“Loyalty”.

It came up the other day in a collaboration session I was having with my friend and USA veteran, senior HR official, and veteran reintegration researcher James Crook, DBA, PHR.

 

Specifically, Jimmy and I were discussing the major myths many in Corporate America have about military veterans. Myths like we all only know how to follow orders, we all carried firearms that we all used to shoot someone or someones with, which gave us all PTSD, which means we’re all “damaged”. And while true about an individual veteran here or there, none are not true about the entire veteran population. And frankly, to think so is uninformed, biased, and precludes including some of the most diverse hiring candidates available. Not very DEI…just sayin’.

Anyway, to this he added, because we were discussing how much of a hindrance this is to hiring managers’ ability to create competitive advantage for their organizations by hiring qualified veterans, how loyal they are to their organizations and the managers that hire them and develop them.

 

In fact, they are fall on their sword loyal. They are raised to take care of their bosses. It helps the boss, and the unit, and their branch. It also helps their careers, as the boss has to advance so they can too! Imagine that hiring managers! Individuals and teams dedicated to getting the work done, to or above all standards, i.e., “KPIs”, while you get the credit. And no blind siding in meetings and ambush emails, all hands, or at water coolers! They have your back!

 

They’re loyal.

 

Don’t you think Corporate America, heck, all of us, couldn’t use more of that these days?

 

!

 

Post Script: Jimmy is writing the Foreword to my upcoming book Using First Principles Thinking to Solve Our Hiring Heroes Problem, and I am over the moon about it! He is the SME! The embodiment of it in fact! Stay tuned for our LinkedIn Live Launch Party announcement!