Leadership and Service

I recently spoke to Paul Dillon about his best lessons in leadership from his time in the military, his years working with veterans and his experiences spanning more than 45 years of experience in the professional services industry. Paul served in Vietnam as a 1st Lieutenant and was awarded 2 Bronze Star Medals and has served as a subject matter expert on veterans issues in a wide variety of media outlets and for various conferences and symposia.

Paul is an Accenture Visiting Professor of the Practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he created and teaches a course entitled, "PubPol 830.01. Public Policy and Veterans: A Social Policy Seminar—The Case of Returning Military Veterans." Paul also represents the veteran community on the Kennedy Forum on Mental Health, and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Kennedy Forum Illinois, where he represents the veteran community on erasing the stigma of mental illness, Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Substance Abuse among veterans, and ensuring mental health parity for those veterans who get their health care through the private sector. The president and CEO of Dillon Consulting Services LLC, a U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs certified 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 VetStart, which was recently rebranded as Bunker RDU.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your success and personal and professional growth?

I had a very traditional upbringing in the Chicago metropolitan area. My father was a very successful executive in the fine printing paper industry—and, my mother was a homemaker. I have one younger sister. I was on the swim team in high school.

After high school, I went to college at a small Jesuit university just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, where I majored in English literature and philosophy and was in the Army ROTC. I was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve upon my graduation from college in 1967. I received a delay for my active duty to attend graduate school, from which I graduated in 1969 and entered Federal Service. 

From 1969 to 1970, I served as a special staff officer and instructor at the U.S. Army Aviation School, Fort Rucker, Alabama, where I taught a methods of instruction course — essentially, a course that taught instructor pilots how to teach pilots how to fly — and, performed research studies in human factors engineering and man/machine interface systems design. I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 1970, and subsequently served a tour of duty with the 165th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, which was attached to Headquarters, U.S. Army, Vietnam. Our responsibilities were to manage the Army’s air traffic control system and to negotiate air traffic control facility land use and airspace agreements with the Vietnamese Government. My decorations include two Bronze Star Medals. I am a graduate of the U.S. Army Transportation Officers School. I was honorably discharged from Federal Service in 1971 and assigned to the Individual Ready Reserves for a six-year period.

I have more than 45 years of experience in the professional services industry.

I retired as a consultant from the Chicago office of the McGladrey accounting firm in 2006. Upon my retirement from McGladrey, I reinvented myself by starting my own firm in Chicago, which is now devoted to helping veterans who want to start their own business. I was the creator of the concept for an incubator in Chicago for veterans who want to start their own businesses, called The Bunker, which has been recently rebranded as Bunker Labs.

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. That was where I believed that I had marketable experience. Due to the onset of the recession, however, that venture did not pan out. So, I ended up using my business knowledge doing research for a regional business publication, as well as helping them run events. I have since built a successful enterprise working with veterans starting their own businesses, and have come to realize that my background has prepared me to help aspiring veteran entrepreneurs.

Today, I am very privileged to serve as an Accenture Visiting Professor of the Practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where I created and teach a graduate-level course on veterans' issues. As far as I know, there is no other college course like it in the United States. It is a highly unique and very creative endeavor.

Adam: What are the best leadership lessons you learned from your time in the military?

Here are the best leadership lessons that I learned from my military service:

Focus On Accomplishing The Mission: The military is extremely mission-focused. The whole idea in the Armed Forces is to seize the objective — to capture or kill the enemy — while, at the same time, ensuring the integrity and welfare of your troops. You can’t get distracted by small things along the way. You need a vision — yes, the “vision thing” — of what your battle plan is going to accomplish, and then execute that plan flawlessly.

A 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. Combat, and the 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.

Ability To Lead and Function As A Team: The whole Armed Forces are built on the “buddy system”. Nobody 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 that’s going to defeat the enemy. Service in the military makes you understand the concept of “teamwork” perfectly. And, as an officer, or non-commissioned officer, you learn how to lead a team to accomplish the mission. If you can’t do this — if you can’t forge your troops into an effective fighting force — you’re mustered out of the service pretty quickly. There’s no margin for error here. There are no second chances. This is serious business. 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: When most people think about military service, they think that it’s all just about the rigidity of following orders. Well, that’s true — in part. Of course, you need to follow orders. But, what most people never see is that the military teaches you to think and act flexibly, so that if your battle plan isn’t working, you pivot immediately to a plan that does. You have to do that, if your plan isn’t working — -you have to be quick and think on your feet — or, you risk defeat and death at the hands of the enemy. Flexibility and immediate action are key to survival.

