Leadership Lessons from a Navy Seal

Leadership Lessons from a Navy Seal

Recently, I found some notes from when I was in the audience at a leadership conference (I am a lifelong learner after all).  The keynote speaker at this three-day conference was Andy Stumpf, retired Navy Seal. You can read more about him here, www.andystumpf.com. What struck me most about his man was his humility and view on leadership.  He told several stories, about both good and bad leadership.  In none of these stories was he the hero.  While I have no doubt he could have chosen to tell us story after story about himself, he chose to highlight the victories of other leaders he has worked with.  The one or two stories in which he was the main character were about his mistakes as a leader and the lessons he learned from them.  While I took quite a few notes, I’m going to share the three takeaways I most valued. 

1. Me to We

The SEAL Teams, it seems, deal with the same leadership challenges that the rest of us face.  Two of them have to do with a topic I am often asked about, teamwork and the millennial generation.  A common conception about this generation is they are focused on "me, me, me" instead of being part of a team, the "we."  When it comes to teamwork, the SEALs do not have a unique or special definition, but they do have a novel application of the concept.  A good working definition of a team is a group of individuals working together towards a common goal.  The challenge, especially with the Generation Ys (aka Millenials) is teaching them how to make the transition from me to we.  The SEALS recognize this and work, from the first minutes of BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition Seal) school to change this focus.  They accomplish this through the swim buddy system. 

From the first minutes of day one of BUDS school, the students are paired up with a partner, who will be their swim buddy for the remainder of the training.  Once they are paired up, they are not allowed to go anywhere or do anything without their buddy.  They must remain within 6 feet of their swim buddy at all times.  If their swim buddy does something exceptional, the pair is rewarded (even if the other partner did not do anything to deserve a reward).  If the swim buddy makes a mistake, the pair is punished (even if only one of them made the error).  According to Mr. Stumpf, it takes about a week for the students to move together effectively.  Nobody is rewarded or punished for individual behavior, the pair sinks or swims together (all pun intended).   This motivation techniqueis continued later when the pairs form boat teams of 6-8 members.  

Think about your organization.  While I'm sure you cannot set up an exact swim buddy system, is there a way for you to encourage teamwork?  Think about your rewards system, how many rewards are given on individual merit vs. team success?

2. Make a Decision

As members of the Navy, the SEALS are inherently indoctrinated to the chain of command. Each unit has a leader and the leader is responsible for making decisions.  All information is valuable, but the leader must evaluate and prioritize based on what information is available to them at the time the decision must be made.  Once priorities are made the leader must then act on the highest threat (priority) objective. 

What happens when the leader is unavailable to make these decisions?  In the SpecOP or even police world, the leader might be on the radio working on a higher-level issue or might even be dead.  What happens then?  The SEALs term is “decentralized command," which is viewed as the opposite of micromanagement.  Leaders empower their people to make micro-decisions (within boundaries), so the leader can make macro decisions.  This means when the leader is unavailable, the next person on the team will make a decision and act upon it.  In the police world, we call it dispersed leadership.

Are your people empowered to make decisions?  Do they know their boundaries when it comes to those decisions?  Who makes decisions when you are away?  If you don't know who will "run the show" while you are in a meeting, away on a business trip, or taking a vacation, you should probably give this some thought.

3. Leadership is Leadership

“There is no Navy SEAL leadership.  There is no business leadership.  There is no police leadership.  There is only good, effective, and bad, ineffective, leadership.”  Having been a student and practitioner (pracademic) of leadership for over 20 years I know these statements to be true.  Hearing those words from Mr. Stumpf was music to my ears. 

During his conclusion, Mr. Stumpf told us that all the lessons he just taught us were not his. These were lessons he had learned from those SEALS who had gone before him and had passed on their knowledge and wisdom to him.

Leadership can be taught. It can (and must) also be modeled. Mr. Stumpf is only the second Navy SEAL I have actually met in person.  I have the privilege, currently, to work with another (retired) SEAL in my police role.  While I will not mention his name, I made similar observations about both of these men. Both are exemplary leaders.  Both are extremely humble.  Both are leaders to learn from.

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