Military to Civilian: Navigating Career Transitions

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Become a Global Ambassador for Self-Worth. Text us your feedback! How much is your experience truly worth? It's a question that haunts anyone facing a career transition, but for military personnel, first responders, and shift workers, the challenge runs even deeper. Their professional identity has been shaped by a culture that values team over self. Don Gleason, founder of Achieve New Heights, joins us to crack the code on one of life's most challenging transitions. Drawing from his extensive...

Become a Global Ambassador for Self-Worth. Text us your feedback!

How much is your experience truly worth? It's a question that haunts anyone facing a career transition, but for military personnel, first responders, and shift workers, the challenge runs even deeper. Their professional identity has been shaped by a culture that values team over self. Don Gleason, founder of Achieve New Heights, joins us to crack the code on one of life's most challenging transitions. Drawing from his extensive military career and nine years in corporate hiring, Don reveals why so many veterans struggle to communicate their value effectively when entering the civilian workforce.

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An SDYT Media Production I Deviate from the Norm

00:00 - Introduction to Transacting Value

01:22 - Meet Don Gleason and His Journey

05:52 - Military Culture and Career Transition Challenges

10:40 - Resume Struggles and Interview Obstacles

18:13 - The Art of Saying No

27:38 - Taking Ownership of Your Transition

40:40 - Getting Help and Finding Resources

50:51 - Episode Wrap-Up and Call to Action

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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast host and guest and do not necessarily represent those of our distribution partners, supporting business relationships or supported audience.

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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for instigating self-worth when dealing with each other and even within ourselves, where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries, fostering community and finding identity.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are redefining sovereignty of character.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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Typically what I'll hear military say is well, as soon as I can get in the interview, I can show them how I meet the requirement, but it's the resume that gets you the interview Today on Transacting Value.

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How do you value your time, your experience or maybe even yourself at the end of a career or at a midlife career change, especially if you have military experience, if you're a first responder, if you're a shift worker, if you're a student or anything in between, and that experience comes with a title?

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How do you put a price on it?

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Sometimes you can't, but in today's conversation we're talking with Don Gleason.

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He's the founder of a life transforming company called Achieve New Heights and we're going to talk all about it how to translate your career, your experience, your time and, ultimately, find value in yourself.

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I'm Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and from SDYT Media.

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This is Transacting Value, don.

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How are you doing?

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I'm doing host and from SDYT Media.

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This is Transacting Value, don how you doing.

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I'm doing great and I appreciate the opportunity to get together with you and talk about this subject, because I think it sounds like it's important to you and I know it's important to me, so hopefully it's important to the audience, as they're listening as well.

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It absolutely is right, and I can't speak for everybody who's going to watch this video or who's going to listen to the show, but to me, specifically, unequivocally, is it important and it's so underrated and it's so understated and it's so ubiquitous, which is the craziest sort of paradox I think you could put into anything.

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But before we get too far into the conversation or too far ahead of anybody who's jumping in to listen and watch, I'd like to start with you and then we'll roll into the conversation here in a second.

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So if you could just take the next couple of minutes for the sake of a baseline here and so people can get to know you a little bit, who are you, when are you from?

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What sort of things are shaping your perspective on life as it applies to all these things?

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Okay, well, there's a big, there's a big thought there.

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Um born in Michigan, raised in Wisconsin, so I am a uh.

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I'm a I'm a sports nut.

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So right now, with the Detroit lions doing so well in this last year, the Detroit tigers doing so well, and then I'm a Packers fan, right.

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So, um, it's kind of a kind of on a heyday right now, two teams going in the playoffs.

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I'm a big sports nut, and that comes from back in 1972.

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I started on a path.

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I wanted to play in the nfl.

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That's a whole nother story.

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We'll get there, but it didn't make it, obviously.

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But that led me to really be involved in sports, interested in sports and and develop myself, and weight has been important for me, especially since I almost got kicked out of OTS on day three because of weight.

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That's a whole nother story, and uh, but what really got important to me was back in the fifth grade the first earth day in 1970, and it inspired me to really be involved in the environment.

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And even when I got out of the service in 2009, what I wanted to do was get back into the environmental field.

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I really want to help clean America's waters.

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Through that whole journey, though, I've really jumped into leadership.

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I love leading teams.

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I love leading people.

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Of course, that means I have to lead myself, so I'm constantly improving myself, constantly growing and challenging myself.

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So I'm constantly improving myself, constantly growing and challenging myself so I can challenge others.

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You know, it kind of goes back to being a commander.

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When somebody came in for uh, for weight, and we were to the point of an article 15 and I made a comment and he said, sir, can I speak freely?

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And I said sure, and he said, um, I'm having a hard time talking to somebody about weight, somebody who's so skinny.

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And I closed the paperwork and I said can I tell you my story Almost getting kicked out of the service on the third day, having to constantly change my diet, do all these different things physically at the gym every morning at five o'clock and I'm still only about 10 pounds under.