Ability to Cultivate a Culture of Courage: The Army called it “hearing the sound of cannon.” I called it just trying to do your job under exceedingly difficult circumstances. Even for those who did not experience combat in Vietnam, I believe that it took courage to leave your loved ones, live in a dangerous place and do your part in a very difficult war. After you’d fought in Vietnam, you could face any trials and tribulations in business that might follow.

A Sense of Compassion: Only the most hardened souls could not he deeply moved by what they saw and experienced in Vietnam. The broken bodies of your buddies, the body bags stacked alongside the airstrip, the abject poverty and hopelessness of the Vietnamese people at that time — a people who have been ravaged by war for thousands of years — all took their toll. I am certain that it is also the same for younger troops returning from our recent wars. We who have seen combat up close undergo an experience that is a stark contrast to the values upon which our country was founded. If you weren’t a compassionate person before you entered a theater of war, you certainly were by the time that you left, after witnessing all of the carnage that war can bring. And, compassion is a trait that every great leader must possess.

Adam: What are the most important lessons you try to convey to veterans in the work that you do with them?

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 fellow workers and, if you're in the business world, clients or customers, profits will come. Don’t put profits before people.

Adam: What do you believe those of us that have never served in the armed forces should understand about the military, military service and veterans?

The best leadership training in the world is the training that is given to commissioned officers, and senior non-commissioned officers, in the Armed Forces of the United States. 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.

And, as I've said before, that’s the best definition of leadership that I have ever encountered. A leader is someone who people will follow to a place where they wouldn’t go by themselves. The United States Army has more than 240 years of experience in training leaders. And, some of us got to test that training on the battlefields of Vietnam — and, carry those lessons with us into our business careers.

“Duty, Honor, Country” — the motto of an Army officer. Simple words — but, their meaning can have a profound impact on a career. Every organization or company would do well to follow this type of training.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Here are the qualities that any leader needs to be effective — integrity, decisiveness, good judgment, the ability to form a vision and execute it, and confidence in your own competence, among others. Additionally, practice “servant leadership”, as I previously noted.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

Be flexible! If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, find an area or industry that is underserved where you can add value…then go for it! And, the same is true if you work for a company or organization. Find a job where you can add value to the organization. It's better to be a “profit center” than a “cost center”.

Don’t take no for an answer. If you meet with rejection, get up, brush yourself off, and try again. There is always more that one way to skin the proverbial cat.

Every problem has a solution. It just takes the mental acuity to find it---and, then the intestinal fortitude to act on it.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

As I've previously noted, what you learn in the military is that the whole Armed Forces are built on the “buddy system”. Nobody...and I mean nobody... accomplishes the mission alone. If you’re going to be successful in building and leading a team, 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 unit that is going to accomplish the mission. The same is true for a business or any other type of organization.

Adam: What are the most important lessons you try to convey to your students that can help anyone personally or professionally?

In any career that you're going to undertake, you are going to find yourself placed in situations where doing the right thing puts the interests of your business or organization and, consequently, your own personal interests, at stake. The choice is simple: Either you do the right thing, or you don't. Often, no one is the wiser. It is merely a matter of being able to look at yourself unflinchingly in a mirror, and hopefully, having the peace of mind that comes from that.

Integrity is everything. Without unquestioned integrity, you really can't operate long term in the business or civic world. People won't believe anything you say or do.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

“For of those to whom much is given much is required.”--John F. Kennedy, 1961.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share? 

Yes, I've said these words before. I am firmly convinced that the psychological damage that we inflict on ourselves when we act in unethical ways, or when we are unjust to others in our business or personal lives, affects us physically in dramatic, yet in unseen ways. Doing the right thing – even when it is excruciatingly difficult to do so, and even when the world is demanding us to just go along – is as important to leading a long and fruitful life, as it is to ensuring a long term successful career.

I also have been fortunate that the wide variety of positions that have held in my career, whether in the military, government, academia, business, or the non-profit worlds, have played a significant role in where I am today. What is interesting is that all of these various positions have reinforced one another. For instance, the leadership roles that I've had with non-profits has made me a better businessman, while having practical, real-world leadership experience in business has made me a better teacher. The same with lecturing and writing. And, I have been able to draw upon my military and government experience in my business, teaching and eleemosynary endeavors. A wide range of experience enables you to draw upon the best that each experience has to offer, making you better in whatever you do.