Entrepreneurship (3): The Single Most Important Action to Start Your Business

What single action will move your business forward?

Writing a business plan.

In the research phase you were researching yourself. How difficult was it for you to determine your drivers, set a vision of what you are looking for, and nail down the business you are after. I get a wide spectrum; some folks struggle others nail it down quickly. Time to take action to put your business in place.

Action

There is still a lot of research in this phase however, it is very active, faces external to you, and it centers on developing your business plan.

What comes to mind when I say business plan? I am hoping commitment. When you put things in writing you are making a commitment, even if it is only to yourself.

The plan is your educated prediction of the future. It communicates your plan and is a tool to measure progress.  Are you ahead, behind, or on track? What is causing the deviation and how do you need to adjust.

Your business plan also communicates to partners, lenders and investors your justification for their support. It articulates why you are in business, what you are doing, who you are doing it with, and how you plan on executing it. If you require funding or the partnership of anyone, they are going to ask for you to share your plan. That’s the reasoning now let’s put it together.

Parts of the Plan

How big and detailed does this need to be? It depends. You can google one page business plan and find templates for single page plans. You can also google templates for business plans for the type of business you are creating. Generally, for a small business you will find plans are between 10-15 pages of written material with an appendix showing your financial projections. Everything you write has the purpose of supporting your financial projections.

If you want a good place to start, go to SBA.gov and find one of their templates. You are going to start with “Why” and follow with “What”, “Who” and “How”.

You did all the work up front on why, so that part is easy. Next, what problems are you solving and for who. This is where the external and very active research takes place. At this point you are creating a marketing plan which is embedded in the business plan.

Who are you solving the problem for? Who is your ideal client? Having a coach as a partner in this phase is extremely valuable. Challenging assumptions, pushing for validated data, and providing alternative perspectives helps you move from a framework of a business to a solid structure. This leads to the most important part, your financial numbers.

What numbers do you need?

You need the startup costs and revenue projections for years 1-3. “How am I ever going to do that?” You ask.

Through active research, websites, meetings, networking, getting estimates. “Where should I start” is your next question.

Here is a “back of the envelope” exercise I do with my clients. It is simple yet very enlightening. First, I ask them how much money they want to take home after taxes from their business? Second, what do you think you need to gross to make that happen?

I often get a quizzical look. Next questions: What do you think your expenses will be each year? Followed by, what is the self-employment tax you will pay?

In 10 minutes, they have a rough set of numbers and are usually surprised. The question then becomes. “How much of your product or service do you need to sell at what price to generate that income?

That generates action to research markets, revenue, expenses, and building their financial model. All reflected on spreadsheets. As the spreadsheets become more detailed and accurate so does the written portion of the business plan.

This begins to reflect reality. Which generates some soul searching; will you be able to execute your original vision? Options are considered such as; a pivot, raising money, scaling down, or growing more slowly. Other considerations are for the entrepreneurs to keep their day job rather than leaping completely into the business.

How valuable would it be to have an objective sounding board to help you work through these challenges? A coach’s only agenda is assist you in coming to the right decision. One that is aligned with your values.

/by

What is Your Return on Investment for Time Off?

How does taking time off increase your productivity?  Is it 10%, 20%, or more? Give yourself an estimate.

When you gave that estimate, what was the amount of time off you needed to get that percentage? Was it a couple of hours, half a day, a long weekend, a week, or multiple weeks?

Now assess, how well your routines allow you to take that amount of time off to increase your productivity.

How close are you to hitting the mark?

If you are like many other leaders, it is difficult to take time off.

Now put on your leadership hat and think about your team; as a whole and the individuals within the team. How much time off does your team need to increase its productivity? How about the individuals on the team?

How do you ensure the team and the individuals are meeting that need?

This is one of those dilemma’s we create for ourselves.  We know time off is good for us and the team, yet we don’t take it. Kind of like sleep. What would be the return on investment of time off if your team regularly took it?

