Part 1 - The Demilitarized Zone: Veteran Implicit Bias?
How Veterans are Perceived Has Changed
Before I dive in, I want to lead with the thought that we are all human. Whether in the military, state government or in the private sector, we are all human. If we run or lead any type of enterprise (large or small) in which people are involved, we are dealing in the human enterprise.
Since the days of the Vietnam War, the way most Americans view veterans has changed dramatically for the better! When I think about what our fellow brothers and sisters in-arms had to endure during that time in our country I shudder. I thank God for the shift in perspective. I will tell you as a veteran, when people randomly walk up to me and say, “thank you for your service”, for me, no matter how many times I hear it, it feels good. But not solely from a selfish perspective. When they say it, I receive it for those who went before me, because I stand on the shoulders of those giants.
It is not a win for me per se; it is a win for us! When you acknowledge me, you acknowledge my brothers and sisters who have also served. But there still are pockets where there is a lingering negative perception. Could this be caused by implicit bias?
Implicit Bias
What does “implicit” mean? There are a few meanings, but for this article we will focus on “implied, rather than expressly stated” as defined by Dictionary.com. For the word “bias”, Dictionary.com defines it as: 1. a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned. 2. unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group; prejudice. Now to put it all together it is “an implied, yet unstated preconceived notion that may reflect hostile feeling or opinions about a person or group” and when put into action it can have negative consequences or even manifest in displayed hostile feelings or opinions towards the group to which the implicit bias is applied.
Since my retirement through direct conversations and indirect conversations a few folks have made the statement, “Military veterans when in positions of leadership try to run the place (section, department, company, organization) like a military unit.” What does that mean exactly? Is it meant as a compliment? Is it meant as a slight?
From my conversations with other veterans and personal experience, it most often comes across as a passive-aggressive slight, whether intended or not. It does NOT come across as a compliment. This can lead to frustration along with numerous other emotional responses from the veteran. It can make it difficult for the veteran to show up and be their “best self”, which means the employer gets short changed, because many veterans bring numerous gifts and talents, they have honed through military service that are easily transferable to the civilian sector and greatly benefit the private sector or local/state government. I will address that in Part 2.
Why does it come across as a slight? I’m glad you asked.
First the comment often seems to come from an individual who has never served in the Armed Forces, so they have no idea how we “lead in the military.” It begs the question; how can one speak from an authoritative point of view when they have no personal experience in the military? It’s like a man trying to tell a woman how it feels to give birth to a baby.
Next, the comment can be received as a put down from a person who did not volunteer to raise their right hand and be prepared to write a check with their life for their country. It comes across as if the person is looking down at us because we did raise our right hand to go and do many things that we would not have chosen to do, but it came along with serving our great nation.
And then it is invalidating. Depending on where our headspace is, the statement can make us question ourselves. It can make us wrestle with thoughts like “Am I cut out for this?” or “Should I be doing this?” Or “Should I have just taken the job on base/post, instead of bringing my talent to the local community?” As a side note, we veterans often hear local communities are looking for a strong dependable workforce and want us to join theirs, but comments like these are contradictory and unenticing.
Pop Culture
Over the years pop culture has influenced perspective. Despite the strong support for veterans by many, when it comes to employment there is still a significant group of people who serve has hiring authorities that maintain a strong negative perception about veterans. Now this is not to negate the efforts of those educational institutions, non-profits, private companies, cities, counties, and other entities that readily extend opportunities to veterans. On behalf of other veterans, I laud these efforts! This article is to attempt to expand the envelope.
“Pop culture does a lot to shape perspective. For some who serve as the hiring authority, the images of the movie “Full Metal Jacket” shape their perspective consciously or unconsciously.”
A colleague and good friend of mine Henry L. Hayes Jr. wrote an article about it called “Still Serving: Military Veteran Bias in Local Government” for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). In the article he stated, “Whether it is misperceptions about PTSD or whether the individual can adapt into the role many times there is an unspoken question, “Is this person suited for certain jobs?” Which can lead to overlooking a person because of the implicit bias. From my experience, hiring authorities will readily hire veterans into front-line and basic supervisory positions. The hesitancy comes into play with more senior roles. And I will admit that there are examples of those who have move into senior roles and didn’t do so well, but they make up a small percentage of veterans. There are so many more individuals who would do a phenomenal job if given a chance.
