Sound Leadership Advice from a 30-Year Navy SEAL Veteran

There are certain fundamental truths when it comes to leadership that apply to all people in charge, whether they are CEOs, front-line managers or commanders of a military unit in a forward area. Common qualities make up a strong leader regardless of industry, decade or even their amount of technology prowess.

With authority comes responsibility. With responsibility comes accountability. Those three things—authority, responsibility, accountability—are the building blocks of leadership, according to Rear Admiral Ray Smith, U.S. Navy (retired).

Smith knows a few things about authority, responsibility and accountability. He was a Navy SEAL for 31 years and spent the latter half of that career as an instructor for the famous 26-week BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL) training course, considered the most difficult in the world. As a BUD/S instructor, Smith had to understand completely what the human body is capable of during the harshest of conditions. He also had to go through the same training every year with the SEAL candidates. SEALs are trained to conduct operations in any area and the course is so challenging that on average 70 percent of the candidates never make it past Phase One, Smith said.

With his unique perspective, Smith regularly talks to business leaders in all industries about the assets a good leader needs to possess. In particular, he talks about how leaders can inspire through communications and actions: Everyone in an organization should know their role—they should know what is going on in the company, have a pathway to success and be recognized for their achievements.

Smith also stresses to leaders the importance of teamwork and taking advantage of working side by side with their employees when possible. Shared experiences is how trusting relationships are built, he says. “Leaders can’t necessarily do their workers’ jobs for them, but they can share in the experience.”

In the end, good leaders follow a certain moral and ethical code, Smith says. “Loyalty before all, except before honor.” The building blocks of that code are below, which every leader should follow:

• Make good use of the leadership prism point-down (view things from your employees' point of view) and ignore it at your own risk.
• Avoid superficial measures when evaluating and employee’s potential.
• Do not waste time or energy on the “mud” of life. Wash it off and move forward.
• Maximize opportunities to work directly with your employees.
• Learn to deal with unpredictability. It’s predictable.
• Use caution when increasing workload. Set a pace which enables workers to adjust.
• Making decisions on your own produces outcomes, not necessarily solutions.
• Find a way. There is always a way.
• Two is one and one is none.
• Stay situationally aware of your company’s personal and business dynamics.
• Develop a work environment where your employees continue to learn.
• Personal recognition is vital to individual morale and effectiveness.
• It’s not the lofty sail but the unseen wind that moves a ship. You are the sail and your employees are the unseen wind.
• Basic leadership arithmetic: Authority + responsibility = accountability.
• Be a personal example of what you expect from your employees.
• Know your employees. They have lives outside of the workplace.
• Be aware and responsive to life crossings. You can change someone’s life.
• Create teachable moments within your organization.
• Avoid empowerment. Enabling your employees is the key to their self-esteem and productivity.
• Learn from failure. “Sometimes the brightest light comes from a burning bridge.”
• Do not fail at the same thing twice. “There is no wisdom gained from the second kick of a mule.”
• Beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Great ideas in concept can be lousy ideas in execution.
• Do your job, not someone else’s. It’s embarrassing to order an aircraft carrier anchor for your dinghy.
• Personal myths born of youth, which form the foundation of adult personalities, are almost completely devoid of facts and logic.
• When faced with two courses of action in life, always take the one most personally uncomfortable. It will be the right one.
• Loyalty before all, except before honor.
• Perfect knowledge is elusive but never emerges from one person.
• Leaders are responsible for strategy but they must also retain a working knowledge of the organization’s tactical environment.
• Avoid complacency. It’s the dark side of success.
• Strive for excellence. Build a team of consistency. No streak hitters.
• Aristotle had it right. “We are what we repeatedly do.” Excellence is not an act, it’s a habit.
• Like Navy SEALs have learned: The only easy day is yesterday.
• Manage energy, not time.

If it works for the SEALS—the most highly trained and elite military force in the world—it should work for you.