Value of hiring veterans – Teamwork

Recently I have focused on core values as the link between a successful military career and the transition to making important contributions beyond military service into a corporate environment. Various lists exist on top reasons to hire veterans, I found one here (http://tinyurl.com/6pkmteg) and have reworked it to come up with the list below:

1. Integrity
2. Teamwork
3. Leadership
4. Discipline/Awareness of health and safety standards
5. Accelerated learning curve
6. Performance under pressure
7. Diversity in action
8. Technologically adept
9. Triumph over adversity

Having covered Integrity in a previous post we will focus today on Teamwork. One of the unique things about military culture is teamwork. It begins on the first day of training and never ends throughout an entire career. It continues well beyond the career, it never really dies. Whether one faces direct combat or not, everyone who serves will eventually face stressful and possibly life threatening circumstances which require action. The culture of teamwork relies on all members to perform their roles and when they can’t, other members step in to ensure the mission is successfully completed. In mission support roles, the stakes are high whether bullets are whizzing by or not. Without planes fueled, food served, medical supplies delivered and vital gear making it to the front lines the team can suffer dire consequences. There is no room for the mentality which says “Not my job,” the job must get done regardless of who is ultimately responsible for it.

Teamwork does not simply mean the job will always get done and the weak team members will simply be pulled along by the stronger team members. Effective teams will always raise their performance to the higher standard rather than sinking to the lowest common denominator, in other words, the worst performer on the team. Teams can only be as strong as the weakest link but strong teams work to improve their weakest link.

For years there has been a very special group of veterans which continue to work as a team to recognize the service of others. If you have ever seen them they are a well-run machine, a team which knows exactly what they need to do and executes it regardless of the environment they operate in. Learn more about them here: http://memorialriflesquad.org/videos.html click on Friday Squad to see their teamwork in action.

In the military we say we will never leave a man behind. What would it mean to your organization to have a team which never left anyone behind? What if your team displayed selfless sacrifice? Rather than saying “It is not my job and it is 5PM, I am out of here” they said “It is 5PM and you are still here, what can I do to help you so we can both go home for the day?” What kind of success would your company have if a culture of teamwork was pervasive throughout your organization?

Dennis Davis, Chief Translation Officer
Metafrazo