Put Your Organisation on Auto-Pilot by Hiring Ex-Soldiers
As a business owner, you can get too involved in the day to day operations of your business and never get free time.
An ex-soldier with the experience of working in and managing operations at all scales can be a valuable resource for you.
Operations is one such department where getting a skilled and experienced person can help you disengage. One such person can transform your entire operations! Moreover, ex-soldiers are not just skilled in operations. A good soldier can act as a fire and forget resource for other departments too, which are causing you problems and are taking up too much of your time. Some such departments are administration, human resources, security, and so on. In fact, anything related to operations and processes is perfect for an ex-soldier. Hiring an ex-soldier brings in invaluable traits and years of experience to your business:
- Everything in the armed forces is done according to a plan. So ex-soldiers are good at planning.
- The military forces are also about quick thinking. “Where will the enemy attack from?”, “where should we lay our mines?”, etc. Plans are ever-changing because situations are ever-changing, and nothing is ever sure. Therefore ex-soldiers develop the trait of decisiveness in ambiguous situations.
- The military is a close-knit organization, where people work as part of teams. So ex-soldiers also bring in team spirit.
- Soldiers are also quite reliable and disciplined and will bring about a positive change in any organization that they are a part of.
- Ex-soldiers are acknowledged as exceptional leaders. They are good communicators who lead their team from the front. They also do not hesitate to take a hit in terms of accepting responsibility if things go south. Thus they are also trustworthy and reliable.
- Ex-defence personnel are achievers and are always ready to take on new challenges. This trait can be quite helpful in the corporate world because they’ll not be afraid to take risks.
- The go-getter attitude of a military person can be a huge asset in the corporate world. Soldiers are taught not to fail because failures are not acceptable in a war. So whatever the situation, the only sure thing is defeating the enemy any which way! A soldier carries this do or die attitude to your organization too.
How do you hire such an ex-soldier? A critical mistake that business owners sometimes make while hiring an ex-soldier is to hire any good ex-soldier.
What you need is not a good ex-soldier but one who is good for you, who understands your business, who fits your needs, and who is comfortable working in your organizational culture.
An excellent way to hire the right ex-soldier for you is to take the advice of another ex-soldier.
Soldiers understand one another. An ex-soldier will be able to give you sound feedback on another.
Another method is to approach a placement organization that specializes in training and placing ex-soldiers.
If such an organization is run by Armed Forces veterans, that would be even better!
To read about the experiences of business owners who have hired ex-soldiers, visit briskolive.com/why-hire-an-ex-defence-person.
