The US navy seals judge candidates on two criteria. The ability to perform specific tasks and how much they person can be relied on, this they simply call trust. They have this simple chart on which they plot candidates versus these two simple criteria.
So the desired outcome is clear, nobody wanted someone from the lower left: Low Performer and Low Trust. Everyone wanted someone from the upper right: High Performer and High Trust.
But what about those people who aren’t that perfect?
Which criteria would be more important to the Seals? They would prefer someone on the right side of the chart than the best performer who had low trust.
Keep in mind that these are the highest performing teams in the world. But they would select Trust over Performance when it came to a leader or a teammate. . It’s interesting to note that the Navy Seals termed that upper-left leader or teammate as toxic! Regardless of high performance, if the person wasn’t trust-worth, they were toxic.
So what about businesses, how do they rate the comparative value of Performance and Trust?
Corporations have it backwards
In general businesses heavily weighted toward the left side of the chart. They monitor and promoted people based on their performance rather than the trust they exhibited.
Performance Reviews
Why do corporate reviews focus so much on high-performance rather than hight trust? I’m sure there are many reasons but the two that I see as most prevalent are:
Corporations often want high performance (get the job done now) over anything else. They promote people who produce high results, regardless of the internal costs. Remember that the Navy Seals labeled them as toxic.
It’s easier to measure performance than trust. With performance, it’s easy to check the box. Was the goal met or exceeded? Was it done on or ahead of schedule? Easy to measure and identify. Does the person generate trust within their team? Hard to predict. The results may not show up for a long time.
So next time you are thinking about building that team, recruiting talent of developing your people, ask yourself the question.
Who would have my back?
by Richard Wright
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