In the words of Stephen Covey; “Are you too busy chopping with your ax to sharpen it?”.

Want to do something about it? Consider two areas; culture and innovation.

 

Culture

What is the culture within your organization around taking time off. How are colleagues treated when they regularly take time off?

“Can you believe she is taking another Friday and Monday off? She is never here.”

Have you heard conversations such as the one below in your organization?

Manager #1: “I have 25 vacation days on the books, I don’t have the time to take vacation.”

Manger #2: “I am in a similar situation; I have 32 days.”

“I am looking for everyone to take at least 10 days of vacation over the next six months. You are all more productive after a break.”

Add comments from your organization that accurately reflect its culture about time off. What do those comments tell you?

If you want a particular culture, be deliberate and take specific actions to establish the culture. Set the expectations and enforce them.

If you want taking time off to accepted; reward and recognize those who do. Pay attention to the amount of time off individuals are taking and make a point of noticing those who are not taking the time. How can you make taking time off more acceptable.

 

Innovation

Here are some of the ways companies are innovating to get their employees to take time off.

  • Unlimited vacation days – with some date restrictions and only general guidance to act in the best interest of the company.
  • Floating holidays – workers can select when they want to take certain holidays to be able to string several days together.
  • Made up holidays – organizations make up a holiday to generate several days off a year. Such as the last “Final Fridays”. The last Friday of each quarter.
  • Organization shutdown – the business closes for specific dates forcing everyone to take the same days. Thanksgiving week or a summer shutdown.
  • Vacation stipend – corporations pay a stipend to individuals taking two continuous weeks of leave. Think of being paid $2000 extra to go on vacation.
  • Paid leave prior to your first day – new hires are paid to take the first two weeks off come to work ready to go.
  • Paid sabbaticals – popular in academia, some corporations are allowing professionals to do the same. All to refresh and make workers more productive.

Productivity and efficiency may be exactly what your organization needs to get to the next level. A key step to getting there may be taking a break.

/by

What Must End for You to Make Progress?

“I took on this new role in my organization but, I still have people coming to me for answers from my previous position. Because of the time they take up, I feel like I am pulling a trailer up a hill and cannot make any progress in my new role.”

Ever have this feeling?

To progress – we must have endings.

Not stopping or ending something may be all that is holding us back from achieving our long pursued goal.

Dr. Henry St. Cloud in his book Necessary Endings has explored endings in depth. I want to look at it from the perspective of you as a professional and a leader and make it very practical.

When I think about endings, I consider three elements; what needs to end, when it needs to end, and how it needs to end.

What Needs to End?
Consider a transition you are currently working through or expect in the near future. Typically transitions to consider are: promotions, career progression/transitions, starting a business, moving to or from the government and private sector, or retirement.

Name the transition you want to assess.

If this is an ongoing transition, how is it going on a scale of 1 to 10. If it is not a 10 what factors are holding you back.

Be rigorous and brutally honest with yourself. What specific actions are you taking that are holding you back? In the example above, you are still providing guidance, time, and support to your previous team.

The time and energy spent assisting your previous team, may be the impediment slowing your transition? If so the relationship with your previous organization needs to end.

Another example: You started a business and entered into low paying contracts with your first round of clients. Now, two years later you spend significant time and effort negotiating contract renewals with this group. Why, because they expect lower pricing. The time, effort, for the profit margin is frustrating you.

What has to end here? Probably the long negotiations.

A thought on identifying what needs to end.

You may be overlooking clear signals on what needs to end and misinterpreting them. Think about events that “trigger” you. Triggers are signals. Consider the above events and what triggers you might be receiving.

Every time you see an email or phone call from a member of your previous team, what is your reaction?

How about when someone talks about the contracts with the early clients? How do you feel? If you are triggered, it is time to think about what the triggers are telling you.

When Does it Need to End?
Next consideration is “when” the ending takes place. For the first example, when should the assistance to your previous organization have ended? The day you left, 7 days, 30 days, or should it be ongoing?

