Tuck News and Events - Operation Tuck: Military personnel turn to Tuck to hone civilian leadership skills.

Operation Tuck: Military personnel turn to Tuck to hone civilian leadership skills

Before coming to Tuck, Amy Florentino T'10 captained a 175-foot-long Coast Guard cutter, the biggest military ship in New York Harbor. In a position that had her away from homeport for up to three weeks at a time and on the water an average of 180 days a year, Florentino was the most senior person on board.

Despite the responsibility—the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduate was in charge of waterway management and port security—Florentino believed her inventory of management skills wasn't yet complete. She describes this dynamic as not seeing the forest for the trees. "I want to learn more about how to operate in a way that is global and strategic rather than just tactical," she says.

Florentino's story is not unique. "Going back approximately 30 years, about four percent of Tuck students have had a military background," says Tuck enrollment manager Bill Brown T'78. And this percentage is expected to rise. Brown, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former nuclear submarine officer, anticipates that leaders from the armed forces will increasingly be seeking admission to business schools across the country.

Scores of leaders presently stationed in regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan are about to finish up standard five-year tours of duty. Many will be looking to enter the professional world. "I have people calling me from Baghdad telling me they are studying for the GMATs," he says. "More and more military leaders are showing up at our door."

New money is also available to those in the U.S. armed forces looking to pursue higher education. In 2008, the GI Bill significantly increased the amount of funds available to those in the military seeking educational training. Even those who do not wish to leave the military will likely be a part of the growing applicant pool. "The military doesn't hire from the outside. If they want their leaders to have extra education, they have to send them to a school like Tuck," explains Brown.

Those who arrive at Tuck from the armed forces have captained large ships, put boots on the ground in unstable foreign territories, taken covert teams behind enemy lines, and negotiated with town elders to gather intelligence or improve local businesses and living conditions. These aren't standard résumé items. However, their experience in the area of leadership has proven to be a benefit both in the classroom and after they graduate.

"Not always, but frequently, those who come here from the military have more leadership experience than other Tuck students," says Betsy Winslow, director of the Cohen Leadership Development Program, an initiative tightly linked to the core curriculum that ensures Tuck graduates are prepared to lead. "And that leadership experience is gained in very different contexts—in situations where perhaps the consequences of an error could be life threatening."

Kevin Williams T'10 was a Navy Seal with seven deployments prior to entering Tuck. While in the military, he had to make critical connections with civilians in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Thailand. "It was important to quickly understand and demonstrate respect for their value systems in order to build the type of trust necessary to complete our mission," says Williams. "Working closely with such a diverse group of people in such ambiguous environments instills a type of confidence that leads you to believe you can develop strong relationships with virtually anyone."

Brown has noticed that an increasing number of prospective students are not coming straight out of combat. They've been involved instead in nation building, which he says may be an even more valuable leadership experience. "These people have acted almost like the mayor of a small town or region where they've had to mediate conflicts," he says. "They've come to understand what it takes for their sector to be stable and they have a tremendous amount of experience in small-scale governance," he says. It's precisely this kind of experience that, when infused with the varied backgrounds of others entering Tuck, adds value.

Rebecca Joffrey T'97, co-director of Tuck's Career Development Office, knows just how these skills translate professionally. "The question of whether these types of candidates can lead is already proven," she says. And, within 8 to 10 years, she notes, someone of this caliber can lead a business unit at a multinational corporation. Forward-thinking employers know this. "These are people who are going to become division managers," adds Brown. "They've had lots of experience managing large groups of people."

Winslow has seen the leadership attributes of those from the military in the study group environment at Tuck. "Some people get too focused on getting the job done," she observes. "But those in the armed services will often say, ‘wait a second, we have to pay attention to our process.' They are frequently the person on the team who cares when the group is not getting along." The contrast to students from other backgrounds can be telling. "If you've been a superstar sole performer," she notes, "you're used to being measured by a different yard stick."

While Williams is still immersed in the business school environment, he's already become aware of some of the differences between the military world he knows and the world of business he will soon come to know. One of the common perils of a less seasoned leader involves a kind of paralysis, he explains. Out of fear they may make the wrong decision, some leaders choose to make no decision at all. Those with military backgrounds are often trained early on to sidestep this potential land mine. "While on a mission you have to become comfortable being uncomfortable," he says. Sometimes, he explains, "you have to choose, even if none of the options are ideal."

Of course, students with military experience come to Tuck for a reason. Some require professional development in other areas. "Our military guys sometimes have a harder time getting the quantitative part," says Brown. "If you've been out in the military, and you haven't been pushing numbers around, you may be relatively weak in this area," he notes. But that changes over time. Williams admits he relied heavily on others in his study group when it came to cash flow until he got up to speed. "I'm not going to be teaching accounting," he says, "but now I'm not dragging anyone down either."

Hans Brechbühl, executive director of Tuck's Center for Digital Strategies, ran a border camp in a cavalry unit patrolling the Iron Curtain between Germany and Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. "I was 24 years old and it was the type of thing that, if you screwed up, it would be on the President's desk the next morning," says Brechbühl, who is also associated with the Armed Forces Alumni Association at Tuck. "Having responsibilities like that at an early age is what the military is all about."

The population of Tuck students with military backgrounds is a diverse one. Some come from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. Others have served for foreign governments: the British army, Belgian air force, and the Israeli defense forces. "This is a cohesive group of people who have traveled extensively and have many different experiences," notes Major Aram M. Donigian T'08, a leadership instructor in the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at the United States Military Academy. Tuck's Armed Forces Alumni Association, he explains, brings many of them together. The organization connects past, present, and prospective Tuck students with military backgrounds, creating a sense of community and forming a support network on campus—and off. In other words, no one gets left behind.