Leadership Lessons From the Navy Seals

Our guest blogger is JP Dulay, who is a lecturer in Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Today, he reviews this very interesting book on leadership.

Leadership is a key component of any organization. For the U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land teams (SEALs) leadership defines their culture. Leadership is a code by which all SEALs must live. Lieutenant Commander (Ret.) Brian “Iron Ed” Hiner was a SEAL for 20 years, both as a leader and a follower. Based on his unique experiences, he offers insights and practical leadership lessons in his book "First, Fast, Fearless: How to Lead Like a Navy SEAL."

Hiner began his career as the lowest ranking member of a platoon and eventually became a commanding officer of a task unit. He led strategic combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He earned two Bronze Stars with a “V” for valor in combat. Hiner is a renowned Navy Special Warfare Training Officer, responsible for training and qualifying hundreds of other Navy SEALs. He offers this book as a documentary of “leadership in the extremes” (xvi). Among all the organizations that have important missions, most do not face life-or-death situations, yet stress and fear can still be a common experience across all levels of any organization. This book provides a framework for building a culture, or ethos, of effective leadership. Those leaders can help an organization be more resilient and agile in a challenging and always-changing business environment.

Hiner was a soldier, and many of his experiences were in unstable, violent environments. But he makes it clear to the reader that this book is not about war. Similar to SEAL operations, most businesses operate in a volatile, uncertain, chaotic, ambiguous environment. He refers to this as VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, chaos, ambiguity,) Fear can emerge from such an environment — on the battlefield and in the boardroom. His book describes an effective leader’s approach to managing VUCA and fear. He explains that fear can be toxic because it triggers self-preservation which breeds ego-based behavior. According to Hiner, ego is the foundation of ineffective leadership. It impedes a broader, shared mission and purpose. He explains that a servant leadership approach that is proactive (first), less bureaucratic (fast), and loving and courageous (fearless) can help avoid the pitfalls of ego-based, toxic leadership. Tones of servant leadership, shared leadership, followership and transformational leadership in his writing echo shifting organizational landscapes toward flatter, less hierarchical organizational models. His memories of being a leader of an elite group describe the brand, brotherhood and battle rhythm of effective leadership under stress and VUCA.

The book's 19 chapters are divided into three “key facets in the SEAL world” (18): brand, brotherhood, and battle rhythm.

Part One (Chapters two through eight) focus on building a leadership brand. He defines leadership and leaders’ roles in chapter two. Chapters three and four focus mostly on managing one’s self in a VUCA environment. The next three chapters focus on the relational aspects of leadership. Servant leadership (Chapter five); putting others first (Chapter six); social and emotional intelligence (Chapter seven). Chapter eight emphasizes accountability as distinct from responsibility in this leadership brand.

Part Two (Chapters nine through 14) is about brotherhood. Hiner starts with Chapter nine, a discussion of vision as the guiding light when navigating through VUCA. The vision reflects the SEALs’ values and mission and should be clearly stated in writing. Values and mission take precedence over rules. Chapter 10 describes strategies for building trust: time and attention, respect, unbreakable values, sacrifice, and technical proficiency. Chapter 11 introduces the concept of “swim buddies.” Chapter 12 explains teamability (a person's capacity to work effectively with a team) and introduces false motivation. The perimeter of the team, defined in Chapter 13, refers to a physical and virtual boundary, that helps guard from disruptive forces seen from both inside and outside. Followership is introduced in Chapter 14.

Part Three (Chapters 15 through 19) examines how brand and brotherhood are tied together by battle rhythm — which Hiner defines as “an organizational condition, or context, that helps individuals confront the change and VUCA of high-stress organizations” (185.) Chapter 15 specifies commitment to the people in the organizations. Similar to the soldiers' maxim “no man left behind” there should be a commitment and concern for organizational members and employees even after leaving the organization. Agile decision-making is necessary when “leading at the speed of war” (Chapter 16.) Humor and play is a humble leadership style that can enable creativity and innovation (Chapter 17.) Chapter 18 frames leadership as an enjoyable activity that is further developed by setting the conditions to thrive through feedback and information from “After Action Reports.” Chapter 19 reiterates the role of leaders in creating the conditions under which others can thrive.

Overall, the book captures the reader’s attention with powerful stories of leadership right off headline news and popular cinema (he makes several references to the 2013 film, "Lone Survivor.") There were a few chapters that did not seem coherent. There were too many disparate topics being discussed under the same heading (e.g. The topic discussed in chapter five is humility, yet there is also a discussion about how love as the opposite of fear. The connection to humility seems unlcear.) Although he did not present many empirical studies of leadership, Hiner’s stories and insights reflect familiar leadership concepts and models that scholars and practitioners have discussed for decades. His observations demonstrate a shift from hierarchical models of leadership to more shared, relational models.

One reason this book should be valued by those in leadership development are the actual exercises he suggests to drive development. For example, there is a SEAL Caricature Skit in which the SEAL students are free to enact caricature skits of the instructors. It is an exercise for the instructors’ humility (and a dose of perspective.) Anyone can use this exercise. It is fun, easy, educational and low cost. This book also provides valuable strategies for dealing with common issues in leadership, like dealing with toxic teammates or toxic bosses.

Hiner’s book raises more questions and should inspire more leadership research. Under what specific conditions would these leadership strategies be more or less effective? Are there practices that are culturally bound? How does age factor in? Does leadership development differ as a function of age? How has leadership among Navy SEALs adapted over time? How did SEAL leadership relate to followers when the SEAL team was first formed? Can these strategies and practices transfer to more mundane daily civilian work settings?

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Even though I have more questions after he had answered so many others, Iron Ed has accomplished his mission of sharing the story of leadership in the extreme.