What about those early clients. When should the special pricing end?

How Should You End the Relationship?
Last consideration is “how” the ending takes place. How you end a behavior or relationship can have significant impacts, positively or negatively.

Abruptly ending the relationship with your previous organization or loyal early adopters can damage your reputation. The key consideration I have seen make endings work is; transparency. Being tactful and direct with what is ending, when it is ending, and how.

Transparency is not always easy. However, it will make the transition easier as you will have released a drag on your performance.

Here are potential considerations of the above examples to ensure an ending takes place well.

On leaving the team. Letting them know you will meet with the replacement lead twice in the next month for an hour to answer any questions. After that the new lead is on her own.

It is clear the help is ending, when it is ending (over a month’s time) and how it will end (with a couple of one-on-one meetings to assist with loose ends).

With your early adopters. Sending a letter three months prior to contract renewal with the details of the price increases on their upcoming contract. The contract thanks them for their support and loyalty as well as the reasoning for the increases.

What is ending, when it is ending, and how are all included in this method.

What are some behaviors, relationships, or practices you need to stop to move forward?

/by

Case Study: Should I resign?

Bob has been in this career field for 30 years with 8 years in this particular organization. For the last 6 months he is not feeling good about the leadership of his organization. He operates as a satellite of 5 people away from the home office.

Here are his most pressing concerns:

  • Lack of support from the main office. Sporadic communication and conflicting direction.
  • Failure to support his desire to move an employee off his team who is not a good fit
  • Forcing the team to operate with less equipment by denying requests for upgrades
  • Feeling burned out
  • Feels the leadership is not being fully truthful with him
  • Leadership reacting to complaints from clients without asking for clarification from him

These concerns are weighing heavily on him and he is seriously considering leaving. The focus of his coaching is to gain clarity on what to do next.

We started with two overarching questions:

  1. What is the impact you are making or want to continue to make in this position?
    1. How are the current conditions affecting those goals?
  2. What would you regret if you left now?

These questions have gotten him off to a good start in defining what is important to him in this position and his career.

He wanted to dig deeper and sought out guidance from a moral perspective. We did find some guidance from J. Patrick Dobel in his book Public Integrity. There, Dobel explores the moral criteria for resigning from public office, which we found useful in this instance.

Dobel develops the construct of three domains to consider for resignation. In each domain individuals must be able to:

  1. Maintain their personal moral capacities and commitments
  2. Live up to the obligations of the office
  3. Remain effective

If an individual is compromised in any one area, trust is damaged and provides strong moral reasoning for resigning. If compromised in two areas there is a moral obligation to resign.

Interestingly, working through this has provided significant personal insight along with insight into the organization. No final decision at this time however, he has implemented new behaviors, strategies, and boundaries as triggers for action.

Think of a situation where you were considering resigning. How easy was it for you to rationalize your reasoning to stay, even though one or more of the above criteria was met?

A reasonable exercise may be to deliberately define the threshold in each category. For example.

What does it mean to be unable to maintain your moral capacity or commitments?

A violation in that domain may be your inability to push back against leadership decisions in areas you are morally obligated to act. Maybe you have been cut out of meetings or committees because the leadership knows you will disagree on moral grounds. Or, your organization is taking on a new line of business you disagree with morally.

What about a violation of living up to the obligation of the office?

Suppose your role is to provide unbiased expert input. If opportunities to provide input have been eliminated or your leadership ignores the data because of their agenda, that is probably a violation.

Lastly, remaining effective.

This may manifest itself by being “sidelined” by new policies, procedures, or restructuring that renders you ineffective in your role. Your job is to do X and a new arrangement has created so much distance from the decision making you have little to no influence.

You are ineffective.

Have you ever experienced or witnessed a situation such at this? If so, you probably found it frustrating, stressful, and at times consuming your mental capacity.