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And he says I didn't know.

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I said you're right, I don't talk about it that much.

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Maybe I should.

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I said but this is about me leading me so I can lead you, and I have tons of stories like that about how that has come out in my life.

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So I love the environment, I love being outside, I love birdwatching now and hiking.

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We were just in Southwest Houston last week birdwatching.

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We already have seen 42 species of birds this year, that's on the 6th of January as we record this.

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So we have a little competition we play every year amongst my wife and I not each, not against each other, it's us against.

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Time is trying to see 365 birds.

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We won ahead of the number of days in the year, so it drives us to get out to Arizona and to Colorado and all these other places where we see a number of unique birds.

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We're going to go to Alaska this year so hope to see some unique birds up that way.

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So that's kind of who Don is Environmental guy, outdoors guy, leadership guy and love helping people, service.

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I am a service-oriented person.

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That's probably why I'm in this business Seeing a number of my people.

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I call my people my tribe right, the military.

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My peers struggle with their career transition to the point of frustration, depression, suicide.

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They say it's one of the number one ideation for suicide is this career transition we struggle with and I'm trying to understand it and how I can help people through that process.

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And I'm 65, but I can't just stop working because as people are struggling, I want to help and I know I'm 15 years since I retired from the military but I think a lot of that is still pertinent and I've helped over 200 and some people the last eight years in that process.

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What is it that you found?

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Do you think to be, I guess, a corollary or or a major corroborating factor to go to that kind of an extreme where career transition is literally life or death?

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I kind of take it back to in the military, we always talk about, you know, being humble.

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There's no I in team.

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We don't talk about ourselves, we talk about our team.

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So when it comes to the job interview, when it comes to the resume, when it comes to the LinkedIn profile, we all struggle with being able to talk about ourselves, what we've done, how we've solved problems, how we've achieved things.

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And if you can't talk about those things because that's what the hiring manager wants, you struggle with getting a job.

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What I see most resumes are is a list of responsibilities.

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What I see most resumes are is a list of responsibilities.

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I was responsible for it.

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I managed a budget of 55 million.

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I led 465 people Okay, those are good, but what did you do with that?

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How did you leverage your knowledge and experience to solve problems?

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Right, when I was in Baghdad, iraq, leading the reconstruction I could talk about, you know, started 2,000 projects, $12.8 billion program Okay, those are neat, they're big.

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But what did I do?

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Right?

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There was one week where the boss challenged me to baseline the program, to figure out the costs, where we were wasting money and make recommendations.

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And we walked through and we saved on a $12 billion program.

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We probably saved about 1.25 billion dollars in just a five-day review, just making some simple tweaks.

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That now is a little bit different, but a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about that because it's talking about themselves and I think that's a big piece of it the culture, the value, transacting values, the values we created and be and what it became impacts us.

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And now being able to talk about ourselves later.

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And it's not so much bragging, it's talking the facts, it's.

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This is what we did.

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If you get into a lot of the back pounding, it was all me and blah blah that goes to the next stage, right, but if you're just talking about, this is what we did.

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Here was the challenge, you're telling a story.

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Here's the challenge, here's how we did it.

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Here's the results.

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It seems kind of simple, but very few people do it Well.

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So how does that, let's say, ability or maybe inability to effectively and accurately tell that kind of a story then lead to that kind of an extreme as a, as a behavior and outcome?

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So think about it.

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If the recruiters, for every job application, get 200 resumes and that's that's a number that I hear tossed around a lot, 200 applications, resumes for every job and they quickly start sorting through it and they take the the uh, the job advertisement and they take the resume and say quickly, in six to eight seconds, does this person qualify?

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And if it's not well written, if it's not targeted toward the job ad, what you quickly say is no, we toss it aside, and they're looking through those 200 to find somebody who meets that requirement that they can take forward.

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Typically what I'll hear military say is well, as soon as I can get in the interview, I can show them how I meet the requirement.

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But it's the resume that gets you the interview.

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You have to be able to say you're looking for this, I have this.

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You're looking for B, I have B.

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Looking for C, I have C.

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But typically what I'm seeing is resumes that you have to hunt and peck through.

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I was talking to a gentleman about a month ago and I said I'm not seeing that you're really targeting.

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He said, well, I targeted it.

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I said yeah, but I had to go to page three to find the most important thing.

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It's probably page two.

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It's only a two-page resume.

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You had to go to the bottom of page two to get to what looks like the most important thing in the job advertisement is your skill in this.

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Why don't you put that in the summary?

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Hit them right on the head with it?

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When I was looking at it today, I got five years experience working service.

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Now that's what they want.

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Put it right there in the summary.

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But we tend to hide it down below and we make this generic summary.

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So it leads to because we're not targeting the resume, because we're not really articulating our value, we're not really showing how we've done the things they're looking for.

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It leads to being tossed out of the pile.

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Knowing how we've done the things they're looking for, it leads to being tossed out of the pile.

