What do the Navy SEALs know that senior leaders need to know? The Importance of Practice

Six weeks before Navy SEAL Team Six descended on the Pakistani compound where they shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, they began trial runs to practice every detail of the high-stakes raid. Using a replica of the one-acre compound, they prepared for every contingency, and after each rehearsal they discussed how they could perform better.

The Navy SEALs understand something that many leaders do not: It’s not enough to have a strategy and a plan to execute it; to win, you need a strategy and a plan, and then you have to practice, practice, practice. This applies not only to sports and military operations, but also to dealing effectively with people.

Most top executives consider themselves strong communicators. Consequently, they often go into difficult situations unprepared, assuming they can “wing it.” They don’t ask for advice from a colleague or coach, and they don’t practice how they will respond if their audience is confused, angry, upset — or all three.

Similarly, senior teams also tend to wing it when it comes to their team’s performance. They don’t do the work to figure out how to make good decisions together, nor do they practice playing to one another’s strengths.

When they don’t think through what behaviors they want to encourage, leaders inadvertently encourage the wrong behaviors. For example, I have seen CEOs who focus all their energy preparing what they are going to say about a new initiative without thinking about what they are going to do to model the behaviors necessary for it to succeed.

If leaders are to encourage high performance — in other words, motivate employees to flawlessly execute the company’s strategy and beat their competition — they need to be as intentional about how best to do this as they would be about planning a business pitch or closing a deal.

Even when given the opportunity to practice, executives may resist. I recently worked with a group of company leaders who were facing serious difficulties engaging their workers. I offered to videotape them practicing the discussions they needed to have, so they could receive feedback and observe how they might do better. Nearly all of them refused to be videotaped. They didn’t want to practice, and they rejected the opportunity for constructive criticism.

We can be grateful that the Navy SEALs did just the opposite. They practiced relentlessly, demanded feedback and continued to improve. That’s why they got the job done.

To learn more, please contact Susan Lucia Annunzio at the Center for High Performance.