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In one presentation which has gone viral on Linkedin, author/motivational speaker Simon Sinek claims that US Navy SEALs select candidates for 'SEAL Team 6' by rating them by two characteristics: 'performance' and 'trust'.

He defines performance by how good candidates are on the battlefield, and defines trust by how good they are off the battlefield; for example, could they be trusted with each other's money and wives?

Allegedly selection for this elite team places higher value on trust than performance. And Sinek concludes from this that the business world needs to filter leaders by trust, owing to the destructive effects which often result from untrustworthy leaders; who gain power only through performance metrics and an absence of trust metrics.

Do US Navy SEALs select candidates for SEAL Team 6 by assessing 'performance' and 'trust' as defined by Sinek?

Laurel
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  • @BenBarden: [Simon Sinek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sinek). (Edited link into question.) – DevSolar Nov 19 '19 at 14:32
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    It's still not clear if their performance with their colleagues' wives is rated – FooTheBar Nov 19 '19 at 15:12
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    @FooTheBar Is it clearer now? –  Nov 19 '19 at 15:14
  • The "Trust" component of this sounds like a load of bull. Everything I've read says that DevGru (the proper name for the team) is an elite selection process on top of the already elite selection process for Seals. Basic searches online very strongly support the case that performance is an extremely important aspect of acceptance, but "trust" seems to appear nowhere. It's also likely that, because of the strict requirements for recruitment, you're not going to have some fresh faced 21 year old on the team. From wiki, it appears that the minimum requirements force all members to be 30+. – DenisS Nov 19 '19 at 17:47
  • @DenisS I assume there would be quite strict requirements for "trust" in the sense that you might be doing some very classified work; and therefore would need proper vetting and protocol. I'm not sure how easily you could untangle that from "performance" though. – JMac Nov 19 '19 at 20:19
  • @JMac it helps that the speaker is so vague about what he's claiming that there isn't really a great way to falsify it. I did find on one corner of the internet someone claiming that, when DevGru applicants are being interviewed, they ask about family life among plenty of other things, but nothing about an objective measurement of "trust". – DenisS Nov 19 '19 at 20:34
  • Seal team 6 is different from the rest of the teams in several ways (including that you cannot go on directly to team 6 from seal training), so you need to edit your question accordingly. And how exactly is this statement implausible? Since team 6 is "cream of the crop", clearly they'd rate applicants on performance (in some way). I guess that leaves only "trust" perhaps in doubt. – Fizz Nov 21 '19 at 14:06
  • FWIW, The [reading list](https://www.cool.navy.mil/usn/LaDR/so_e4_e9.pdf) for Special Operator includes [Speed of Trust by Franklin Covey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvIEfNyZ8B0). – Fizz Nov 21 '19 at 14:29
  • I would interpret 'trust' mostly as 'team capability' whereas performance is mostly individual metrics. This is hard to measure but in practice at least as important as the individual performance. For most of the tasks there will be a group of them. If they don't trust each other, they won't perform well, no matter how good they are individually. – quarague Nov 21 '19 at 14:51
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    In short, no one gets into SOF without passing standards (performance). Most "pipelines" (selection courses) have a "peer-review" components - most of your peers have to like and "trust" you, or you will be "peered out". I know range school has this, would assume SEALs do too, but don't know for a fact. Physical performance and ability to not get injured during times of fatigue are 90% of selection. Everything else is very secondary. – VSO Nov 21 '19 at 19:06

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