Why Military Leadership Doesn't Equal Civilian Management

Leading in Uniform vs. Managing in the Civilian World: An Interview with Ashley Fina, Co-CEO of Oxygen, the Top-Rated Management Training Solution

Veterans leave the service with something most civilian hires never get: real, tested leadership experience. So it’s easy to assume that stepping into a management role on the civilian side should come naturally. But many veterans find the transition harder than expected, and that gap is expensive. The move from an individual role into managing a team is often one of the single biggest pay increases in a career, which means the skills behind it aren’t just a professional issue for veterans. They’re a financial one.

To understand why, we spoke with Ashley Fina, Co-CEO of Oxygen, the top-rated management training solution that helps growing companies turn strong individual contributors into confident, capable managers (leadwithoxygen.com). Ashley has spent her career studying how people actually grow into management, and she sees a pattern that applies far beyond the military: the experience that earns you a leadership role isn’t the same as the skill set that makes you succeed in it.

In this interview, Ashley shares why military leadership doesn’t automatically translate to civilian management, and why that’s an opportunity rather than a shortcoming.

Interview

Veteran Debt Assistance: Veterans often arrive in civilian jobs with genuine leadership experience. Why doesn’t that always translate into management roles?

Ashley Fina: First, I want to be clear that it’s not a knock on veterans at all. They bring things that many civilian managers lack: discipline, composure under pressure, real accountability and a mission-first mindset. Those are enormous assets. But leadership in the military and management in a civilian company run on different mechanics. In the service, you often lead through rank and a clear chain of command. In a flat civilian organization, you have to influence people who don’t report to you, give feedback without positional authority, and navigate a culture where “because I said so” doesn’t land. Those are learnable skills, but they’re specific, and nobody hands them to you on your way out.

Veteran Debt Assistance: Is that unique to veterans, or do you see it more broadly?

Ashley: It’s everywhere, and that’s actually the reassuring part. Our whole philosophy at Oxygen is that the skills that get you promoted are not the same skills that make you a great manager. The best engineer becomes a manager and struggles for the same reason a squad leader might: they were excellent in one context, and management is a different discipline. So a veteran hitting that wall isn’t failing. They’re running into something almost every new manager runs into. The difference is that veterans often get told their leadership should just transfer, which can make the gap feel more personal than it is.

Veteran Debt Assistance: A lot of our readers are focused on financial stability. How does this connect to their finances?

Ashley: Directly. Underemployment is one of the biggest financial challenges veterans face. Research from Penn State found that roughly a third of post-9/11 veterans report being underemployed after leaving the service. Management isn’t the only way up, and for many people, credentials or a trade are the right path. But for those who want it, moving into management is one of the most reliable levers for higher, more stable earnings, as long as you can actually do the job well once you’re there. Building real management skills isn’t just a career move. For a lot of people, it’s a financial one.

Veteran Debt Assistance: For a veteran reading this who wants to grow into management, what can they actually do, starting now?

Ashley: A few concrete things, and none of them require a big budget. First, get honest about which skill you’re building and being the most competent person on the team is individual contributor work. Getting results through other people is management work. They’re different, so practice the second one on purpose. Volunteer to onboard a new hire, mentor a peer, or lead a small project where your job is to make other people successful, not to do the task yourself.

Second, get reps on the uncomfortable parts, because you can’t learn management from a book. Give someone direct feedback and sit with how it lands. Ask for feedback on how you came across. Those small, awkward moments are the actual curriculum.

Third, when you’re job hunting, treat this as a screening question. Ask an employer how they develop first-time managers. The best companies invest in it deliberately. That’s the whole reason we built Oxygen, so that new managers practice these skills with peers and real coaching instead of learning live on their own team, and you can see the kind of results that produces here. A company that thinks that way about management is usually a company where you’ll actually grow and get paid for it.

Leadership Gets You the Role, Skill Keeps You There

Veterans don’t lack leadership. What many lack is exposure to the specific mechanics of civilian management, and that’s a gap anyone can close with the right practice: leading small efforts, getting reps on feedback, and seeking out employers who actually develop their managers. As Ashley puts it, the experience that earns you a role isn’t the same as the skill that helps you thrive in it. For veterans working toward financial stability, treating management as a skill worth building, and betting on employers who help you build it can be one of the most valuable investments they make after service.

About Oxygen

Oxygen is a management effectiveness system that helps companies measure, build and hold their management layer accountable. Through programs like Management Essentials, Oxygen equips managers with practical tools for feedback, accountability, and difficult conversations. Learn more at leadwithoxygen.com.