Two major movies that did a lot to shape pop culture for Baby-Boomers and Gen-Xers, who now serve in a large number of hiring authority positions across our country, were “Full Metal Jacket” and “Soldier’s Story”. These movies shaped perspective consciously and unconsciously. The images of the scenes with Private Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence being berated incessantly by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman or the scenes when CJ Memphis undergoes similar treatment from Master Sergeant Vernon Walters can leave an indelible mark. These impressions can get applied to veterans via a “peanut butter spread” as a standard way of doing business. In these movies people are abused and the people in leadership roles seem to operate with unfettered control and do whatever they want to whomever they want however they want. Morale is low as antiquated ineffective methods are employed to “motivate” and “inspire.”
Now there may be some in today’s military that may try to use these types of techniques, but they do not typically last very long, as eventually most get held accountable and they do not typically get consistent stellar results which means they stop getting promoted. For those who have not served, promotion to E-7, E-8 (top 3% of enlisted in a particular branch) or E-9 (top 1% of enlisted in a particular branch) is heavily dependent on how well you take care of and elevate your people and not your own personal accomplishments. If you are terrible at taking care of your humans, it typically shows in unit performance or lack thereof and promotion usually does not follow.
Lack of Awareness or Intended Insult
When the comment “you run the company like a military unit” is presented it often comes across as an underhand insult. It is as if the individuals think we veterans run around yelling and screaming at the top of our lungs at people to get them to accomplish their work. Or they think we have employees marching around the office and doing physical training (PT) over their lunch break? Or do they think that we use fear and intimidation to get people to do what we need them to do? I have had more than a few conversations with a variety of people across the country where a person has comments to the effect of, “When a person outranks another military individual, the senior ranking person tells the junior ranking person what to do and that is the end of the story. They do what they were told, and they don’t ask any questions. And that approach does not work outside of the military.” I will state again, in the military we have humans working for us just like in the civilian sector. We do not have robots. We have people with emotions and feelings like every other human walking on the face of the earth. This approach is NOT effective in the military either.
“When humans feel unvalued, unsafe, and unappreciated, you do NOT
get the best from them. At best you get bare minimum output.”
I find this perspective quite comical and equally offensive because that is NOT how it worked when I was in the world’s greatest Air Force, and I am quite confident it does not work like that in the other military branches either. We have the world’s greatest military NOT because we yell at our people, demean them, refuse to take their input, and make them feel unappreciated.
It is impossible to inspire the ingenious creativity and problem solving we see across all branches for extremely difficult problem sets under sometime extreme stress and duress imposed by combat situations as well as during in-garrison operations by treating our people like crap. You cannot beat somebody about the head and then expect them to take the initiative, be creative and give their best to you consistently. You cannot create a world class high performing team through fear and intimidation. Impossible!
Across all the Armed Services we see brand new recruits, midlevel troops and those that have made it up the food chain solving seemingly unsolvable problems and taking the initiative to make things better. When humans feel unvalued, unsafe, and unappreciated, you do NOT get the best from them. At best, you get bare minimum output. They do just enough to stay out of the crosshairs. In the article, “Toxic Work Cultures Make the Best People Quit!”, Brigette Hyacinth talks about how toxic cultures paralyze the workforce. She points out that productivity, creativity, and innovation get shutdown in these types of environments. To use these types of methods to get production, inevitably leads to a toxic culture.
“We understand that we are in the human capital development business while wearing
the uniform. We understand our job is to train up the next generation of leaders…”
And the challenges our military service members are working are not simple. They are solving problems for the F-35 Lightning II, the world’s most advanced fighter. They are solving problems on our Ohio Class Nuclear Submarines and the Patriot Advanced Capability Missile Defense System. They are solving cyber challenges and figuring out to ensure our nation has dominance in space. We are talking about complex issues and equipment. And to boot, when they do not have the most advanced systems available, they improvise to create favorable odds.
So, no we do not yell at our Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines (humans) for fun. No, we do not humiliate our troops (humans) for fun. No, we do not operate on a system where we take no input from the frontline troops. These types of behaviors would lead to a mediocre military at best. We understand that we are in the human capital development business while wearing a uniform. We understand our job is to train up the next generation of leaders, so we can pass the torch one day. It is not in our best interest to mistreat our people (humans).
But Chris what about Basic Training? Yes, there is lots of yelling at Basic Training, but this is not what many think it is. There is yelling and there is a lot of stress put upon the trainees, because we must try and weed out those who might not be able to stand the real pressures of serving in this generation. Being in Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran during an indirect fire event or being in a direct firefight with insurgents creates more than a little bit of stress.
On June 21, 2022 be on the lookout for part 2, where I share what many veterans do bring to the table.
