Thank you Paul for sharing your wisdom with us today!
What is your philosophy as a Visionary Leader?
Here are the qualities that visionary business leaders will need to possess to succeed in business in 2023 and beyond—integrity, decisiveness, good judgment, the ability to form a vision and execute it, confidence in your own competence, etc. But, without the ability to be selfless, to put the needs and wants of others before your own, you will never get people to "follow you to a place where they wouldn't go to by themselves.” One other important thing: Practice “servant leadership”. If you take care of your employees and customers or clients, profits will come. Don’t put profits before people.
What is your company’s Vision?
My company's vision is to assist aspiring veterans who want to start their own businesses.
How did it come about? (What was the impetus?)
My business didn’t start out with the idea of helping veterans. I started out thinking that I was going to provide project management and business development services to companies in the service industry. But, that didn’t work out. I had to “pivot” several times, before I found a niche that worked. My big break, and big pivot point, was when one my clients, Crain’s Chicago Business, our regional business publication in Chicago, asked me to do some research in 2011 on companies in Chicago that were hiring veterans. I spent a considerable amount of time on this assignment, much more than was necessary or what I got paid for, and learned what I could about businesses in Chicago and around the nation that were hiring veterans, and the support programs for veterans wanting to enter the workforce upon leaving their military service. All of this research led to a very successful section in the publication around Veterans Day in 2011, called “Veterans in the Workplace”.
And, things just took off from there…
Why do you think it galvanizes and inspires your team?
Veterans are an important element in today's workforce. The best leadership training in the world, with 200 years of experience, is the training that is given to commissioned officers, and senior non-commissioned officers, in the Armed Forces of the United States. Some of us got to test out that training on the battlefields of Vietnam, and carry those lessons with us into our business careers.
A leader is someone who people will follow to a place where they wouldn't go by themselves.
As young Army officers, we were taught to take care of our troops first, if you want them to follow you. An officer has to convince the people under his or her command that they have their best interests in mind, while they are accomplishing the mission. An officer doesn’t eat until all of his or her troops have eaten. An officer is the last to sleep, and walks the perimeter of the camp to ensure that their troops are safe and sound. An officer doesn’t change into a dry pair of socks, until he or she is satisfied that their troops are dry and warm. Otherwise, the troops just aren’t going to follow you to places where they wouldn’t go by themselves.
Focus On Accomplishing The Mission—The military is extremely mission-focused. Seize the objective– capture or kill the enemy--while, at the same time, ensuring the integrity and welfare of your troops. You need a vision—yes, the “vision thing”--of what your battle plan is going to accomplish, and then execute that plan flawlessly.
Commitment To Hard Work—Anyone who has served in the Armed Forces knows what I mean. The days are long. The work is hard—very hard. Preparation for combat doesn't take a holiday. There are no weekends. You don't go home at 5 PM.
The Army once had a slogan, “We do more by 9 AM than most people do all day.” That is absolutely true.
Interestingly, Dan Senor and Saul Singer, in their book, “Start-Up Nation,” say one of the principal reasons Israel is one of the most successful entrepreneurial nations on earth on a per capita basis is the country's compulsory military service, which creates an environment for hard work and a common commitment to accomplish the mission.
Ability To Lead and Function As A Team—Built on the “buddy system”, no one accomplishes the mission alone. If you're going to be successful in the military, you need to work with all types and kinds of people, from all races, creeds, genders, backgrounds, and persuasions, and weld all of these disparate interests into a fighting force; embodying the concept of “teamwork” perfectly. This isn't just about “corporate profits”. Lives are at stake.
Ability To Pivot On A Moment's Notice From Plans That Aren't Working To Plans That Do—Most people think the military is only about the rigidity of following orders. Of course, you need to follow orders. But the military teaches to think and act flexibly, so that if your battle plan isn't working, you can pivot immediately to a plan that does. Flexibility and immediate action are key to survival.
These traits that are common to all who have served in the military, embodied in the words, “Duty, Honor, Country” – the motto of the Armed Forces of the United States that can profoundly influence and inspire a business or entrepreneurial career. I teach these skills as a part of a veterans’ issues course at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
Do you also have a Vision for the personal, financial, spiritual, and relational parts of your life? How has it impacted your life?
If we listen to the world, the world tells us that the definition of success is a lot of money—and, all of the material goods that money can buy. The more money and the more “things” that one has, the more successful they are.
But, if we shut out the shrill voices of the world, and listen to the gentle whispers of our heart as they echo off the walls of our soul, we know that success must be much more than that.
It isn't that money and the things that it can buy are unimportant—on the contrary, they are very important, since God placed us in this temporal world, and expects us to not only take care of ourselves, but to take care of those who can't take care of themselves.
But, in the silence of the night, when we explore the still reaches of our soul, we sense...we know...that there must be much more to life than simply the temporal...the material. For one day, all of these beautiful things that we have shall pass away.
