I’m just in the death throes of an old way of earning. In a few short weeks I’ll be jumping from one frying pan into another very similar frying pan, albeit one that I feel more alive to.

Nearly six and a half years after I walked up the steps and through the doors of Old College at RMAS on ‘ironing board Sunday’ I have finally called time on the slowly deflating balloon that was that phase of my life. I’m bitter in some respects, but that’s an easy moniker to get labelled with, especially by people who’s path was essentially the same with only minor, subtle differences.

That being said, on the whole, I have come away a much better person, having learnt a great deal about what it means to be a ‘leader’ and how easy it is to forget what you join for, despite what you might try to kid yourself and others.

I’m a fan of lists and short, succinct bullet point style ramblings (I appreciate the direct and indirect irony of that sentence……how can ‘ramblings’ be ‘succinct’ etc etc etc). I’ll try and summarise six-plus years of ‘service’ and ‘leadership’ – two words that embody what it means, to me, to be an officer in HM Forces – into a four salient points. Other’s will undoubtedly have very dissimilar experiences. Lucky you.

S(w)erve to Lead

Once your parents have seen you in your green boiler suits and all had a laugh with the jovial Old College Sergeant-Major you embark on a week’s in-processing; kit issue, lie-of-the-land, who salutes who (everyone!), orientation to the grounds etc. Kit issue is the first time you feel like a ‘soldier’, you can’t help but feel a bit of a legend in your Army clothes. The reality is you’re a total sprog who looks like a bag of shit….but you won’t realise that until you look back at the photos and selfies. It’s fucking cringe-worthy! Ignorance is bliss. Anyway, succinctness!

The motto on your cap-badge (that metal disc on your beret) reads ‘Serve to Lead’. These are the most important words that any officer can be told yet by the time you become a Lieutenant, a year out of training, you’ll be forgetting those words and the equally prophetic (though slightly less important in my case, for reasons that will become clear in a few more words time) question of ‘what would my Colour-Sergeant do?’ (he’d cheat on his wife with one of the female officer cadets, of course).

‘Serve to Lead’ perfectly sums up the role of the officer in the Army. It’s so, so simple and yet fundamentally the greatest responsibility and honour that anyone can infer on someone. It works on every single level and yet in my experience, and as I have already alluded to, it is forgotten by the vast majority of officers that I have served under. In fact, give me a sec………yeah, I can count on one hand the officers that I have served with, or under, who live that motto every day. One hand.

The Army is like most other organisations around the world, despite what we kid ourselves (for the majority, and across all ranks) to believe. It is a ‘Stage 3’ culture that drives this organisation (as labelled by Logan et al. in ‘Tribal Leadership’) whereby the ethos or underlying exponent is competition over collaboration. People within such organisations are not concerned with the general success of the whole, unless of course it directly affects them and their own success. The baseline is a mindset of ‘what can they/he/she/the organisation do for me?’ It shouldn’t be like this but sadly, in my experience, it is.

So what?

The second important lesson from my time was to always ask the question ‘so what?’

It’s a great question with myriad uses. From a clinical, planning and strategic standpoint it allows you to ‘cover all bases’. The enemy is armed with AK-variants; ‘so what?’ Well, the effective range of an AK-variant is such-and-such. So what? My weapons can engage the enemy outside of their effective range. So what? I can stand-off within this area. So what? Etc, etc, etc.

You can see where this question can be applied to every sphere of life? (Don’t answer, it’s rhetorical). It fits neatly in to the ‘Category 3’ culture debate (as if there needs to be a ‘debate’; just don’t be a dick…..more of which later) as the ideal antidote i.e. in the adoption of the maxim that ‘everyday is a learning day’. That’s right. It encourages the questioning and second order effect of ‘never stop learning’, never settle for enough knowledge. That’s the one thing that we should be greedy with. Knowledge and a greater understanding.

Nepotism

Some of the best officer’s I’ve seen have gone to some of the ‘worst’ (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) regiments, and vice versa. Nepotism is alive and well in the system that permeates through the Army and, I assume, the Armed Forces in general. Who your Dad/Uncle/mate is, or who’s palm you metaphorically grease, will most likely determine your future posting and therefore the longevity of your career. It’s not always the case, sure, and I am only talking about my experience at RMAS here, but don’t fool yourself that it ‘pays to be a winner’. It’s all about playing the game…..if you can live with yourself and kid yourself that you had/have principles.

Two choices

The best telling off I’ve ever had was due to it being the best lesson I’ve ever had. The man who was doing the telling was/is an excellent example of the ‘Serve to Lead’ mindset. Instead of launching in to a tirade about me being this, that and the other, he simply gave me two choices: be a c*nt, or don’t be a c*nt.

Life doesn’t get much more simple than that.

So, that’s it. That’s what 6-7 years gets you. Those four lessons. Yeah there’s only four of them, but they are of profound importance (well, three of them are….the nepotism one is just a nice-to-know). I hope that I can live up to the first one in everything that I do. I hope that I don’t forget the others. I have a feeling they’ll help!