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John Maxwell I'm on the Maxwell leadership team, certified speaker, trainer, coach and get to use John's material number one leadership expert in the world, and by many some people debate it, but by many organizations and he talks about getting out of the people pile.

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There's 200 people in the people pile.

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There's only two ways to do it right.

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You got to be able to articulate that you have the experience, knowledge degrees, et cetera, so that you get separated and they quickly see it, or somebody else has to help you get out of the pile through a connection, right, that's the whole networking piece, but you got to get out of the pile.

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I think as long as we do what everybody else is doing, we stay in the pile and we stay frustrated, and when that goes on long enough, it leads to depression.

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When it goes on long enough, it leads to the wrong action.

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Alrighty, folks, sit tight, we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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00:12:53.682 --> 00:13:01.807
I think as long as we do what everybody else is doing, we stay in the pile and we stay frustrated, and when that goes on long enough, it leads to depression.

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When that goes on long enough, it leads to the wrong action.

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I think maybe there's some sort of falsity or inauthenticity in the reward system, or maybe just promotion metric within the DoD, or maybe just promotion metric within the DOD.

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And for anybody who's new to my show, most of my professional career and development has been in the Marine Corps, specific to the infantry.

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But that's where this next point's coming from.

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So you know, in order to get promoted, even in relative degrees of meritocracy throughout the DOD, the Department of Defense, you have to submit at minimum once a year and this is almost every rank but a report that says here's what I've accomplished.

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And it's very transactional, it's like you said, it's sort of objectively fact-based, and the only way that that gets grounded is in numbers and quantity, or quantifiers over qualifiers, unless they're very colorful adjectives that are not any sort of backstabby type nuanced meanings.

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Well, in those reports, I think a lot of this, to the point you're making, don, is what sets us up for that kind of expectation.

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Because, well, that's all we describe, that's all we get used to, and you know, say, 17 to, well, 28 years old, while our brains are still forming, we're conditioning our habits of thought into.

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This is how I articulate my worth, then, because that's what gets me more, whatever responsibility, money, free time, any number of allowances or incentives in the process, a duty station preference right, allowances or incentives in the process, a duty station preference right.

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Does that translate outside of a resume, even maybe just in public discourse or a conversation like this, let alone on paper, to get us out of the people pile?

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Or is that an inaccurate way to train ourselves to be able to do that?

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What have you found?

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So I think it definitely does have a connection.

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As we're saying, when you go through your career and you're writing, like you said, the performance report, the FITS rep efficiency report, whatever it might be, every service is a little bit different, right, we're all shooting for that top 1%, 2%, 5% stratification and I've seen it way too often.

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You've probably seen it 30% or 40% of the people get that 5% strat, unfortunately.

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So we, we over inflate the performance report.

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I remember back in the early eighties on the uh I know it was on the enlisted side, for sure, it was rate one through nine, but the nine was the average, eight was marginal, seven was unsatisfactory, maybe separated out of the service with a seven, but on a scale of one to nine, shouldn't seven be pretty darn good, right?

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So now everybody's a nine and we start going through life thinking that we are, we are awesome, we're great.

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And when you start having that mindset, you don't separate, separate in your own mind.

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Where are your challenges?

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What are you growing?

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What do you need to do to improve?

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Um, I remember going on, we had uh in the early 2000s.

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We had a feedback process in the air force and you had to, once a year, sit down with your boss, I think every six months sit down with your boss, and most of the time what I got was doing great job, Don keep it up.

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I looked at my boss and I said, sir, I know there's things I'm not doing right.

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I know there's things that I can improve on.

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What would those be?

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And he goes, I can't think of any.

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I said, but I didn't say this, but I wanted to say this On your this, you know, on your promotion recommendation form, to get to be a general officer, you had to have a number as a colonel and maybe as lieutenant colonel, you had to be set up for this high rank.

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Right, you become a low number?

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Right, he's my number one, my number five, whatever.

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It had to be a real low number.

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I never had a number I didn't have a low number.

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I didn't have a number, so I wasn't even close to being considered for general officer, right, right.

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But if you read everything else in my performance, my performance reports, you would think that I am walk on water.

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And it does relate into the civilian sector, because we don't put in the work at that point.

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We let that military performance reports.

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Because what do we do in resumes?

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We cut and paste.

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It's a cut and paste out of performance reports into LinkedIn, out of performance reports into the resume, and we're not really thinking into who is the audience for this.

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Because for a performance report fit rep, whatever the audience is the promotion board, they want to see certain things.

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For the resume, it's the hiring manager and he has a job he wants done, very specific, with certain skills, certain qualifications, and you have to write to that.

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So you've got to consider who your audience is.

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Right In a media company, what's your most important thing?

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Know your audience.

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What's your message, what's their pain point, what are they looking to get out of this?

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And if we don't consider that in the resume, I think we'll mess it up.