When we witness a peer in this situation, we usually see a tendency to rationalize not resigning. They think they can do more from the inside. As an observer, we will think this is a no-brainer – it’s time to go.

These are not easy dilemmas to analyze when you are immersed in a situation. It is difficult to work through your thresholds for each domain, based on your specifics. Individuals need time, space, and an object sounding board to assist.

What are your thoughts on criteria or questions to guide someone through a resignation decision?

/by

On Memorial Day Remember the Those We Lost & Support The Families Left Behind

I was having a conversation years ago on Memorial Day with a colleague who lost her brother during the Vietnam War. She expressed the intense sadness and loss she has every year at family events. She said she tries to picture what he would look like and what his life may have been. He was killed when he was in his early 20’s.

When they take family photos, she tries to picture him in those photos, thinking that he should be part of this. She feels the tragedy of his shortened life with each missed celebration. The birthdays, graduations, holidays, and simple family gatherings.

When she shared this with me, he had died over 40 years ago. I was taken aback by how much his death still had an impact on her. It made me think about my family events and what if I or another family member was not in the photos. How different would life have been for all of us?

On Memorial Day, it is important to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country.

It is also important to remember and support the families who have lost loved ones. They pay a price daily. What would you want if you were in their shoes carrying the invisible and unique burden of loss?

Have a Happy & Safe Memorial Day Weekend!

/by

Leadership Journey Lesson 6 – How Did the Era Affect Your Leadership?

What would you call the leadership style or theory you are experiencing in your current work environment?

When I ask that question, I get all kinds of answers.  Mostly, are a description of their current work experience and interaction with their supervisor.

“We are a remote team with a leader responsible for our daily production.”

“I am an independent contributor to a design team. As long as I deliver my requirements on time, I have very little interaction.”

“I work in a totally hierarchical organization with my Program Manager responsible for production. He is continually on us to meet our metrics. Fortunately, we have incentives when we are ahead of schedule or exceed our production and quality standards.”

The trends of the times have an impact on many parts of our lives; fashion, politics, and even leadership

Think about your leadership journey and the leadership trends you experienced the last two years. My guess is it was different than previously experienced.  Did you work remotely, hybrid, or in person but distanced. Some of us were ignored by colleagues and bosses while others suffered through micromanagement to include software monitoring.

Look at the leadership trends that influenced how you led and were led. Start from your current position and go back to your first.

Here is look at leadership practices that were in vogue over the past 40-50 years. Compare your experience to the times.

The 2000’s

Most recently leadership theories and practices center around complexity, inclusivity, and servant leadership.

Have you heard about the requirement for leaders to adapt our VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous)? Leaders are mandated to be inclusive and transparent in how they lead. Include followers in the leadership process while serving those they lead. Servant leaders work for those they lead, providing the environment and resources for success.

Shared, Collaborative, and Collective Leadership are the practices from the early 2000’s. These attempted to reduce hierarchy by making organizations flatter and more collaborative. The person best suited for leading a particular task was designated the leader, rather than always having the same team lead. 

Agile program management was popularized. It allowed teams to prototype, move quickly, and be flexible. Teams became able to adapt to stakeholders and market conditions. 

The 1990’s

In the early 1990’s there was transactional leadership followed by transformational as coined by James McGregor Burns. Transactional leadership focused on leaders incentivizing work through transactions. Pay for performance, benefits, bonuses, over time. There was little focus on the individual.

Transformational leadership, was concerned more with the relationships between leaders and workers. Quality interactions between the leader and workers provided inspiration, positive results, and fulfillment. Both the leader and those being led benefited from the relationship and cared for each other.

Prior to the 1990’s

There were the contingent and situational leadership models. Leaders were taught to adapt the style to the context of their environment.

Behavioral leadership focused on actions and skills of the leaders, which was preceded by trait theory and the Great Man theory.

The Great Man theory; leaders are born not made. Trait theory: identify, and develop the traits and characteristics of effective leaders.

