Dave Cooper of the Navy Seals elite Team Six claims that the success of the Seals lies in a culture of vulnerability. “It all begins with the leader’s willingness to say the four most important words any leader can say: I screwed that up.”
The Seals have a culture rich in ways to challenge each other, ask the right questions, and (surprisingly) never defer to authority. Such a culture only arises when there is vulnerability in the leader.
For example, seeing the truth and taking ownership are part of every AAR—After Action Review. We’re not interested, Dave said, in excavating truth for truth’s sake, or to assign credit or blame. We are building a shared mental model for the future. Successful missions in the future depend upon it.
At the AAR, this culture begins with this willingness in leaders to say the four most important words anyone can say: I screwed that up. As he or she does so, the team develops a willingness to spot and confront the truth.
Great teams come together to ask a simple question over and over: What’s really going on here? As the leader is vulnerable, the rest of the team becomes vulnerable.
I like what Dave Cooper said about courage.
“When we talk about courage, we think it’s going against an enemy with a machine gun. The real courage is seeing the truth and speaking the truth to each other. People never want to be the person who says, ‘Wait a second, what’s really going on there?’ But inside the team, that is the culture, and that’s why we’re successful.”
(Source: my best leadership read of this month. Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. More from it next month.)