We’ve all, at some point, read (or listened to) a business-related book that encouraged us to think differently about our jobs or motivated us to positive action. Good to Great by Jim Collins was one of those books for me. So was E-Myth by Michael Gerber; The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni; and, of course, any book by Peter Drucker, who is known as “the founder of modern management.”
A friend of mine recently gave me Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. The two authors served together in SEAL Task Unit Bruiser, the most highly decorated Special Operations unit from the war in Iraq. I had not heard of this book nor its authors. In fact, most of what I knew about Navy SEALs came from a few documentaries about the challenges of SEAL “Hell Week.”
The book applies truly hard-fought SEAL leadership concepts (some straight from the battlefield) to business and life.
One of the main ideas in Extreme Ownership is “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” To prove this point, Willink and Babin used an example from the infamous Hell Week of their SEAL training.
The trainees were grouped by height into “boat crews” of seven men. Each crew (or team) was given a large, heavy, inflatable raft, which they had to carry over hills as well as navigate in the water. Each boat had a senior-ranking crew leader who took orders directly from the instructors and bore complete responsibility for the results of his crew.
According to the book, SEAL training “was a competition—a race, a fight, a contest.” Winning was everything. The winners of an event got to sit out the next competition and rest while all the other teams and their crew leaders continued to battle. So everyone was highly motivated to win—winning was good and losing had some difficult and exhausting consequences.
In the book’s example, Boat Crew II dominated the competition and won, or nearly won, each contest. They pushed themselves and worked as a team. They compensated for each other’s weaknesses and combined their strengths. Their leader was smart and knew how to motivate his men. Boat Crew VI finished last, or just about last, in all the races. These teammates argued and blamed each other for mistakes. The crew leader was not in control of the team, and everyone was frustrated.
Then the instructors swapped the crew leaders from Boat Crew II and VI. Crew Leader II was not happy about leaving his overachieving team, but Crew Leader VI was delighted to get a successful new team and to be done with his “wrecking” crew.
Guess what happened?
Boat Crew VI (the previously underperforming team) performed much, much better with their new “good” leader—in fact, they won the next competition. Boat Crew II didn’t do as well—coming in second under the direction of the previously underperforming crew leader.
The lesson here: There are no bad teams, just bad leaders. I thought about this concept in relation to my work as a business coach for various executives and salespeople. As their coach—their leader, if you will—I have to take responsibility for their success (or lack of success). I can’t simply sit back and say, “They are just not motivated to succeed. They don’t want to put in the necessary hard work it takes to win.” While that might be true, it is my responsibility as a coach and a leader to take ownership of the situation and lead the person—as best I can and no matter how disinterested he or she might be—to success.
In business (as in the Navy) leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. The leader’s attitude is everything. It sets the tone for the team and motivates them to action.
Leaders, take responsibility. Your job is vitally important.
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