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BY Joel Junker

October 17, 2023 | Career Management

Why Corporate America Needs JMO Leadership (E183)

For three decades, I have led teams, coached leaders, helped thousands of Junior Military Officers (JMOs) transition to business, and worked with hiring managers to hire and develop leadership talent. One common theme is that people want meaning and purpose in their work. They want to create something or serve someone beyond themselves. They want to live undivided lives where their values align with their profession.

Organizations Need to Create Meaning and Purpose

Now, more than ever in my career, I am convinced we need leaders in corporate America to create and support organizations that provide a place for purpose and meaningful work. I believe the JMO transitioning to a business leadership career can be a part of the solution.

When I speak with JMOs about their marketability for business careers, they often explain that they want to leverage their functional experience in logistics, engineering, project management, or acquisitions. Yes, corporate America does want that, but the JMO’s greatest strength, which we desperately need in business and all types of organizations, is your leadership and ability to engage team members. We need the JMO experience of creating a sense of purpose with a team, providing clear objectives, removing obstacles, and mentoring and coaching individuals.

The podcast planning team and I needed an episode to help JMOs understand their value to corporate America is more than their functional experience. We need their leadership to build organizations and create meaningful and purposeful work where people show up and can live undivided, authentic lives.

JMOs Have Experience Creating Meaningful Work

At the same time, we came up with this episode idea, I talked with Cameron-Brooks Alumnus Bobby Eisenhart. His boss just offered him a significant promotion; the key reason was his ability to engage the workforce.

Since his transition in 2011, Bobby has worked at three major consumer packaged goods companies, leading teams of up to 300 people. His strength and primary reason for success is his ability to engage his team members. I asked Bobby to be my guest to discuss how he uses his JMO experience to create a positive environment and explain why corporate America needs more leaders like him.

In addition to his military experience, Bobby attributes his employee engagement philosophy to what he learned in the book Drive by Daniel Pink. Bobby explains how he uses Pink’s concepts of communicating clear objectives, allowing team members autonomy to accomplish the goals, the leader’s responsibility to provide support, and aligning purpose and meaning with work.

Everyone Deserves to Work for a Great Leader

Everybody deserves to be a great leader. We need more leaders like Bobby in corporate America. You can be a part of the solution.

If you want to know more about who we are and what we do, there are a load of resources that you can tap into at Cameron-brooks.com. You can also find more information on our YouTube Channel and follow us on LinkedIn.