During my 6 years in the Army, to say that I never experienced organizational politics would not be truthful. As a matter of fact, as I progressed through my career, I guess I saw more of the politics, which was a contributing factor to me eventually deciding to move on to the civilian world. Unfortunately, what I would say I was less prepared for, maybe naively so, was the fact that my experience in the corporate world would be filled with dealing with politics.
All I can say is to be prepared.....I guess we will all deal with this differently and the most important advice I can give is to be true to yourself. In my career, I have tried my best to resist the temptation to play political games. I just don't like them because playing the political games has always seemed a bit "dishonest" to me. I have instead focused on just trying to do the right things for the businesses I have worked on. I am sure at times this has held my career back, but at the same time I also think it has differentiated me as a leader within my organization. I think that once people see that you make decisions with the objective of doing the right thing for the business, versus just doing things that make you look good personally, or get personal accolades...you will have the trust of those people.
I write this post only to challenge you to think about how you will handle this as you enter the corporate world. It is something to be aware of, as you have likely never experienced quite as much "office politics" in your military career as you will in your civilian career. Obviously, the extent to which playing politics is effective in the workplace will differ by company. so it may be something that you want to be aware of as you talk with different companies about jobs. You will likely not get very direct answers from those who are interviewing you, but you can certainly ask questions about the company culture with respect to accountability, or what traits make leaders successful in the company. If you ask enough people these types of questions in the interview process, I think you will quickly get a feel for what type of people the company values as leaders. If you sense that the answers indicate that the most effective leaders are those who talk a good game and shirk accountability.....personally I would recommend running as fast as you can. On the other hand, if they talk about those who are willing to make tough decisions or take ownership of the good and the bad...or leaders that are willing to accept mistakes to help develop its people.....than I would say that this company may be a good fit for someone coming from the military.
