Hands-on skills, crisis management, and planning with options are just some leadership lessons from the military I use every day.

Recently, I met with a person I hadn’t met for a few years. Despite the long time since our last contact, the conversation picked up where we left it back in 2019. We discussed a wide range of topics from all aspects of life — the kind of conversation I enjoy.

Although that person doesn’t have a connection to the military as I have, at some point that person suddenly said:

“I mean, you have a good leadership education from the military…”

Interesting. So even people who don’t know the military from the inside think you get a good leadership education there. From my 20-year experience as an active reserve officer of the Swiss Armed Forces, let’s see what leadership skills I learned in the military.

1. Hands-On Leadership

Where else do you get the chance to lead 30 people at the age of 21? And where else can you prove your leadership skills in a practical setting at that age?

In the Swiss Armed Forces, we still use the conscription system, and conscripts can sign up to become sergeants and lieutenants after their initial training. Within a year, the young soldiers are trained to be leaders — 5 weeks of sergeant training, 7 weeks of internship, and 15 weeks of officer training. And what about the remaining time to fill up that year? In that time, the new lieutenants train the next batch of conscripts — from their very first day of service to the end of conscript service.

They carry full responsibility for technical and tactical training, as well as for leading their platoons from an organizational, motivational, and cultural perspective.

It’s that part of the experience that is unique. Remember not all conscripts like military service, and remember most people don’t like conflicts and wars. Nevertheless, these young leaders have to prepare their platoons for the worst-case scenario — an all-out war. Not an easy task if the worst-case scenario is (thankfully) not imminent in our beautiful country, but it’s too late to prepare for it once it becomes imminent.

If you’re able to motivate and lead a pack of young people to go through involuntary hardship, you can surely lead a team of colleagues through an unpleasant customer project, an internal reorganization, or a cost-cutting exercise.

With your practical leadership experience from the military under your belt, you’ll know that for any future challenge you might encounter, it will somehow be possible to find a good solution.

2. Crisis Management

When I was 26 and doing my annual military duty, I was thrown into the first real-life emergency when a rafting accident in our battalion claimed five lives. A young lieutenant at the time, my task was to lead the search-and-rescue efforts with our helicopters. Already back then, I used the planning and leadership processes as instructed in the Swiss Armed Forces at all levels of leadership.

Because of my military experience, I was later asked to join the emergency response organization at Swiss International Air Lines, the airline I used to work for in the 2010s. The majority of the members of the emergency response organization had a military background — because it helps tremendously during a crisis if everybody shares the same planning and leadership methods and uses the same terminology.

To close the circle, in 2022, I was asked to join the teacher pool of the Leadership Command of the Swiss Armed Forces, which instructs civilian management teams and Executive MBA students in crisis management. The planning and leadership processes are taken from the military, the scenario is taken from the airline industry. The circle closes.

3. Have a Plan, Have Options

All officers in the Swiss Armed Forces are trained to always present at least two options for any given problem.

Options are presented together with their advantages and disadvantages, as all options have both. Last but not least, a presentation of options is accompanied by a recommendation, for the commander to make a decision based on the judgment and expertise of the team who has worked out the options.

Whatever option is chosen becomes the intended plan — only for reality to alter your plans as it unfolds. That’s why you need contingency plans.

I have been living and breathing options and contingency plans for many years. What helps you in the military helps you as an entrepreneur — the reality will always be different from the original plan, no matter if you’re navigating your business through an unforeseen pandemic, you’re trying to close a financing round, or you are running into troubles with one of your co-founders.

Conclusion

So yes, I do agree with my conversation partner’s statement that in the military, you do get a good leadership education.

Even if it means lots of hardship to go through the military leadership training, I would do it again at any time — for the sake of both my country and the learnings that accompanied me ever since as an entrepreneur.