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So you have mentioned sort of this inflated mentality of maybe just even a lack of an ability to develop inquiry or self-awareness or insight and critical thought around it.

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But if everybody, like you said, on this nine scale being the high end, if everybody's a nine out of nine and that's how you'd sort viewing well, objectivity and these types of qualifiers got me a nine out of nine, I'm doing pretty good how do you even develop or counteract that sort of sense of entitlement when it's totally inflated and wrong?

00:18:49.704 --> 00:18:51.362
I mean, what do you?

00:18:51.362 --> 00:18:52.125
What do you do?

00:18:52.125 --> 00:18:53.028
What are their steps?

00:18:53.028 --> 00:18:54.285
Is there a manual or something?

00:18:54.285 --> 00:19:03.086
Or do we just have to trial and error through conversation with people and fail a few times over Because that doesn't sound like it's going to help any degree of depression or that kind of a mindset either?

00:19:03.626 --> 00:19:04.067
That's right.

00:19:04.067 --> 00:19:06.000
So think back to what we did do.

00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:21.203
What we came up with was certain words we would use for somebody who's really a top 10% or a top 20% or top 30%, and then we started coming up with a stratification top 20% or top 30%.

00:19:21.203 --> 00:19:22.247
And then we started coming up with a stratification.

00:19:22.247 --> 00:19:26.218
So if you were in the top 5%, we would say in the bottom line of your senior Raiders endorsement, he's in the top 5%.

00:19:26.218 --> 00:19:30.791
Might be your Raider, it might be your senior Raider, but we started putting this percentage.

00:19:30.791 --> 00:19:46.032
So you got just use the number 200 people that are all rated nine out of nine, but now there's only 10 who are in that top five percent, and those ones are eminently qualified or something yes yeah, so we've had to.

00:19:46.113 --> 00:19:53.124
We've had to create all these qualifiers within the document, and that's where a lot of people started saying, oh, this is the good old boy network.

00:19:53.124 --> 00:19:56.169
Because you had to.

00:19:56.869 --> 00:20:08.847
You had to be brown nosing doing this and that to be able to get that top five percent yeah, but some of these 30 people that maybe shouldn't have been promoted are the ones who got promoted and now they're the ones writing the reports.

00:20:08.887 --> 00:20:18.381
So it comes across that way because their critical thought or leadership style or whatever maybe isn't as well developed or isn't as well suited to the position they find themselves in sometimes.

00:20:18.381 --> 00:20:35.550
And so you know from from uh, the leadership, uh, like you mentioned, sort of the hiring manager perspective or the uh applicant perspective, right, all of these roles, I think when we get out into the private sector or public, I guess it doesn't matter.

00:20:35.550 --> 00:20:46.685
When we get out of the DOD and our careers shift, for that matter, any midlife career shift how do you recommend we build some degree of awareness around the new system?

00:20:46.685 --> 00:21:01.823
I mean, is it a totally new skillset that I have to learn and go to school for, or do I already possess some degree of skills or strengths or anything that I can stand on to mitigate some degree of burnout or frustration or depression?

00:21:01.823 --> 00:21:02.365
I mean, what do I?

00:21:02.365 --> 00:21:03.067
Do?

00:21:03.067 --> 00:21:04.490
I have anything to offer at that point?

00:21:04.490 --> 00:21:05.221
What's my value?

00:21:05.221 --> 00:21:07.046
How do I find out the answers to those questions?

00:21:08.611 --> 00:21:11.920
The ability to say no In the military.

00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.911
Could you ever tell your boss when he came down and said, hey, can you take this project on?

00:21:15.911 --> 00:21:17.323
Absolutely not.

00:21:17.323 --> 00:21:19.561
Can you say no, absolutely not?

00:21:19.561 --> 00:21:20.924
Right, it could be the kiss of death.

00:21:21.748 --> 00:21:36.385
I remember when I was a captain and I was down here in San Antonio and I was working for a civilian boss and he had loaded me up with all kinds of stuff and it was Tuesday and I was trying to scramble hard to get a bunch of it done on Friday, which was the due dates, and he walked in with another big project.

00:21:36.385 --> 00:21:39.471
I just stopped and I said, dave, I just need to ask the question.

00:21:39.471 --> 00:21:44.366
I said, I think with what I've got done, what I've got on my plate, I can get it done by Friday.

00:21:44.366 --> 00:21:46.152
When do you want this done?

00:21:46.152 --> 00:21:52.702
Because if you add it to this week, it's not going to get done, not unless I'm here until midnight and I've got some things at home.

00:21:52.702 --> 00:21:53.664
I got to get done this week.

00:21:53.664 --> 00:22:01.769
So, and so he, he picked it up and he walked out and I was like well, I'm looking for a conversation here, boss, I'm not looking to upset you.

00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:05.347
Well, he didn't give me another assignment for like three or four weeks.

00:22:05.347 --> 00:22:08.282
So now my plate is clean and I walked in.

00:22:08.282 --> 00:22:10.249
I said, dave, I'm ready for some more stuff.