Leadership has evolved extensively from being about the leader to being about those being led. Though there was a time frame where a particular leadership theory or style dominated, all survived to some degree.

If you have worked with folks who were in the workforce prior to 1990, you have experienced leaders imbued with the Great Man Theory. They were born leaders, have all the answers and lead from the top.

Some fields of work have been difficult to change. Think a traditional versus modern style manufacturing facility. Traditional may feel very top down with one person in charge. Modern; collaborative, inclusive, flexible, and operates with input from the folks on the line.

Your Analysis

How has the leadership style you experienced over time affected you? What leadership style was popular in your first position and what is in place now?

Have you progressed or are you clinging to practices that worked earlier in your career?

/by

Your Leadership Journey Lesson 3 – How Your Leaders’ Impacted Your Leadership

Who was the leader you most enjoyed working with? Who was the leader you least enjoyed working with?

What was the impact of their leadership on how you lead today? That is the focus of lesson 3.

Review

You built a timeline starting with your first professional position through your current position and identified each stop on your journey.

At each spot you have identified the following elements of your leadership:

  • Your Role
  • How you got to that position
  • How you led
  • How effective you were

You followed that short analysis with insights about yourself at each stop.  Then you ventured to write your definition of leadership at the beginning of your journey and what it is now.

In lesson 2 you went deeper by adding more detail on your leadership. You assessed four elements of your leadership:

  • Transactional – How much of your leadership was as a transactional leader?
  • Transformational – How much of your leadership was transformational?
  • Power/Authority – Where did you get your power and authority from in each position?
  • Relationships – What were your key relationships at each stop?

Today’s Activity

Up to this point this has been about you. Now let’s examine how your leaders impacted you. Who was your leader at each stop? You may have had several leaders depending on your longevity at each position.

For each leader assess them on the following:

  • Transactional – What portion of their leadership was transactional?
  • Transformational – What portion of their leadership was transformational?
  • Power/Authority – Where did they get their power and authority?
  • Relationships – What were their key relationships?

You may want to document an example for each item to solidify the behavior you observed. This is all from your perspective. On Power/Authority think about how much came from those being led.

Reflection and Insights

What insights can you draw from the leaders who led you?

Some considerations. How did you feel when you were around that leader? Did they invoke certain emotions such as inspiration or stress? Maybe you were not around them very much or avoided them. Those insights may mean something.

What about values? How aligned were your values with those of your leaders? How did you know the leaders’ values?

Are you still in touch with them or how would a chance meeting with them feel?

Last insight. Reflecting on your leadership today, how did the leader impact your current leadership today?

You may want to have a single page for each stop on your journey.

 

 

 

 

 

/by
,

Leadership Impact: Offboarding

Remember how excited you were when you landed that position you coveted?

How was your onboarding process? It may have gone something like this. You checked in with HR, maybe they assigned a peer to assist you, maybe a mentor, and possibly introduced, recognized, or welcomed you with a small social event.

What has been your experience offboarding, personally or just watching from a distance. For those leaving on negative terms it could have been an escorted trip out the door. For most it is an HR department task of closing out pay, benefits, turning in ID cards, and being removed from the email system. What about the social side? Was there any kind of event, formal or informal with the team? A social event such as a team meeting, lunch, or a simple team gathering?

 

Here are two impactful offboarding events related to me by clients.

A senior member of a virtual team of 30, notified his leadership he was looking at the possibility of transitioning in about 90 days. He had been part of this team for 4+ years and was an impact player. He ultimately took a new position and gave his leadership and team 30 days’ notice.

On his final day, a couple of folks reached and chatted wishing him luck and he received several cards wishing him well. Nothing from the organization or his team officially. No group social event such as a virtual send off.

Impact: He left that organization very disappointed and unappreciated.

