What EMS Managers Can Learn from the Navy SEALs

I will begin this article with two admissions.  First, I do not normally read the Harvard Business Journal and second, I am not a Navy SEAL.  So, when a friend sent me a link to a recent Harvard Business Journal article titled “How the Navy SEALs Train for Leadership Excellence”, I must admit I was more than a little bit curious.  Sure, the Navy SEALs have a worldwide reputation for readiness to spring into action, but is there anything about their training regimen that we, as EMS managers and executives, can really take home and make applicable?

One of the initial points made in the article is an interesting one: Leaders and managers get knowledge and education, while training and skills go to those who do the work.  The SEALS can’t afford that reality because, when one is under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.

Sensing the uniqueness of the SEAL training regimen, the author interviewed Brandon Webb, an innovative SEAL trainer/educator, for real-world perspective on what other industries could learn from a special operations sensibility.  Webb explicitly emphasized four transformational training themes that are specific to leadership sensibilities. Although I have seen these touched on in various presentations, this article definitely put a unique spin on them.

Produce excellence, not “above average”

I don’t know about you, but I never want to be seen as average.  The training programs that we ask our agency supervisors, managers and executives to attend shouldn’t be designed to deliver competence; they must be dedicated to producing excellence.  In other words, training divorced from excellence is mere compliance. It is more “box checking” than human capital investment where supervisors and managers get asked difficult questions about real-world issues, get to talk things out and understand what works and what doesn’t.

Time and again in my EMS and public health experiences, I have seen training efforts that are merely delivered so that it can be documented as delivered.  I have also seen talented administrators and educators craft realistic training that gets participants involved and interested and really takes things to another level.  Serious organizations don’t aspire to be comfortably average and neither should EMS providers, managers and executives.

Incentivize excellence, not competence

I have worked in organizations that didn’t recognize excellence, which potentially makes for an organization that is set up for mere competence.  Even managers need to be rewarded when they, or the teams they lead, go above and beyond.  Even if the training itself is world-class, organizations need recognition and rewards systems that explicitly acknowledge and promote excellence.

A corollary to this is having the courage and knowledge to reposition and replace those who can’t—or won’t—step up.  This last point is especially difficult, as many EMS agencies promote those who have been there the longest instead of promoting those that could potentially excel in a supervisory or management role.

Incorporate new ideas

This goes for all initiatives, big and small.  Large scale changes need to have involvement from all levels of your organization, from field provider to executives, if they are to be effective, well thought-out and implementable.   Webb makes specific mention of how as a SEAL instructor he learned that you are never done learning, and your students can be a wealth of information. He used the example of Chris Kyle returning from Iraq and making recommendations on how to better train students to the urban sniper environment.  Incorporating this type of boots-on-the-ground reality into your training—clinical and otherwise—is one of the elements that can make a critical difference.   Your agency's EMTs and medics are in the field experiencing the day-to-day realities of dealing with a variety of situations. Listening to their ideas—the good, the bad and the ugly—is a critical element of your job as a manager.  

Lead by example

Yes, chances are we have all heard this one before, but it is safe to say that the SEALs can teach us more on this point as well. Webb’s most passionate training theme is the one that reflects his battlefield experiences. The most important training behavior a leader can demonstrate, he asserts, is leading by example.

“Leading by example means never asking your team to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself,” Webb writes. “This can’t be faked. Do it right and your team will respect you and follow you. Don’t do this, especially in a SEAL team, and you are doomed as a leader. I’ve seen it happen, and careers ended when it did. Lead by example and watch your team elevate you with their own accomplishments.”

Clearly, these same lessons apply to you, as an EMS leader.  This includes new initiatives for your agency, establishing policies and procedures that reflect the reality of delivering pre-hospital care, and even battle testing new equipment.

I admit it, I read this article somewhat skeptically, but there are real lessons that can be derived from the Navy SEAL's that can be applied to the way we lead our EMS agencies.

These lessons may seem elementary, such as incentivizing excellence and leading by example, but it’s clear from their international reputation that the NAVY SEALs have taken these seemingly simple lessons to the next level. Will you?

Raphael M. Barishansky, MPH, MS, CPM, is director of EMS for the Connecticut Department of Public Health. A frequent contributor to and editorial advisory board member for EMS World, he can be reached at rbarishansky@gmail.com.