00:22:10.249 --> 00:22:10.671
And he goes.

00:22:10.671 --> 00:22:12.923
You said a couple of weeks ago that you were overloaded.

00:22:12.923 --> 00:22:15.508
I was overloaded that week.

00:22:15.508 --> 00:22:18.374
Right, those things all got done.

00:22:18.374 --> 00:22:22.557
You're managing what I'm working on beside the bigger projects.

00:22:22.557 --> 00:22:40.471
So it was a lack of communication between he and I, and I think that probably happens way too much where we're not really clearly articulating subordinate to supervisor, team member to boss, right, or the flip side, the other way around, leader to the team member.

00:22:40.471 --> 00:22:44.167
And that's just that piece of being able to say no.

00:22:44.208 --> 00:22:44.990
I remember walking in.

00:22:44.990 --> 00:22:49.250
I was filling in as a deputy chief of engineering in Germany and I was a captain.

00:22:49.250 --> 00:22:57.544
And I walked up to a friend of mine who was a captain I was the deputy, so I was in charge that week because the boss was out of town and I said Ray, can you take this on?

00:22:57.544 --> 00:23:01.272
And he said no, I wasn't used to that.

00:23:01.272 --> 00:23:04.108
And I said, can you give me a little bit more on that?

00:23:04.108 --> 00:23:05.585
And he said same thing.

00:23:05.585 --> 00:23:06.749
I basically said just a minute ago.

00:23:06.749 --> 00:23:09.429
I said he said I got these five things on my plate.

00:23:09.429 --> 00:23:10.766
I got to get them all done by Friday.

00:23:10.766 --> 00:23:11.964
I think I can get them all done.

00:23:11.964 --> 00:23:22.208
That's going to be one more thing.

00:23:22.208 --> 00:23:23.041
Are you telling me that that's more important than these?

00:23:22.973 --> 00:23:23.875
and I said no, it's not more important than those.

00:23:23.875 --> 00:23:26.560
He goes, then I'm gonna have to say I shouldn't be your first choice, because these are all pretty important.

00:23:26.491 --> 00:23:52.183
Yeah, but that's the difference, right, it's presented in a way that you're willing to understand and interpret in a tactful manner that's not overly abusive to your relationship or to the, you know, to the setting or whatever, and articulate it that way, and I think that's a well, I know that's a big point you're bringing up too, because it is saying no, but it's not saying no, right, it's, it's, it's, it's portraying it in a way that makes sense.

00:23:52.223 --> 00:24:04.847
And I think that kind of thought process and ability to translate what's happening in our head, to communicate it more effectively, also applies to how we're selling the skills and selling the things that we have to offer, even if we don't realize it.

00:24:04.847 --> 00:24:24.428
So, like I said, most of my career was in the infantry and if I wanted to go get a job and I go tell somebody well, I worked with, you know, dozens of people on a daily basis, from sunrise to sunset, to manage and micromanage In some cases their daily routines and habits and whatever they're like, dude, I wouldn't pay you 20 an hour to babysit my kids but it's the same.

00:24:24.627 --> 00:24:34.592
You know, like what I'm saying isn't necessarily what comes across to whoever's interpreting it, and so it requires, I think, a degree of discernment, maybe.

00:24:34.592 --> 00:24:35.741
So how do we build that?

00:24:35.741 --> 00:24:42.549
Because that's not in the transition program at the end of your service, that's not even during your service something you get.

00:24:42.549 --> 00:24:45.663
So is it just like a magic beanstalk and you hope for the best?

00:24:45.663 --> 00:24:48.190
Or where do we get that degree of insight?

00:24:49.092 --> 00:24:49.894
yeah, this.

00:24:50.059 --> 00:24:56.071
This comes down to a very important question is it the military's responsibility to help us in our transition?

00:24:56.071 --> 00:25:23.797
Now, definitely, when we come into the service, we spend a lot of time training, adjusting, manipulating, whatever the word word is to make sure that the sailor, soldier, airman, marine, guardian has the right skills, the right mindset, the right attitude to do the job we need them to do in combat and in day-to-day Yep.

00:25:23.797 --> 00:25:33.515
Is it the military's responsibility, on the way out the door, to train them in the way that they're going to have to operate in the future in the civilian sector?

00:25:33.515 --> 00:25:43.115
Now we've said yes because we're putting a lot of money into career transition workshops and we're now doing the skill bridge program.

00:25:43.115 --> 00:26:03.775
We're paying for people to be three to six months in a civilian company trying things out, learning this, learning what a company is like, if that's the right company, the company, learning if that's the right member for them, right, we're paying that bill and so we've said yes and in that case then we need to do a good job to really train them.

00:26:05.040 --> 00:26:19.489
But as I go through the career transition workshops and listen particularly to the resume piece, it's very vague wording and what most people do coming out of there, 95% and I've talked to a number of people who review resumes.

