Check out a short lesson on responsibility...

Navy SEAL Leadership Lesson (click here to view the entire lesson...)

Nothing like the freezing cold Pacific Ocean to teach you leadership lessons. I promise not to use the frigid Pacific Ocean to teach them to you, as Warrant Williams taught them to me.

Back then, I was a boat crew leader, an officer freshly graduated from the United States Naval Academy. That meant that once I graduated BUD/s (if I graduated) I would immediately switch from a student that the enlisted instructors ruled with an iron fist, to a SEAL officer that would make decisions that would determine if those very same instructors lived or died. With that in mind, you can only imagine the scrutiny that the instructors paid me, forging me into a leader they would be confident serving under.

One of the critical lessons they wanted to engrain into my being was that of the responsibility of leadership, and they knew that the perfect opportunity to do so was during our weekly room and personnel inspections.

The first level of the lesson in responsibility of leadership was one that I already knew: “Lead By Example.”

No matter how hard they inspected our room or my uniform, they never caught an infraction worthy of failing. I knew that I could never expect the men of my boat crew to perform to a standard that I was not able to hold. So I spent every free moment on those weekends before our Monday inspection creating the environment in which I would pass the inspection.

It all started with a pair of my enlisted boat crew members jogging onto the grinder with a troubled look on their face. Their gaze met mine as they sent a look that seemed to beg my forgiveness....