Challenges mid and senior level veterans face

I'm lucky in that my arrogance is misinterpreted as competence. :-)

On a more serious note, I am a big believer in "fake it 'til you make it" and "they don't need to know that you worked all weekend, only that you hit your deadline."

Keep in mind that it isn't reality that matters, but impressions and perceptions. And that the culture/expectations are radically different between the military and most civilian cultures. Think about the number of times people on this forum have talked about the fact that they are not allowed to use their "knife hands" with civilians or address people as "hey you!"

I think it may be just as valid to say that military & former military don't realize how their leadership style comes across to the civilian population. Just because we don't like feedback doesn't mean it has no value.

Interesting trivia, I recently (about 6-9 months ago) did a 360 for a civilian executive leadership program. It was made up of superiors, subordinates, peers, and "other." In my case, "other" was comprised of my military superiors, subordinates, and peers - both AC and RC. The impressions these two groups had of me varied significantly enough to make you wonder if they were talking about the same person. Two examples: The civilians felt I had tendencies to be autocratic and overly directive where the military folks felt that I was a highly inclusive and collaborative person. The civilians felt that I tended to be aloof and not caring enough while the military felt that I was a freaking people person. Considering that I spend MOST of my time in the civilian realm, I was quite surprised by these results.

COL Vincent Stoneking , Good point. I have always said that 'perception is reality' (to the individual). Perceptions do matter and they must be considered within the context of the subject at hand. This can be difficult adjustment for someone with an extensive military background and should be something we strive to be cognizant of.