John Hawley, Master Facilitator, JWH Enterprise LLC, and Partner, AltRPO
Connect: LinkedIn
Watch: Adapt and Overcome, a series offering tactics and strategies for setting up virtual teams for success and leading in times of rapid change.
John Hawley: former Navy officer and professional facilitator, a profile in career transition resiliency and adaptability
On March 1, 2020, John Hawley left his first career as a nuclear-trained Surface Warfare Officer for the US Navy ready to start his next chapter as an organizational teambuilder and facilitator. It was something he had spent years planning and he felt that, if anything, he was over-prepared for the transition. He had already successfully delivered hundreds of high-level trainings around the world for the Navy and had a series of clients lined up for his full-time launch into the private sector. Then, little more than a week later, everything changed. On March 10, he was in Florida facilitating a workshop when news broke that COVID-19 was shutting down schools, events, and travel across the globe. Almost immediately, he began receiving emails that his clients would need to put planned training sessions on hold. That day, John made the decision to fly home to be with his family and assess the situation and its impact on his career plans.
It was a shocking jolt, one that called his leadership training and creative problem-solving skills into play. In order to keep his business alive, he quickly put his own teachings into practice and devised a real-time plan to pivot his business model and move some of his services online. Within a few weeks, he’d created a new virtual format offering interactive online trainings and a web-based podcast series, Adapt and Overcome, from the desk of his home office. In this interview, John shares lessons from an untimely career transition and the importance of adaptability at any point throughout our careers.
Transitioning from a military career to the private sector is traditionally considered a challenging move. How did you prepare and what advice can you offer?
I considered myself very prepared to make a big career transition. I had planned, saved, and most importantly I’d talked to a lot of people – my network was the most valuable thing I had. Still, I was petrified. And even with all of the planning, the world still threw me a curve ball, so the ability to adapt through change, under any circumstance, is key.
Everyone should know that it’s completely normal to be scared when you make a career transition. If you are feeling that way, you are by far not alone. If you looked at my Google search history leading up to my move, it would list things like “Is it normal to be uncertain when you leave the military?” and “What is the best way to transition out of the military?” and so on.
Better than Googling for answers, talking through those feelings of fear and uncertainty with my network helped me get a handle on them while getting a lot of great advice and tools from others who have had this experience. There are so many resources out there, but a friend of mine, Jon Macaskill, put together a very targeted list of resources for people transitioning out of the military (see links at the bottom of this interview).
How did you decide to become a trainer and facilitator after your career as a Naval officer?
I had always been really interested in leadership development and had attended dozens of workshops and read countless books on these topics over the years. I had been in the Navy about 7 years when I got appendicitis and had to stay at home for two weeks to “recover”, even though I showed up for work the day after surgery. During that downtime, I got the idea to take the best parts from all of that training I had received and create a program customized for Navy leadership. On the third day of my first workshop, a 3-Star Admiral approached me to extend my service in the Navy, work for him, and develop this program further.
What lessons have you learned from your work?
Even though I’m very experienced at what I do, I have to assume that every engagement is new, because in a way, it is. Every program presents a new challenge with new people and scenarios to work through. I’ve learned that asking others to make a change requires me to bring my best and challenge myself through the process along with them. There are hundreds of good leadership development facilitators out there, but to be the most effective for any group I am leading, I have to level-set with myself and allow for vulnerability. When I give my best, others give their best, too, and I get to see in real-time teams change direction on something and move forward in an impactful way.
Who has been your biggest inspiration for your career and why?
A family friend who have I known since I was in fifth grade has always been one of my biggest role models. He is a scientist by training who started a very successful bug spraying company. Rather than describing what the company does, he describes why they do what they do as “improving people’s lives.” This is one example of how he created something that could have been very ordinary and turned it into something very successful simply through his outlook. He champions authenticity, a growth mind-set, and excellence in everything he has done in his life, and that has inspired me to strive to do the same.
My sincere gratitude to John for his service and for sharing his experience with Career Charters! You can learn more about his work and access free leadership and development resources on both his personal website, jwhawley.com, and the AltRPO website, here.
Downloads for Military Transition Resources:
Military Transition Assistance Programs