00:26:19.489 --> 00:26:24.140
95% is all they'd list is their job responsibilities in the experience section.

00:26:24.140 --> 00:26:34.729
They don't get to that quantifiable, impactful, results-oriented, transferable skill it really shows.

00:26:34.729 --> 00:26:36.720
This is how I performed.

00:26:44.766 --> 00:27:01.207
This is how I performed 95% is all they'd list is their job responsibilities in the experience section.

00:27:01.207 --> 00:27:09.429
They don't get to that quantifiable, impactful, results-oriented, transferable skill.

00:27:09.429 --> 00:27:11.759
It really shows.

00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:13.865
This is how I performed.

00:27:13.865 --> 00:27:18.144
This is why I was in that truly the top 5%.

00:27:19.380 --> 00:27:19.922
But they don't know.

00:27:19.922 --> 00:27:21.641
Is it ever explained?

00:27:21.641 --> 00:27:23.057
Has it ever actually been?

00:27:23.057 --> 00:27:27.028
I don't know if justified is the best word, but justified and that's just the DOD.

00:27:27.028 --> 00:27:34.182
I mean that doesn't apply to law enforcement, firefighters, anybody in a similar sort of, you know, hierarchical type industry.

00:27:34.624 --> 00:27:40.085
Yeah, there are certain things that tell you where you rank in that nine out of nine right.

00:27:40.085 --> 00:27:46.625
If you're getting the 5% or 2%, if you're getting certain awards, you're getting that next job right.

00:27:46.625 --> 00:27:49.501
You get pulled up to the wing to be the wing executive officer.

00:27:49.501 --> 00:27:53.335
Or you get in the Air Force civil engineering.

00:27:53.335 --> 00:27:59.857
If you got Langley Air Force Base Air Combat Command, you got to be the base civil engineer or the mission support group commander.

00:27:59.857 --> 00:28:06.178
There you were clearly on top of the game because they would only put the best of the best in that job.

00:28:06.178 --> 00:28:17.247
If you were, you know, at a small base as a base civil engineer, lieutenant colonel, squadron commander, um, and you're a small base without, without a really important mission.

00:28:17.247 --> 00:28:21.461
It's an important job but you're not in the top five percent or ten percent.

00:28:21.461 --> 00:28:27.759
So there are ways that you can see, if you're paying attention, where I fit in that stratification.

00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:31.576
Just like I was saying, you know I didn't get a number on my promotion recommendation form.

00:28:31.576 --> 00:28:32.961
That was a.

00:28:32.961 --> 00:28:37.875
That was a sign I was not in that top percentage to to be considered for general officer.

00:28:37.875 --> 00:28:42.928
The bad part was I was a colonel before I even ever heard that a number existed.

00:28:42.928 --> 00:28:46.023
Nobody ever told me the game right.

00:28:46.023 --> 00:28:48.820
So, from that perspective, I didn't know.

00:28:48.820 --> 00:28:49.864
Other people knew.

00:28:49.864 --> 00:28:51.287
So we got to pay attention.

00:28:51.287 --> 00:28:54.434
You got to have bosses who are willing to talk about.

00:28:54.434 --> 00:28:58.682
This is how the game works, and I hate to use the word game, but it is a game.

00:28:58.682 --> 00:29:00.875
You could use the word process, you could.

00:29:00.875 --> 00:29:01.655
Where's the system?

00:29:01.655 --> 00:29:03.156
This is how the system works.

00:29:03.156 --> 00:29:07.301
This is how the process works, but this is how this works.

00:29:07.301 --> 00:29:08.823
This is what you got to pay attention to.

00:29:08.823 --> 00:29:12.426
This is what you got to be doing and unfortunately it could go back to something else.

00:29:12.467 --> 00:29:13.448
You said burnout.

00:29:13.448 --> 00:29:16.089
Right, burnout is a lot of time, is a?

00:29:16.089 --> 00:29:17.912
Is priorities mismanaged?

00:29:17.912 --> 00:29:23.836
Is priorities mismanaged when?

00:29:23.836 --> 00:29:32.711
When we start hanging around the office, because the I remember being a squadron commander, I was in meetings until five or six o'clock I would come back, I'd do some paperwork and then I would wander the squadron just to see if anybody's around.

00:29:32.711 --> 00:29:34.299
Lights are turned off, things are secure.

00:29:34.299 --> 00:29:35.486
I'm ready to leave the building.

00:29:35.486 --> 00:29:49.325
Right, it's not really my job to secure the building, but I'm just kind of doing a quick check, making sure everything's okay, and I'll find some people that are working Well when people are hanging around, just in case Colonel Gleason comes walking down the hallway so that I see them working.

00:29:49.325 --> 00:29:52.210
That's the wrong reason to be there.

00:29:53.315 --> 00:30:02.903
But we did it so that we would have a few minutes to talk to the boss, to talk about what we're doing, to show them that we care and somewhere we created a culture.

