The New Battlefield
With the end of the war in
Iraq and the winding down
of the war in Afghanistan,
more than 1 million service
members like Wyatt, Grace and
Nathan are expected to leave
the American military through
2016. Government incentives
and a barrage of employment
programs created by the
private sector are helping many
returning heroes connect to
management opportunities in
America’s largest corporations.
The transition to the private
sector provides a unique
opportunity for employers to hire
highly competent, competitive,
tech-savvy and battle-tested
leaders. For veterans returning
from active duty service, the
transition creates a way to find
gainful employment and leverage
the leadership skills and talents
they have developed.
Regardless of situation, Executive
Coaching can play a powerful
role in helping these individuals
make the transition from the
battlefield to the boardroom, and
coaches are uniquely positioned
to be of service to these veterans.
While many organizations are
making the commitment to hire
veterans, the same organizations
may or may not have considered
what resources—such as
coaching—may be needed to
ensure successful onboarding
and assimilation. Wyatt, Grace
and Nathan’s employers are all
examples of organizations that
were not thinking ahead and
found their newly hired talent in
the midst of corporate crossfire
they had not anticipated.
Leveraging Core
Competencies
The ICF Core Competencies
provide a framework that can
be expanded on to best meet
the needs of clients who are
transitioning from military
service into corporate life.
32 Coaching World
When establishing trust and
intimacy with the client, there
is a unique opportunity to
acknowledge the journey the
veteran has already undertaken
before coming to coaching,
acknowledging their courage
and service in the military, and
obtaining permission to coach the
client in a way that serves him or
her best in sensitive, new areas.
Every coachee has different
learning preferences and
unique needs. The more the
coach can clearly understand
these nuances on the front end,
the more effectively the coaching
can be delivered throughout
the engagement.
Direct communication is
critically important to the
success of any coaching
engagement and this is
particularly true with a veteran
coachee. Being prepared for and
embracing whatever metaphor
or analogy the coachee identifies
can create a more powerful
coaching experience. After
Nathan’s coach asked what his
current situation reminded him
of, he mentioned the need to
call a “cease-fire.” Exploring this
metaphor and the implications
it had for him, his team and his
colleagues created the necessary
space Nathan needed to
verbalize insights that were new
to him.
Occasionally the HR contact, the
coachee’s supervisor, the coachee
and the coach may not all be on
the same page. As a suggested
practice to strengthen the
coaching alliance and maintain
confidentiality with the coachee,
building periodic status meetings
into the coaching engagement
when all parties come together
to review goals and discuss
progress can ensure the coaching
addresses the expectations
of all stakeholders. During a
status meeting with Grace, her
supervisor and the HR contact,
Grace was able to speak candidly
and ask for and receive a resource
she needed to be successful.
Another suggested practice is
for the coach to ask the coachee
to score the coaching on a 1-10
scale at the conclusion of each
session and request specific
feedback on what was valuable
about the session. The coach can
then incorporate this feedback
into future sessions. When asked
how much value he received
from a coaching session that
included visualization work,
Nathan scored the session a “10.”
Asking Nathan what made the
coaching session a “10” yielded
feedback the coach was able to
immediately incorporate into
future coaching sessions.
Wyatt, Grace and Nathan
all came into coaching after
making the transition from the
battlefield to the corner office.
In each instance, Executive
Coaching enabled them to make
a successful transition to their
next civilian mission.
Executive Coaching can
play a pivotal role in helping
returning servicemen and
women assimilate into their
new environments and position
them for future success in the
corporate environment. Working
with these veterans and helping
them overcome the challenges
to cultural assimilation in
corporations can be challenging,
but it’s also highly rewarding. By
coaching individuals who have
been called to a higher service,
we b