On Leadership Pipelines

You may have noticed that in one post I was complaining about the military plan for officer professional development, and in the next praising it.

That's because there are two extremes - the army policy is bureaucratic and inflexible (unless you're a West Pointer or similarly connected individual, where things can be... Different. For example if you know someone in command who asks for you by name, you might get around some of it. Or at least have more of a say on when you'll check certain boxes. I think. I don't have a lot of experience with that but I've heard of it happening. Also sometimes personnel officers will promising some future assignment if you take a crappy one, or if they're worried about retaining you.)

Regardless, it's bureaucratic and inflexible for most, but at least there is a plan.

Civilian companies, otoh, put a lot of the onus on you.

It's up to you to decide to take a class, which your company may pay for. It's up to you to ask for a promotion, or get a cert. 

Obviously, different places of work do this to different degrees, and you can find some civilian places that do more to make sure employees are taking the positions that will give them the experience needed for more skilled positions, but for the most part that's been my experience.

And here's the thing - those jobs? Like being a field grade officer? Or joining the C-suite? They tend to require quite a bit of effort to get people with the right skills. 

You might be able to learn them on the job, though it'd probably be rough and you'd have a steep learning curve. (I suspect the military focuses on those career paths because even just knowing ranks, military jargon, and military culture is hard to do from the outside - they're not going to make a civilian a general no matter how talented they seem at managing an organization).

All that talent people claim they need? It requires a LOT of work. Some people have family resources that allow them to develop that themselves. Like paying for college. Getting internships. Etc.

The military is interesting because so many enlisted don't have that type of support. In a very rough way, the structure and support the military provides can make up for that. (And they can interfere on a far deeper level.)

I also think a lot of it has to do with expectations.

So often, as you reach a rank, the people around you will say things like 'as a future company commander ______' or 'now that you're an NCO _____'

Like corporals - who have the same grade and pay as a specialist, but because a corporal is considered a Non-Commissioned Officer they're expected to take on more of a leadership role.

And most of the soldiers live up to those expectations. (In my experience, people generally do. And they'll live down to them if you have low expectations, too).

That's not all there is to it, of course.

There's also an element of trust involved.

Like - people generally want to do their thing. Part of why soldiers want to go to war zones is because you can spend years during peace time training, and training, and never knowing if you're really ready. You don't really get the chance to do what you've been training for. 

So when people don't want to do their thing? It's normally because they've grown cynical, disheartened, etc.

Bad leadership.

That holds true in civilian life... Complaints that people aren't willing to work hard anymore? Maybe take a long, hard look at why.