He draws equally from an extensive entrepreneurial and executive background after “leaving the uniform.” Blending the two, he shows how problems can be resolved through a “Business Sergeant” mentality.
As expected from the book’s title, Hallberg’s is a “no-nonsense, let’s get it done” approach, and most of his 82 lessons are direct and intent on addressing a specific issue as thoroughly as possible. While Hallberg uses military and business terminology, he does so to focus on the shared characteristics of both. For example, he utilizes a Entrepreneurial Operating System in sync with “The Business Sergeant’s Field Manual.” The result is a system particularly dynamic for creating teams for business.
“The best businesses in the world are made of small units and teams,” he writes. “Why not learn from the U.S. military, one of the most effective team builders in the world?”
The author begins with the lynch pin: leadership. Leaders must follow an operating system and demand accountability. They must always put their people first, he says. Leaders must be equally passionate about their goals. The starting point for this is an inspiring vision, Hallberg says. To create a culture of reliability among your team of troops requires an inspired vision shared by all involved.
In the military or in business (Hallberg argues both) there must be an alignment between roles and values. “The Field Manual” is exactly that: a dynamic how-to on leadership and management to be used as you go.
Hallberg calls his book “a call-to-arms” and “a mission that can only be successfully pursued through conviction, discipline and vision.” Follow your planned step and you will achieve greater and greater victories on the business battlefield and ultimately life itself.”
It will have much more impact than doing a few push-ups. Skip the push-ups, tone down the yelling, become your own best Business Sergeant.
Can two remarkably different organizations, one on a battlefield, the other in a boardroom, use the same principles for success?
Absolutely, says author Gary Morton, if a clear, uncompromising objective is established, followed by a commitment to achieve success. In “Commanding Excellence: Inspiring Purpose, Passion, and Ingenuity through Leadership That Matters,” Morton shows how much a military unit and a business enterprise have in common by comparing his experiences in both.
“My most lasting memory is the remarkable similarity between their intense internal environments,” Morton says. “They were two very different organizations, yet the craved obsession for excellence within them was nearly the same.”
Morton’s military experience includes platoon leader and commander in the renown Army Task Force 4-68. This unit, using state-of-the-art laser-engagement would fight an Opposing Force (OPFOR) in the tactics of the Soviets. And it allowed him the opportunity to mentor with Lt. Col. Alfred L. Dibella Jr., under whose leadership the unit saw unprecedented success with the OPFOR.
After his experience in the military, Morton went on to equally phenomenal success in business. Taking the tools he had developed in the military, he implanted the “crazed obsession for excellence,” into Stryker, a medical-device manufacturer. His mentor in this endeavor was John W. Brown, whose different style of leadership had a profound effect on Morton’s approach. During his tenure at the company, Morton saw earning grow at least 20 percent for 28 consecutive years.
Morton solidified both his military and executive experiences in three common themes: absolute clarity of purpose, empowered obsession and unleashed creativity. The author’s insider view and knowledge brings brilliant insight into how lessons in leadership can be shared no matter what the situation or organization.