Military Leadership in Business

What this session covered

This session, delivered as an online webinar, examined how leadership practices developed in the armed forces might be applied in business and the wider civil sector. It was opened and closed with remarks from the institute's president, introduced and moderated by a chairman, and built around talks from three retired senior Army officers, each of whom addressed the subject in turn. The format was a sequence of individual addresses followed by a short question-and-answer segment rather than a debate; the third speaker noted at the outset that he agreed with the two who had preceded him.

The first speaker set out three essentials he considered common to leadership at every level — communication, initiative and grit — drawing each from military practice. He described the structured method by which verbal orders are given and argued that such habits bring clarity to instruction; he used a disaster-relief episode to illustrate initiative shown at junior levels, and touched on delegation, the distinction between orders, instructions and directions, the value of a spirit of adventure, and the conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity often summarised as VUCA. The second speaker offered five attributes he described as golden principles for higher leadership: delegation; selecting the right person for the right task and fostering mutual trust; concentrating on the purpose of a task rather than the method of achieving it; identifying the point of main effort, or centre of gravity; and creating time for vision. The third speaker argued that the armed forces and business differ fundamentally in purpose but share a dependence on the quality of their human capital, and told two personal stories, one on the role of experience-based instinct in judgement and one on sustaining the morale and spirit of those one leads.

In the closing question-and-answer segment, one speaker was asked how a senior leader should handle a difficult or unexpected problem and stressed avoiding a blame game and concentrating on solutions; a further exchange identified vision as the characteristic said to mark the most successful leaders; and a final question, on advancing good ideas without their being lost to bureaucratic resistance, drew a case for resilience, diplomacy and tact. The president's closing remarks returned to the theme of human-resource development, motivation and instinct.

Key points raised

• The session explored how military leadership practices might be applied in business and the civil sector, across three separate addresses and a short Q&A.
• One speaker framed communication, initiative and grit as leadership essentials at every level, illustrated from military training and a disaster-relief episode.
• Another set out five principles for higher leadership, including delegation, selecting the right person for the task, and focusing on the purpose of a task rather than its execution.
• A third speaker held that the military and business differ in purpose but share a reliance on human capital, emphasising experience-based instinct and the motivation of people.
• The closing discussion addressed handling unexpected problems, the importance of vision, and advancing ideas against bureaucratic resistance.