00:30:02.903 --> 00:30:04.761
Talk about values, culture.

00:30:04.761 --> 00:30:08.900
We created a culture that that was the way things were supposed to be done.

00:30:08.900 --> 00:30:11.541
So now we're giving up time.

00:30:11.541 --> 00:30:25.627
The workers are giving up time with their family, they have dinner, giving up time with their family to go to activities, whether it be a youth group or a sporting event or drama music in the school, and all in the hopes of being promoted.

00:30:25.627 --> 00:30:28.075
I think we've created that.

00:30:28.075 --> 00:30:35.537
I think that culture is a problem and the reason I jump into this is because we've now been trained in that culture.

00:30:35.537 --> 00:30:45.058
It's now become our value to work late, to give more, to skip family time, value to work late, to give more to skip family time.

00:30:45.058 --> 00:30:46.201
We get on the outside and what do we?

00:30:46.201 --> 00:30:47.586
What do we start?

00:30:47.605 --> 00:30:47.705
to do?

00:30:47.726 --> 00:30:50.775
we start to do that exact same thing well, the habit, yeah, yeah, that's not a habit.

00:30:50.775 --> 00:30:57.175
So what I do in my process is I really get people to think back to just forget about what you've been doing.

00:30:57.175 --> 00:31:00.522
What do you want going forward most?

00:31:00.522 --> 00:31:04.497
Most everybody says I want a job, good pay and benefits.

00:31:04.497 --> 00:31:10.640
I want a good impact, but I want to be able to leave by 5.30 or so so I can go home and have dinner with my family.

00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:16.108
I can be with the kids A lot of them are still teenagers, maybe younger I want to be involved as a parent.

00:31:16.108 --> 00:31:17.935
I want to be able to go to sporting events.

00:31:17.935 --> 00:31:19.060
It's okay.

00:31:19.060 --> 00:31:30.146
So now we go back into what has happened and how do we need to change that mindset so that, going forward, you can make that happen?

00:31:30.146 --> 00:31:36.315
And what questions do you have to ask in the interview to make sure that they have the same values?

00:31:36.315 --> 00:31:38.703
The company has the same values that you have?

00:31:39.615 --> 00:31:40.960
Yeah, so that was my next question.

00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:46.344
We talked a lot in this conversation about the individual, the applicant, for example.

00:31:46.344 --> 00:31:48.469
What about the company?

00:31:48.469 --> 00:31:49.419
What are we looking for?

00:31:49.419 --> 00:31:55.942
Because I feel like to ask questions, or appropriate or effective questions about any of these types of cultures and climates.

00:31:55.942 --> 00:32:00.319
We have to at least have thought about what we want and what we're looking for, right.

00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:02.526
So what are the steps?

00:32:02.526 --> 00:32:02.906
How do you do?

00:32:02.946 --> 00:32:03.007
it.

00:32:03.007 --> 00:32:06.403
The first part is knowing what you are looking for.

00:32:06.403 --> 00:32:09.826
I help people create what I call a life description.

00:32:09.826 --> 00:32:21.548
Right, this is how I want my life to play out for the next once I leave the service, for the next 20 years or, however, depending on how many years of service you get out at, just in 20 years.

00:32:21.548 --> 00:32:27.262
So you get out at 38 to 45, got another 20 years or so in the workforce.

00:32:27.262 --> 00:32:29.102
What do you want the next 20 years to look like?

00:32:29.102 --> 00:32:37.201
And then be able to think about what are the right questions that I need to ask the company to get a feel for it.

00:32:37.315 --> 00:32:43.137
So for me, what was really important for me was I want to develop my people, I want to be developed.

00:32:43.137 --> 00:32:44.300
I want to develop my people.

00:32:44.300 --> 00:32:48.400
So, Mr Company, talk to me about your personal development process.

00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:58.236
And when I talked to Booz Allen Hamilton, they talked to me about the 360 degree assessment process they use and that every quarter, once a year, we would rate everybody.

00:32:58.236 --> 00:33:03.288
Every quarter we would rate 25% of the people and we'd spend five days rating that 25%.

00:33:03.288 --> 00:33:09.396
And it was five minutes per person, two minutes looking backwards, three minutes looking forward and we would have.

00:33:09.396 --> 00:33:15.224
You know, somebody has gone through and interviewed five or seven people that this individual has worked for say it's me.

00:33:15.224 --> 00:33:20.218
My rater goes back and talks to five or seven people who have worked with me.

00:33:20.218 --> 00:33:27.825
It's a feel for how I've performed, where I've done well, where I haven't, Puts it down and we talk about how we're going to develop that person for the next year.

00:33:28.865 --> 00:33:29.986
I thought that was fantastic.

00:33:29.986 --> 00:33:36.771
You're saying take an actual vested interest in somebody else's well-being other than the organization Correct.

00:33:38.115 --> 00:33:41.324
Well, that's different too, Because if you develop the people, the organization is going to succeed.

