5 leadership lessons from the Navy SEALs to build a high-performance culture

Navy SEALs, and most special operations teams in general, commit a significant amount of time and resources working to shape a disparate group of people, of strangers really, into a team of respected friends and close colleagues. In business, as in the SEALs, everyone must know their role, their part in the overall plan, and everyone should be cross-trained to build organizational resilience and establish the foundation for success. Of the many things one might learn from studying these elite warriors, knowing how to build a winning team has to be at the top of the list. Here are five leadership lessons that will help you build your high-performance team:

CREATE A MISSION-FOCUSED CULTURE

Navy SEALs and other elite military units have one thing in common: an intense awareness of, and focus on, the mission. This mission focus permeates an entire military organization, from the most senior leader down to the most junior technical expert. Without a specific purpose for being and doing, a business is left to wonder, and worse, to wander.

Businesses can take a page from elite units and start communicating the mission, strategic, operational, and technical, from the minute they interview a candidate through to employee retirement. This should become a habit, a philosophy, a continuous exercise in positive influence that binds an organization together and prepares it for both success and adversity.

GROOM, GROW, AND PROMOTE INDIVIDUAL TALENT

Employee longevity and retention in elite, high-performing organizations is impressive because these entities invest in people, generating loyalty, and loyalty creates organizational stability and resilience. Navy SEALs love being a part of a group dedicated to individual and team improvement. They strongly believe in the lean Six Sigma principle of continuous improvement and they know their organization sets the stage for superior execution through resource investment.

COACH TO DEVELOP STRONG TEAMS

Individual technical experts benefit from institutional education, experiential learning, and technical specialty training to improve the level of contribution to the whole. Assembling talented individuals into a cohesive and highly motivated team requires a decidedly different approach to development. Navy SEALs are known as the “Teams” because they believe no one person should try to do it all by themselves.

Business leaders need to assign collective performance focused coaches to guide and improve the performance of their internal teams. A well-coached team can deliver much more than the sum of its participant’s résumé capabilities if they are shown how to tap into the power of collaborative energy.

Organizations need wise leadership, people who exercise sound judgment in times of calm and crisis. Navy SEALs also require such leaders to perform at the top of their game, so they don’t leave this element of success to chance. SEALs spend time nurturing leaders at every level of engagement.

By using the word nurturing, I want you to picture a family dedicated to ensuring all its members do well. Everyone pitches in to mentor the child, the teen, the young adult—the same happens in the SEAL teams. Everyone has a vested interest in helping the leaders achieve success. They do this by creating a mentoring environment as well as assigning mentors at certain points in a leader’s career progression. It is a system that’s easily transferrable to the commercial world as long as senior business leaders establish a similar program to build the leaders of the future, today.

SEEK INFORMATION, INSIGHT, AND INSPIRATION

Navy SEALs are first and foremost experts in reconnaissance and surveillance. They specialize in going where satellites can’t go to gather intelligence. A lesson all SEALs know is to never assume what you’ve been told is indeed true.

It is prudent for businesses and leaders to always seek to confirm or discover the truth about their market, competitors, or their customers. Businesses should also test assumptions regularly, access different sources, and seek inspiration in what is revealed. Businesses, like Navy SEALs, should always move forward, balanced and on their toes—their eyes and minds wide open to both the possible, and the impossible.

Elite teams thrive when challenged—so do exceptional people. Treat your leadership and technical talent like winners, invest in them and their future. Communicate the why, as well as the how, of every task, every project. Enlighten them with knowledge, insight, and ignite their passions with inspiration. Do these things and you are well on your way to creating a high-performance culture.