Today is Veterans Day here in the U.S., a day to reflect on the service and sacrifices of those who serve(d) in our military. Veterans who attend Darden’s educational programs bring maturity and life experience that make them valuable participants in our classrooms and social life. So, what kinds of leadership lessons can the Darden Community learn from veterans? Here are three points (of many possible) that stand out for me.
First is the importance of a focus on mission. If you don’t know where you are going (and why) any road will take you there. A mission needs to be expressed in terms sufficiently compelling to motivate commitment. “What is our purpose?” If you cannot answer that question in terms clear enough for a tired soldier (or a tired machinist on a shop floor) to grasp, you will fail as a leader. Darden is about being purpose-driven. Think about leaders who forgot their mission or purpose. Opportunistic executives have led their firms into spectacular corporate crack-ups. Religious zealots, full of warped piety, wrought violence that no loving god would condone. Proud Boys and Antifas wanted to perfect American democracy but turned to anti-democratic means to do so. As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.” A compelling mission is the first defense against mission drift into disaster.
Second is the importance of self-restraint. Let’s not mince words: the military trains people to fight and to run toward (not away from) trouble. Hollywood stereotypes of lethal conflict imply that fighting entails shooting first and asking questions later. Yet military training is significantly about restraint: dispensing lethal force only under orders; respecting the Geneva Convention rules about humanitarian treatment during war; and fidelity to the U.S. Constitution rather than to powerful personalities. The U.S. military is not about training rogues who will violate the norms of self-restraint. [Sidebar comment: with 1.3 million people in the U.S. armed forces, we have seen a few rogues emerge. That we have seen very few in a force this large is testament to the effectiveness of training about restraint. Virtually no field is rogue-free: for instance, not business, not religion, and not academia (!). Humanity is flawed. And that’s why an ethic of self-restraint is so important.] A self-disciplined leader has much more impact and generates more respect than one who responds on impulse or emotion. Veterans at Darden have modeled the self-restraint that we hope all Darden graduates will practice in their professional lives.
Third is the importance of minding the details. One of the recurrent criticisms of MBA students is that they are CEO wannabes who can loft around theories, concepts, and buzzwords, but who can’t close a sale, fix a customer’s problem, run a meeting, give criticism to a subordinate in a way that lifts that person, balance a checkbook, or hundreds of other tasks that business requires. The best leaders are grounded in the realities of life, in the details. The military trains you to get the details right, not least because the consequences of error can be life-threatening. In a memorable speech in 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven said,
“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” [boldface emphasis added]
Darden’s educational approach—discussing case studies drawn from the world of business practice—exercises skills in doing the little things right as a basis for doing big things right: getting the facts, scrubbing the data, analyzing them into coherent insights, making practical decisions, and shaping an action plan. The veterans I have taught over many years get this and help other Darden students to do the same.
We live in turbulent times. It is good to have members of the Darden Community who model a focus on mission, display self-restraint, and master the little things with the aim of doing the big things right. Thank some veterans for their example.