00:33:41.324 --> 00:33:42.386
Right, that's the whole concept.

00:33:43.474 --> 00:33:44.940
It depends on your perspective, I guess.

00:33:44.940 --> 00:33:46.143
Look at the Department of Defense.

00:33:46.143 --> 00:33:49.661
It's not people-driven, it's industrial-driven, industry-driven.

00:33:49.661 --> 00:33:51.084
You know what I mean.

00:33:51.084 --> 00:34:03.778
It happens to include everybody and there's programs to help people and manage your family, manage your finances, manage your time, but it's all rooted in professional development for the sake of the organization and the industry, not for the sake of the people.

00:34:04.181 --> 00:34:07.201
generally speaking, I can agree with that.

00:34:07.201 --> 00:34:15.440
But if you want to raise the performance of your company, of infantry in your case, right your company, your regiment, you start at the people level.

00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:20.623
Make sure the people understand the values, understand the job, understand how they perform.

00:34:20.623 --> 00:34:22.081
They perform together as a team.

00:34:22.081 --> 00:34:27.708
So you're doing all those different aspects to make sure that each individual is doing the best they can.

00:34:27.708 --> 00:34:30.384
Each individual is the team is doing the best they can.

00:34:30.384 --> 00:34:38.768
It's almost irregardless of the technology or, when you say, the industry, other contractors who are supporting us.

00:34:38.768 --> 00:34:43.626
It's that military piece of how we work and perform and develop each other.

00:34:43.626 --> 00:35:12.050
So if the leader is working to identify weaknesses or challenges or areas of improvement you know, and works to improve those, their performance should go up and the team performance should go up and therefore the company performance goes up and the team performance should go up and therefore the company performance goes up, company being either the military, company company regiment battalion squadron, the unit or, on the outside, the organization, the company Booz Allen Hamilton.

00:35:15.014 --> 00:35:24.923
If I'm focusing on Don Gleason and the people he works with and they're doing better on proposals and they do better on contract performance, then the reputation of the company will go up.

00:35:24.923 --> 00:35:27.101
Thus the revenue of the company will go up.

00:35:27.101 --> 00:35:28.619
The profit of the company will go up.

00:35:28.619 --> 00:35:30.125
You'll have less problems.

00:35:30.125 --> 00:35:38.541
But I think we're seeing a lot of things is, where we don't develop the individuals, all of that starts to fall.

00:35:39.614 --> 00:35:50.900
Yeah, well, I think that's the aspect of the training programs, right, that get delineated or pushed down to, uh, let's say, lower tiers of leadership within the rank structure of any particular unit in the dod.

00:35:50.900 --> 00:36:09.115
But then the how, why, the actual critical thought and discernment behind the metrics isn't always communicated as well either, and I think then to build that kind of insight may be the biggest gap, based on what you're saying.

00:36:09.838 --> 00:36:11.581
I think you just hit a key point right.

00:36:11.581 --> 00:36:13.385
Leadership is about communication.

00:36:13.385 --> 00:36:15.277
It's about casting a vision.

00:36:15.277 --> 00:36:16.601
It's about seeing more.

00:36:16.601 --> 00:36:19.889
John Maxwell always says leaders see more and they see before.

00:36:19.889 --> 00:36:21.373
Right, there was a.

00:36:21.574 --> 00:36:31.880
There was a great video going into the 2009 housing crisis is they were putting mortgages together into junk mortgages and the one company fell.

00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:44.425
I can't remember the name of the movie, but the CEO is there and he says you know, my job is only one thing is to see, six to nine months down the road, what's going to happen and how do we, how do we either take advantage of it or stop it from killing us?

00:36:44.425 --> 00:36:47.315
Right, and that's what a leader does.

00:36:47.315 --> 00:36:53.396
The leader is thinking of all the things we're doing, what's going to happen in the next three to six months.

00:36:53.396 --> 00:36:53.858
What do I?

00:36:53.858 --> 00:36:55.463
What new resources do I need to bring?

00:36:55.463 --> 00:36:56.936
What new training do I need to have?

00:36:56.936 --> 00:36:58.721
What's the what's the enemy going to do?

00:36:58.721 --> 00:37:00.585
You know all these different pieces.

00:37:00.585 --> 00:37:02.597
Do I need to have?

00:37:02.597 --> 00:37:03.239
What's the enemy going to do?

00:37:03.239 --> 00:37:03.922
All these different pieces?

00:37:03.922 --> 00:37:09.784
And if the leader really gets out ahead of that, then they can be training their people and developing their people to make sure that those things are going to happen.

00:37:09.784 --> 00:37:13.418
But you bring that back to the career transition for a second.

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So if the military is not really focusing in on the individual leaving the service, and I think we can say, even though they have a program, they really don't.

00:37:24.056 --> 00:37:32.623
Because when you go to your boss and say, hey, I want to take the TAP program, it's five days, it's five weeks from now.

00:37:32.623 --> 00:37:33.806