Every day, Navy SEALs “work backward,” which means we start by taking care of the largest element, working our way to the smallest element—the individual.
Take, for example, an open-water exercise called a “ship attack dive.” A ship attack dive might start with a parachute jump, with boats, out of a plane into the open ocean. After we consolidate in the boats, we might transit for miles until we insert and swim to a beach or set point near the harbor, where the ships are docked. Using a rebreather, we dive and swim to the ship, plant an explosive limpet, and swim back to our set point. From there, we load up our equipment and then swim back out to sea to rendezvous with our boats to extract. Even if we rehearse only parts of this process, we care for our equipment the same way.
The first thing we do after the dive (besides take our explosives off the ship, seeing as it’s an exercise) is to clean and prepare the boats for the entire Task Unit. Then we break into our platoons and maintain all the platoon gear, followed by the squad gear, fire team gear, swim buddy gear, and finally, the individual gear. Only after all the gear is clean do we shower and get something to eat.
The thought process behind this is simple: We might not have time to prepare later, so if something needs to be done, it needs to be done now. If we focus on ourselves rather than on the team or the team assets, then the team won’t be ready. We can’t afford to forget what’s important; for us it’s a matter of life and death. Our gear maintenance ritual helps to build teams and reinforce teamability.
This is a way of life. We sacrifice individual comforts to address team issues and tasks immediately. All our meetings follow this progression. We deal with team issues first, followed by Task Unit issues and individual issues. We follow this practice as ritual in everything we do. Not only does it keep us prepared, but it also serves as a way of reinforcing mission before self.
It Goes Both Ways on Good Teams: Leaders Take a Beating, Too
We hold people accountable and show them what accountability means throughout the duration of our training, beginning with BUD/S training and not ending until we leave the SEAL Teams.
At all times, a senior ranking person is in charge and is accountable for the team. We enforce this accountability whether we are at a civilian training facility, at a party, traveling, or anywhere else. Someone is in charge and will be held accountable for the team. We often come together from different SEAL Teams to train for skills or positions such as sniper or range safety officer. When we do, someone is the “senior man” and takes the role of class leader. We expect to lead and to be led.
Inevitably in BUD/S training, the class makes mistakes. The class might be late, or they might not have properly maintained their equipment. They might not have followed specific instructions in loading out weapons or explosives. They might not have properly cleaned their weapons so they could sleep longer! When such mistakes happen, we take the officers aside for a physical remediation. They hit the surf, do push-ups, run sprints carrying a log in soft sand, or perform other forms of physical activity. We separate the officers from the class, but the class is close enough to see the action and to realize that their officers are taking a beating because of them. It’s a significant teaching moment for leaders and team members alike. It reinforces the solidarity of the team.
In the business world, I don’t advocate making your boss run through soft sand with a 100-pound log in his or her arms! But the idea that the boss will admit to and take the hit for a miscue is important. However it’s conveyed, Team First should be the guiding principle.
Good Teams Take Possession of Their Leaders
During training, you’ll see SEAL trainees and teams “take possession” of their leaders again and again. We see leaders sharing in team responsibility rather than acting as untouchable, ruthless, reasonless, unaccountable tyrants. It’s an important transition.
First, we see the class feeling guilty about someone else being punished for their mistakes. We also see the leaders understanding that accountability doesn’t always have to relate to responsibility.
As I noted earlier, if you’re responsible, you need only find out who or what is at fault. If you’re accountable, you take the blame and rectify the situation.
It starts to really sink into everyone’s mind how everything you do has an effect on the team. As a leader, your leadership sets the tone for the success of the mission. If officers have the right brand of leadership, we observe an interesting phenomenon, which I believe applies in all leadership situations, not just in the military.
After several weeks of punishing the leaders for the results of the team, the team will voluntarily run to the aid of its officers. They will drop down and do all the physical remediation the officers are ordered to do even though they aren’t required to do it. The instructors yell at the class member to get up and stop doing what they are doing. But the instructors never use the word recover. “Recover” is an order to get up and stand at attention. Because SEALs need to understand that an order is not a debate and they cannot hesitate in combat, a strict order isn’t used here.
We don’t want our values to conflict.
Teamability Starts with the Leader
Teamability means that you suffer for the mistakes of others, and others suffer for your mistakes. If a student doesn’t feel some discomfort when someone else, including the leader, makes mistakes, we realize pretty quickly that he might not fit in. We zero in on those students. If they don’t have the teamability we are looking for, they won’t be around much longer. If team members regularly fail to have empathy or concern about mistakes in the leadership, we also zero in on the officer’s leadership to make sure he “gets it.” Teamability problems often can start at the top!
Good Leaders Give Good Team Players Second Chances
We accomplish missions and stay alive by being surrounded by team guys. When I was in charge of BUD/S third phase training, we had a student who failed a swim, which landed him before an Academic Review Board (ARB) that decides whether a student remains in training or is dropped from the program. By the third phase, a candidate is well along through training. This swim was one of the last timed physical evolutions.
The instructor staff was unanimously in favor of giving him another opportunity to meet the required swim time because he had teamability and was the epitome of a team guy. We also knew his father was a retired senior enlisted SEAL so he had been raised to be a warrior and team player.
I allowed him to rest over the weekend and to take another shot at the two-mile swim; he passed it easily. During this last phase of training, most students are physically broken down and hiding injuries; we take everything into account when making these decisions.
This SEAL was among those who tried to save the squad depicted in Lone Survivor. He was killed with my friend, Erik Kristensen, and 13 other SEALs and crewmen that fateful day. He died a team player.
Sharing the Load
When SEAL Teams undergo an operation, we approach it holistically. The old cliché, “You are only as fast as your slowest man,” means a lot to us. It means the helicopter won’t leave on a hot extract until the slowest man gets there. We call the guy who comes in last the “banana man,” but, of course, we pick him up anyway. Nobody wants to be the banana man.
For us, no place is more representative of sharing the load than in extreme cold weather environments such as Alaska, Norway, and parts of the Arctic. When you go out for a long-range reconnaissance mission in the cold, it’s critical to balance the load so no one with a particular job specialty carries more weight than any other person. We accomplish this by developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for how gear is distributed in order to best accomplish the mission. The radioman may have to carry several heavy lithium batteries; the machine gunner carries hundreds of rounds, at 7 pounds per hundred rounds, in addition to the 23-pound machine gun.
We distribute the load in a manner that ensures usability for the mission and not to overburden a few individuals. We all end up carrying 120 pounds for a long-range reconnaissance so “nobody is getting cheated,” as we say. We share the load, even among the “cake eaters,” as the enlisted men call the officers.
Good teams share the load and don’t allow anyone on the team to suffer more than any other. Of course, there are times when certain departments or specialties are burdened more than others, but teams are willing to sacrifice, become swim buddies, and pitch in for the success of the mission and the team.
Excerpt from “First, Fast, Fearless: How to Lead Like a Navy SEAL,” by Brian “Iron Ed” Hiner (HC, September 2015).
Brian “Iron Ed” Hiner (San Diego, CA) served as a Navy Special Warfare Training Officer, who was responsible for the shaping, training, and qualifying of hundreds of Navy SEALs. He has led strategic combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and across the globe for which he earned two Bronze Stars with “V” for valor in combat. As one of the most experienced trainers in Navy SEAL history, Hiner knows what it takes to lead effectively and how to develop creative and successful leaders and organizations. For more information, visit www.EdHiner.com.
