The Surprising Quality Navy Seals Look for in a Perfect Soldier

Or is it surprising at all?

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

Here in the UK, there is a TV show called SAS: Who Dares Wins. Former soldiers put the recruits through many rigorous tests, such as mountain runs without any destination, continuous water submersion, and many more.

While individually demanding, the staff test the contestant’s faith in one another. They fight each other, carry one another up and down steep hills, and are required to do repeat the tasks if a teammate fails.

Of course, physical strength is critical, but it isn’t number one on a recruiter’s list. Instead, they, like the Navy Seals, look for something else.

High Trust Is Better Than High Performance

The Seals measure a person via two metrics:

• Performance on the battlefield.
• Performance off the battlefield.

In a speech, author Simon Sinek says the Seals ask a poignant question:

“I may trust you with my life, but do I trust you with my money and my wife?”

Not surprisingly, the ideal recruit isn’t someone with low performance and low trust. Rather than have a high performer of low trust, they would prefer a medium performer of…