 

This next scenario was related to me by a coworker of the person offboarding. The individual departing was a line worker in an organization of approximately 100 people, all working in one building. He was a 6-year veteran leaving on very positive terms for an educational opportunity. Hence, the date of departure was on the calendar well in advance. On his final day a small recognition and get-together was planned by the leadership at lunch. As luck would have it, 8 inches of snow fell that day and they worked virtually for a couple of days.

The leadership never reached out to reschedule. Hence, no social recognition of his departure other than coworkers who reached out individually. He had since created his own Happy Hour event to say his goodbyes to a select crowd.

Impact: Assume this happened to you. What would be the impact on you?

 

Our work is social by nature and we all want to be recognized as a contributor to the mission. Organizations do not owe us anything more than our contract stipulates, right?

A portion of my coaching practice is in career transitions. In transitions “Information Meetings” have become the accepted method for networking while job searching. Those are short one-on-one meetings to learn about an organization. Discussions revolve around all aspects of work; the position, opportunities, and culture. What does the offboarding process say about your organization?

In teaching information meetings to my clients, I always recommend “…seek out alumni of organizations you are interested in.” Why, because alumni are unencumbered with what they can say. Most will freely share their experiences and opinions.

Offboarding is the final touchpoint an individual may have with you, your team, or your organization. What do you want that to look like? How does it contribute to the recognized culture of the team?

Culture is the entire experience from starting to leaving a team, small business, or large corporation. Cultures will form, be deliberate about forming the culture you want. Be deliberate with offboarding.

 

Here are some practices I have seen you may want to consider. A monthly social gathering to recognize those joining or leaving the team. A standard gift to recognize folks moving on to new challenges. The creation of alumni groups, on Facebook or LinkedIn, to keep former employees connected. The groups have proven to positively impact recruiting and goodwill.

These practices made offboarding a key component of companies deliberately managing their culture. Everyone wants to be celebrated and recognized.

What does offboarding look like for your team or organization? Do you know its current impact? Should it be more deliberate?

Ask your alumni and get their opinion.

/by

Leadership Impact: Charisma

I googled “Charismatic Leadership Examples” and here is the result:

Martin Luther King, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandel, Winston Churchill.

Some observations:

  • Not all are positive leaders
  • All inspired actions by their followers

Charismatic leadership is defined as a leader who uses communication skills, persuasiveness, and charm to influence others.

On the short list above, there is a mix of very positive and negative results effected by the leaders ability to motivate followers to embrace and execute their vision. So where does the power lie with charismatic leaders? With the leader or with the followers?

Pick your most favorite and least favorite charismatic leaders. How did they make your feel? What impact did their message have on you?

Below is a list of 14 charismatic leaders from different time frames and professions. On a scale of 1-10 score them based on the impact they make on you, positive or negative.

I will go out on a limb and say that most of your scores were near the extremes, closer to 1 or 10 rather than 5. Charismatic leaders inspire and make us want to follow them based on the vision they create. We often have a strong emotional connection about them.

In a crisis we look for charismatic leaders to show us the way. Why? Probably because of how they make us feel.

In the above list how many leaders resonated with you and how many gave you a feeling of discord? Any that you vehemently defended and/or castigated? I am sure we all had both.

The power in charismatic leaders is in the followers. We give them their power; through loyalty, devotedly following, supporting, and identifying with them. To the point of not being objective about their performance.

Our examples so far are all high-profile leaders. What does the science say about charisma in organizations like yours. In a Harvard Business Review Article titled Too Much Charisma Can Make Leaders Look Less Effective the authors confirm, within organizations there is a sort of “Sweet Spot” for charisma in a leader and their effectiveness. Too little does not work. Too much, definitely a problem. On the too much end of the spectrum, research concluded everyone can see the overuse of charisma except the leader.

The leader believes all is fine trusting their charisma to get things done.

One of the primary downfalls of relying on charisma as a long-term strategy is the leader loses touch and credibility with the operational nature of the organization. Too strategic to the point they are ineffective with their operational duties.

