Why Military Veterans Make Great Scrummasters and Team Building Consultants

Military Veterans bring sound technical skills from the service but more importantly life skills that can be utilized in the role of a ScrumMaster, and thus make great team building consultants as well. The following comparison is provided to make this point.

A Scrum Master Is:

1. Facilitator/ Communicator
2. Mentor/ Team Coach
3. Impediment Remover / Problem solver
4. Servant-leader
5. Scrum Process Custodian
6. Liaison for Product Owner and Stakeholders

A Veteran Is:

1. Loyalty to the Team: Military personnel brings with them an intrinsic understanding of how loyalty adds to team proficiency and builds trust in a work environment. Military personnel often outperform other candidates as proven team players.

2. Has Reliable Work Ethic: Knowing the importance of adhering to a process, schedule, and consistently performing well at work demonstrates professional maturity. Through service, training, and lifestyle, former military personnel typically have the work ethic that set a standard for teams.

3. Motivated by Productivity: In the technological workplace, self-discipline is at the heart of self-organizing teams. Military personnel have been trained to work toward efficiency, ask for guidance when needed, and exercise self-discipline in professional settings.

4. Possesses Comprehensive Communication Skills: Military personnel not only understand workplace diversity, they know that good communication also needs to be flexible. Most have traveled extensively and understand the nuances of international cultures and communication styles. This awareness along with technical literacy can serve to streamline communication efforts across the organization and cultures.

5. An adaptive process follower: Few things are ingrained more into a military member than to follow a process. When the process does not fit they adapt as needed and then return to the standard process.

Compare what a Scrum Master is to what a Veteran is and it is apparent that key military-related attributes are in fact the description of a ScrumMaster. This being the case it is easy to see why Military Veterans thrive as ScrumMasters. Contact us if you’re interested in taking one of our team building seminars with our expert team building consultants!

Tom “Mad Dog” Friend is a retired Naval Aviator – Air Force Pilot and current Afterburner, Inc. Agile Consultant who specializes in optimizing Scrum and accelerating organizational agility with the simple tools found in the Flawless Execution℠ Model. Contact [email protected] for additional information.

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