THE GRIFFON • Summer 2015 • 55
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Lt. Col Dan Higgins Battalion Commander and Company President As a battalion commander in the U.S. Army Reserve, Lt. Col. Dan Higgins is no stranger to balancing both civilian and military careers, harnessing the skills gleaned from his experience in varied roles to open doors to new heights. On January 19, 2015, Higgins took his civilian career to the next level. He was named President of Monarch Materials Group Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of residential, basement egress systems in Adel, Iowa and Englewood, Colorado.
located in Lincoln, Nebraska and Davenport, Iowa. Not a stranger to having to lead from the front in multiple locations, Higgins, proved that he had at least one
Not Your Average Corporate Executive One year prior to becoming president of Monarch Group Inc., Higgins was working as a Segmented Business Manager (SBM) for Pella Corporation. He worked with twelve independent Pella branches to drive trade and commercial sales.“The 12 branches were diverse geographically and in sales size,” he said. West to east he covered from San Francisco to Philadelphia and north to south ranged from Calgary, Alberta Canada to Houston, Texas. In addition to traveling all over the country and Canada for his previous civilian position, he was the battalion commander of the 2/377th, 95th Training Division (IET), a Drill Sergeant Unit
unique experience separating him from the traditional corporate executives being considered for the position of president.
Experience is the Best Teacher With over 20 years of leadership experience in and out of the military, he has learned a few things about what it takes to create effective teams and processes.“A key in leading any organization is an ability to get things done through others. Both military and civilian experiences have helped me both craft and hone my personal approach to doing this.” From his years of sales experience he learned that,
“People are people, whether they wear the uniform or not.” He further states,“I’ve found it much more effective to get the results I want by getting buy in from Soldiers or civilians alike.” He further states that “It all begins with an awareness of my own biases and style and then adapting it to the situation and task.” Higgins describes the similarities to leading in both the military and civilian sector to leading a company, either a military unit or business entity.
A company sets the strategic vision (i.e. -sales/market share objective or drill sergeant production benchmarks). He states,“The key leadership must then ‘operationalize’ the strategy by creating tactical (local market) goals/objectives and then apply resources toward that end to achieve success.” Either way the objective is to achieve a positive result with the resources available.“The art is in applying the right resources, at the right time and place, to lead to success.”
