Twenty years ago, Matt Beliveau transition from an Army Officer to a Human Resource Specialist at General Mills.  Today, he is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Sarah Lee Frozen Bakery.  To thank all of those who helped him along the way, Matt wrote the following post on LinkedIn.  It is definitely worth 3 minutes of your time to read.

After reading his post, I reached out and invited Matt to be a guest on the podcast and share his leadership lessons. It was clear Matt knew that the transition from the military is more complex than just finding a “job” in the right location and having a paycheck.  Additionally, to make it to the C-Suite level, he managed his career well, finding mentors and sponsors while taking a proactive approach.

In the podcast, Matt describes the complexity of the JMO to business leader transition that includes changing identity from military officer to civilian, learning a whole new functional role and finally a new company culture.

Being a CHRO, Matt has great perspective on work and sees a future that includes more work-life balance and a hybrid work environment, especially for those who work in office environments.

Matt also talks about how his military leadership allowed him to lead through the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 and 2021.  He likened it to being on deployment where success depended on being agile, caring about people and following through on commitments.  All things top performing JMOs do well.

Finally, Matt share some great leadership lessons.  Some of the best I have heard on the podcast.  If you want to hear them, you just need to listen to the podcast!

Joel