The daunting thing about leaving the military is the self-doubt in what skills you can transpose across into the civilian sector. I have quickly learnt to draw upon my leadership experience and the Commando Values – Excellence, Self-Discipline, Integrity and Humility.
- Excellence - Always pushing yourself in continual self-improvement.
- Self-Discipline – staying calm, collected and remaining focussed under pressure.
- Integrity – doing the right thing both professionally and personally – be true to yourself and those you work with.
- Humility – knowing your own limits and embracing new ideas or opinions.
As an Agile Practitioner, I am there to support teams through influence rather than authority. Allowing them to manage themselves effectively and promoting the environment where everybody has a voice.Mark, Agile Practitioner
As within the Royal Marines you are always looking to improve yours and the team’s continued development. Like working in the Arctic to the heat of the desert – you have to be able to pivot, adapt, and challenge yourself and your team.
These are skills I learnt over many years of leadership and not through courses. From experience I have learnt to listen to others, look holistically at the bigger picture, protect and support my teams and help them to adjust to change – to embrace it.
One thing that I remember vividly is a time when we were preparing for another tour of Afghanistan. At the time we had collapsible ladders for scaling compound walls. One of the most junior members of the unit, fresh from basic training, asked a question – “Why can’t we use telescopic ladders you can buy in a DIY store?” There was no answer – we went and bought a pallet load to deploy with! Empowering your teams, giving them bounded autonomy, creating an environment where nobody has exclusive rights to what constitutes a ‘good idea’. Same as the military do when giving a set of Orders – the Commander’s Intent outlines a clear, succinct statement that outlines the purpose and definition of what successful looks like. Focus on telling your teams the what and the why (wider context) but NOT the How – Allow the team to devise and deliver the plan, pivot in direction when change is required and champion, innovate and support them at every level.
In a nutshell, I think that my day-to-day ‘work’ as an Agile Practitioner is using my military experience to allow the teams to be the best versions of themselves that they can be.
Through creating the safe space (accountability to our collective values, transparency and desire to improve) in the last 6 months, we have now changed our Agile team structure into cross-functional teams which has seen output improve as well as that self-belief and belief in the team.