By Brian C. Gerardi
Each year, our nation observes holidays centered on its service members and veterans. These commemorations—Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day and Veterans Day—often include invitations (“tasked” or “asked”) to senior service members and decorated retirees to speak on behalf of the profession of arms, to share stories of service and sacrifice. This article serves as an open call to senior leaders with decades of experience and frequent opportunities to publicly represent the profession of arms: consider selecting a more junior soldier to speak in your place. Coach them through this opportunity. It will benefit them, the profession, and the public.
The Department of Defense pays a premium for advertising, especially to major sports (e.g., NFL, CrossFit, and even NASCAR), to broaden its outreach in a challenging recruiting environment with an ever shrinking pool of qualified candidates for service. The truth is that every military service branch has a readily available ensemble of potential recruiters. Whether sharing with civilian friends about their military experiences or convincing a teammate or colleague to remain in service, our junior leaders are a tangible and more easily identifiable representative with whom to connect. Enabling our junior leaders to engage with the public leverages their connection with certain audiences and concurrently adds to their professional growth.
Three Reasons Junior Leaders Engaging the Public is a Win-Win
Connection to the audience: Statistically, members of the public may not know anyone currently serving in the military. This makes it more difficult to connect with the speaker. Service is easier to characterize when you have a better understanding of the people who do it rather than as something that someone else does. The terms veteran (reflecting a former identity) or servicemember (someone wearing the uniform) also may mentally conjure a different caricature or stereotype depending on the audience demographics. Studies show that socioeconomic and cultural relatability of moral exemplars promotes emulation of these examples, even more so than the attainability of their deeds. A member of Generation Z, who wears or did wear the cloth of their nation, may enhance a younger audience’s connection and make the connection to service more poignant.
Organizational Development: Part of “Developing Others”, is building team skills and processes, synchronizing activities, and influencing indirectly (ADP 6-22: Army Leadership and the Profession). Leaders demonstrate care of and commitment to organizations and individuals by fostering a climate of mutual trust, providing professional development opportunities, and striving for professional excellence. These mentoring engagements permit a culture of support and empowerment; your junior leaders see you investing in their junior leaders and implicitly understand its importance. Individually, this serves as an opportunity (or opportunities) for you and one other leader to share a personal mission. What better show of trust and confidence than asking a junior leader to stand in your stead (in lieu of, as the root of the word lieutenant) and represent the organization as well as you personally? You engender trust by offering it.
Stewardship of the Profession: Beyond the benefits your team and your speaker will reap by your investment in them, representing the Army institution to the American public is strategic. It is its own form of recruitment. For today’s school-age children–including our youngest soldiers and officers–9/11 is as foreign to them as Pearl Harbor was to Generation X or Vietnam to millennials. I once heard a leader say that despite generational differences, “the common bond of each generation is the propensity to serve.” With this mindset, we should seek to connect with that propensity toward service, more so than the motivations or circumstances of said service (both of which are subject to change). If our goal of recruiting is to, “put ‘em in boots”, we should empower our boot-wearing messengers to tell their own stories.
Preparing Your Junior Leader to Engage the Public
As an experienced public speaker, you should share your expertise with your junior leader; yet, they must share their own story in their own words. Here are a few questions you can ask to help them shape their experiences in a way that resonates with a non-military audience:
- Can you recall a specific moment or experience during your military service that had a profound impact on you?
- What do you think young people might find surprising or interesting about your military journey?
- Can you share a story that reflects the camaraderie and teamwork you experienced in the military?
- How has your service influenced your perspective on leadership, discipline, or resilience?
- How do you balance the serious nature of military service with appropriate moments of humor or lightheartedness that could connect with a younger audience?
It is important to remind your speaker that they may be the first/only person actively serving in the military that their audience meets. As they reflect on their experiences and search for the words to share them, here are a few tips that may help them prepare their remarks. Their message should be compelling, clear, and concise (3C’s), and to enhance its transmission, they should practice, be personal, and emphasize praise (3P’s):
- 3C’s:
- Compelling: begin with a strong hook or a personal anecdote to capture the audience’s attention. Encourage your junior officer to share personal stories that resonate with the intended audience, emphasizing the human side of military service. They can bridge the civ-mil gap by drawing parallels between their military experiences and everyday situations that the audience can easily relate to. Consider incorporating visuals like photos or small artifacts to tangibly connect to their experiences.
- Clear: define a clear message or theme that they want the audience to take away, or consider asking the organizer their intent for the event. Connect shared values by highlighting those that transcend military boundaries, such as service, respect, and courage. Gen Z is particularly driven by social causes and individuality, so clearly conveying the message can be a challenge. To ensure the speech resonates with a diverse audience, avoid military jargon. Lastly, they should speak from their perspective, not referencing political or international events.
- Concise: Advise the junior leader to be mindful of time and keep the speech concise. Conclude the speech with a powerful and memorable statement; leave the audience with something to think about or a call to action.
- 3P’s:
- Practice, Practice, Practice: encourage (perhaps require) multiple rehearsals. Practice builds confidence and ensures a smoother delivery. Have them share the draft with someone trusted for constructive feedback and be sure to provide it yourself. Outside perspectives can offer valuable insights.
- Be Personal (and authentic): Encourage them to convey genuine emotion and passion in storytelling. Appropriate humor can make the speech more relatable. Highlighting the human side of the military can help establish a balance between serious and lighthearted moments. Lastly, encourage them to share relatable aspects of life outside the military. This could include hobbies, interests, or experiences that showcase the well-rounded individual beyond their military role.
- Praise: remind them to express gratitude to the audience for their time and attention, as well as to the organizers for the opportunity to share her experiences. If in the context of a larger, recognized observance, it can be meaningful to use the opportunity to convey the importance of honoring veterans and the values they uphold.
Above all, encourage your speaker to be approachable. If possible, have them join a class or mingle with the audience before or after the event. This allows the audience to connect with them on a more personal level and ask questions they might not have felt comfortable asking during the presentation. It also opens your speaker to calling on those conversations during their presentation or after, as they share their new experience with other Soldiers.
Senior leaders have a tremendous opportunity to mentor junior leaders and steward the profession by coaching and mentoring their subordinates to speak publicly on behalf of the profession. These are several thoughts and insights for the senior leader to consider in selecting and preparing a junior leader to speak in a public forum. Through these engagements, you stand to steward the profession as your junior leaders gain confidence and grow professionally.
Captain Brian C. Gerardi is a Field Artillery Officer and an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He formerly served in the 193rd Infantry Brigade at Fort Jackson and in the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery at Fort Liberty (then Bragg). He wrote this partly as a demonstration of gratitude for the leaders who believed in him and put him in positions to positively impact others through his words. Thank you.