Several other observations on charisma are the temporal effects on the rise and fall of charisma. Remember it is the follower who assesses the degree of charisma, not the leader. In short term situations such as interviews, presentations, and networking, individuals with high charisma are seen as effective. The more time you spend the more you get to know and work with individuals, the less positive one feels about them. Familiarity builds contempt.

Conversely, individuals on the low end of the charisma scale often experience a steady climb the more they become comfortable and known in an organization.

As illustrated in the blog post Leadership Impact: Competence vs Confidence where displayed confidence becomes a proxy for competence, we have to guard again misinterpreting charisma as competence. In ourselves and others.

Some conclusions. As leaders we all need a level of charisma to effectively inspire and motivate our teams. However, if overused or relied on long term as the primary leadership tool, it will become a liability. Self awareness, understanding ourselves, and getting the right feedback is critical to know when we are crossing that threshold.

As followers we need to consider the objective criteria attracting us to a leader. Are we being charmed and wooed by the leader or are they actually effective in leading us where we want to go?

A bit of skepticism can go a long way. Skepticism about ourselves as a leader and those leading us.

/by

Veterans: A Source of Underutilized Talent in the Workforce

Did you know that on the last day of Sept 2021 job openings, a measure of labor demand, was reported at 10.4 million. The reason was not weak demand, it was employers unable to find workers they considered qualified.

Jobs are available, qualified workers are what employers are missing.

Does your workplace need dedicated, highly motivated, and adaptable workers who learn quickly and are capable of leading others through uncertain challenges? Everybody does. How have you or your organization tapped into the veteran population?

Look back at the applications received and interviews conducted over the past two years, how many veterans made it to the interview level?

I coach over 30 transitioning veterans a year and hear the stories of frustration and challenges of the transition process. I have seen veterans land their dream job and also have seen a lot of frustration and rejection.

You might think that highly educated and trained individuals should find their next chapter outside the military fairly easily. Not necessarily the case, separating military members contend with unfounded stereotypes and biases. Here are some thoughts to consider.

When you hear “U.S. Active-Duty Service Member” what is the picture that comes to mind?

When you hear “U.S. Veteran in the work place” what is the picture that comes to mind?

For the active-duty service member a typical picture is a US serviceman in sand colored combat gear with their weapon at the ready. I deliberately said man not woman. Women now make up almost 15% of our force.

In the workplace did the image of a young professional man or woman in a business suit come to mind? Not likely.

A large portion of the civilian workforce does not understand what a veteran can bring to their workplace. Worse yet veterans contend with significant bias.

According to the Cohen Veterans Network here are some stereotypes:

  • Two-Thirds (67%) of Americans believe the Majority of Veterans Experience PTSD
  • One in Four (26%) Americans believe the Majority of People with PTSD are Violent/Dangerous
  • Nearly One in Four (23%) Americans believe PTSD is Not Treatable

If hiring managers believe they are looking across the table at someone with PTSD that is untreatable and very likely violent or dangerous, the veteran’s prospects are not good.

The facts are that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are impacted by PTSD at a rate of 11-20%. Those impacted are not by default dangerous, and the condition is treatable.

So how are veterans actually doing in the workplace?  The overall unemployment rate in the U.S. at the end of August was 4.8% with the veteran unemployment rate at 3.6%. Better than their peers. A significant achievement considering the challenges.

A disappointment is many veterans are under employed. Meaning they are employed at a level below their education and skill level. According to Recruitmilitary.com 57% of veterans are underemployed,15.7% higher than the non-veteran population.

If you are an employer with a job opening there is a well-trained highly capable veteran looking to be a positive force in your organization. It will take you some time and education to understand how their experience can benefit you. Amazon and GE are two companies that have mastered the process of hiring veterans and are reaping the benefits. Fortune 500 listed #2 and #38 respectively.

With 10.4 million job openings how is the veteran unemployment as high a 3.6%?

Consider the impact on your organization if you mastered the process just as well as Amazon and GE.

/by