Listen to Emerson, as he describes his definition of success in his famous poem:
"Success" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is Success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson perfectly brackets what is, in my opinion, the best definition of success that has ever been written. He beautifully describes not only what success is...to laugh often...to win respect and affection...to endure betrayal...to appreciate beauty...to find the best in others...to leave the world a bit better...to better another's life--but, even more important, what it isn't. His utter silence on money and the material as defining success speaks volumes.
How do you keep your Vision front and center?
I constantly remind myself of these words:
“(Another great task) is to confront the poverty of satisfaction—a lack of purpose and dignity—that inflicts us all. Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things."
--Robert F. Kennedy, as quoted in Make Gentle The Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy, by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy.
Describe a moment where you *knew* you were living your Vision.
I was stunned to receive the following email one day from a longtime friend and former colleague. Mike--I've redacted his last name to protect his anonymity--and I were in Vietnam at about the same time. But, unlike me, he was drafted into the Army. He is an extremely successful accountant in Chicago, a published author many times over, and is widely recognized as an expert in his field.
Here's the text of his email:
Many, many years ago, I made an old-fashioned paper copy of your article. Even though I placed it in a clear plastic, three-ring sleeve, it (like me) has become a bit worn around the edges with the passage of time.
I came across it while cleaning my desk today. I stopped to read it again. I don’t know if I ever thanked you for writing this piece, but whether I did or not, thank you.
Long ago, it helped an SP5 from HHC, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cav overcome a mild case of survivor guilt that had lingered for too long. Thank you, old friend, thank you very much.
Kind regards,
Mike
The article that Mike is referring to entitled, "What Dan Quayle Missed", was published by Crain's Chicago Business in 1988.
It is important to be reminded that you never know how what you write...or say... or do—or, what you didn’t write...or say... or do, when you should have, influences someone—sometimes many, many years later.
What do you want other aspiring Visionary Leaders to know about the Visioning process?
The problem with people who set goals, based up my more the 47 years of business experience, is that they get too wedded to them, and don’t recognize when great opportunities come their way that would be highly beneficial to them, but might not exactly “fit in” with their goals.
I have seen this happen to people time and time again in my business career. A great opportunity arises—one that might even be life-changing—but, people don’t even see it, because they are myopically committed to their “goals”.
Don’t be “rudderless”. Rather than rigid hard and fast goals, I think that it is much better to have a “strategic vision” —a general vision of a path forward—that offers you some flexibility.
That way, if a “good horse” comes along, you can get on and ride it. Don’t be foolish. Carefully calculate what the upside potential might be—and, even more important, what the downside potential might be. But, you know when you do that, the potential downside often isn’t that bad.
What’s the worse that can happen? The opportunity doesn’t work out. Well, a lot of things don’t work out. But, at least you stepped into the proverbial “batters box” and took a swing.
And, it just might…and change your life for the better in ways that you could never even imagine.
Nothing ventured…
What else is key to living a life of confident clarity and contentment?
The great American poet, John Ciardi, was once asked by a group of businessmen to speak at one of their functions. I guess that they thought that it would be a novelty to have a poet as their guest speaker. The story goes that Ciardi politely declined, stating “that there is no poetry for the practical man.”
In my more than forty-seven years in business, I have generally found this to be true. People who are overly concerned with the proverbial “bottom line”, and who think that business is simply concerned with making a profit, typically have no “poetry”, as it were, in their lives.
I also have found the opposite to be true. People who are solely “dreamers” generally have no idea how to actualize their dreams, turning them into reality.
I really think that you need to have a little of both–to be a “practical dreamer’ if you will. As the wise Zen master once said, “First enlightenment, then the laundry. Both are necessary.” ( A quote attributable to Dr. Michael Horowitz, the former president of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, in a speech several years ago to a breakfast group before the school’s commencement ceremony).
Ciardi’s actual quote is as follows:
There is no poetry for the practical man. There is poetry only for the mankind of the man that spends only a certain amount of time at the practical wheel. For if he spends too much of his time at the mechanics of practicality, he must become something less than a man, or be eaten up by the frustrations stored in his irrational personality. An ulcer is an unkissed imagination taking its revenge for having been jilted. It is an unwritten poem, an undanced dance, an unpainted watercolor. It is a declaration from the mankind of man that a clear spring of joy has not been tapped, and that it must break through, muddily on its own. — John Ciardi (d. 1986)
Paul Dillon
Paul A. Dillon is a Certified Management Consultant with more than 47 years of experience in the professional services industry. He is the president and CEO of Dillon Consulting Services LLC, a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, based in Durham, NC and Chicago, IL. Paul is the creator of the concept for a veteran startup incubator in Chicago, called Bunker Labs, as well as the creator of the concept for a veteran entrepreneur support organization in North Carolina, called Bunker RDU. Mr. Dillon created and teaches a course on veterans' issues at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is an Adjunct Instructor. Paul represents the nation's veteran community on the Kennedy Forum on Mental Health, and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Kennedy Forum Illinois. A U.S. Army Reserve veteran, he served in Vietnam as a 1st Lieutenant, and was awarded 2 Bronze Star Medals.