Losing at paper-scissor-stones this weekend meant that I was forced to watch ‘Special Forces: week of hell’, rather than my preference of Casualty (apparently medical procedures shouldn’t be made into entertainment I’m told).
A forces-related reality style show, 29 ‘contestants’ are forced to undergo tasks led by two members of the Australian SAS, Navy Seals & (my favourite) Spetznaz, with the goal of being crowned the ‘ultimate’ winner.
It frankly looked dire. Although I know some people harbour secret fantasies of being the hero in uniform, I’m not one of them. Short of including my brother’s Action Men in some of my games as a child, I have no experience or interest in the Forces. But five minutes in, I found it strangely compelling and abandoned my book to root for Miller, a female doctor who had put herself forward for the week of torture in the name of reality TV glory. The physical parts of this competition looked challenging enough but it was the combination of needing a strength of these in equal measure which reminded me of those needed in leadership and running a business, much more so than any other show designed to showcase the actual business world ( Apprentice anyone?).
Unlike a reality TV show, there is no singular ‘prize’ in business.
Unless there is a specific award, sale value or target of acquisition someone particularly has set their sights on, there is no single goal in business. And certainly not one shared by all. But the desire to ‘win’ is strong in most successful business leaders, even if the prize itself means different things to each. For most I know, money is not the main motivator to keep them going and neither is it as simple as a sale value, corner office or something as ostentatious as a jet. However all I have spoken to have a desire to be the best in their field, be it coming up with the ‘best’ idea, have the ‘best’ customers or be recognised for (in Tina’s words) “Simply the Best”. The main common denominator however is that most also have a more intense drive for competition than the average person on the street.
Any ultimate competition requires resilience
As you’d expect and is common in any reality-style formatted competition, tasks in Special Forces included the physical, mental and the downright humiliating. All of which are designed to test resilience. One scene saw the group being forced to kneel in front of their interrogators in the middle of the night to answer questions they had whilst another had them confused by conflicting requests from their commanders following a 12 hour physical exercise. These challenges are designed to intensify the emotions felt by the contestants and ideally sort the ‘wheat from the chaffe’ and sooner or later, someone opts out.
Save for hopefully never being hoiked out of bed and asked to explain your business plan to an interrogator, business owners can feel under similar pressure, albeit over a longer period. The startup to millions in months stories are few and far between. And although most start-ups have a 5 year plan scribbled somewhere, many appreciate that – provided they make it past the first year of trading, where half of UK businesses fail – the journey will often be longer than that and that resilience is critical in achieving this success. To do this, it is vital they boost their chances by being physically fit and healthy in order to be better equipped to deal with the pressures which come their way. And it is no coincidence that most leadership and management development programmes start with a focus on ‘you’ and how you can look after yourself before anything else.
Regular review of team strengths and the competition are needed
In the war room on ‘interrogation night’ the team of assessors dissect each section of the exercise, watching the behaviour, actions and communication (verbal and non-verbal) of all, to highlight where the team are holding strong and where the opportunities to weaken them are. The reality is that in a business, regular reviews of a team’s behaviour should also be the norm as well as keeping a watchful eye on the competition. You need this awareness of both your own and your team’s strengths in order to have the right game plan. And you need to see where the risks are with your team too. One contestant on the programme was jettisoned for having a bad attitude and believed to be on the borders of aggression (after 12 hours of interrogation, can this be a massive surprise??) and one of them simply opted out as they’d decided it that hours of sensory deprivation just ‘wasn’t for them’. Likewise in your company, you need to keep a close eye on the motivations and engagement levels of your team. A team member who has lost their mojo can be as damaging as losing out on any deal to the other side, if you let it slide.
It was indeed Miller who triumphed with the prize. And very well deserved too. I don’t imagine that Special Forces pulls the audience numbers which the British Bake Off does, but not having any interest of either the rise and fall of soufflés or Mary Berry’s blow dry, I found it infinitely more appealing. Producers of these shows are masters of creating the story and should perhaps think about doing one which follows 10 start-ups. Dragons Den might appear to fill this gap, but as everyone in that situation knows, getting the money in is only the beginning…
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Image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/jUsarmyjohnFkennedy. Special Force Sniper Shot
