Shaping leadership through Armed Forces principles
Mike Jones is Vice President and Chief Partner Officer at NTT DATA UK&I, and a former officer in the British Army. In a recent feature on Tech Monitor, he drew on his own experiences to explore how leadership principles developed in the Armed Forces can strengthen the way private companies are led and managed.
“If there’s one thing I learned from my time in the British Army, it’s how to become a servant leader. The motto they teach you at Sandhurst is ‘serve to lead’, and if you want to close the ever-widening gap between strategy and execution, it’s a good place to start,” he wrote.
Leading with a military mindset
Servant leadership is built on trust and empowerment, Mike explains in the article: leaders step back and clear the path forward, trusting their people to deliver. While the Army is often seen as a rigidly hierarchical organisation, in fact people right down the chain of command have a high degree of autonomy on the battlefield – where communications with command posts can be interrupted, and distant officers often lack the information available to soldiers on the ground.
So, servant leadership is about supporting staff to make their own decisions, using the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act): a framework that builds awareness and decisiveness under pressure. Within the British Army, officers define the parameters of a mission and then allow their teams to take ownership of their actions, cultivating autonomy and confidence within clear boundaries.
The same thinking applies to communication. When on the battlefield, every person understands their role and how it connects to a wider objective. Feedback moves in both directions; and without this, the plan falls apart. When you use communication as a strategic tool, everyone who touches the project can understand the ‘why’ behind the work. Within the private sector, a similar approach creates environments where teams are aligned in purpose and capable of performing at their best.
Our commitment to creating space for veterans
At NTT DATA UK&I, we recognise the depth of expertise and resilience that ex-service and serving personnel contribute to every area of the business. Earlier this year, we signed the Armed Forces Covenant; we have since been awarded Silver in the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme, a reflection of our continued commitment to the UK’s Armed Forces community.
This highlights our commitment to strengthening our support for veterans and creating the conditions for them to build long and rewarding careers within our company. It reflects a broader effort to weave the spirit of service into how we work together, ensuring that the experience gained in military life continues to inform and elevate the way we operate.
To read the full piece, head over to: Tech Monitor