The Navy Seals have an adage – “Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion; you sink to the level of your training. That’s why we train for excellence.”
This was in a Harvard Business Review article that was debating the business merits of training versus education. The failure of so many smart and talented organizations to innovate and adapt under pressure can be a result of being overeducated and undertrained. The failure of strategies developed by high-priced consultants or based on the theory from top business schools are blamed on the lack of execution and talent of the personnel, when it really is the lack of training. Businesses tend to train for competence, not excellence. They show what tasks are required and how to do them but fall short of training at the right level – i.e. role playing under life like scenarios. When things don’t go as planned with your best customer, you will want the customer service rep who answers that call to be more than just competent in reading from a prepared script.
I have also seen this with High School football players. When it gets tough, late in the game when mistakes are more noticeable and players are tired, the pressure to perform is at its highest. Young male athletes believe they will rise to the occasion, “trust me coach, I’ll make that play”. However, it is only the players that have trained at the peak level that deliver the result. High school football players by nature don’t train for excellence, they believe they can get by on talent. Coaches invest a lot of time on game planning but can lose sight of the need for a stressful ‘game-like’ atmosphere to challenge the fundamentals for their players. I once witnessed our team rise to the occasion based on their training. Down by 2 in the State Semifinal game, we got the ball on our own 3 yard line with less than 2 minutes to go and no timeouts. We successfully moved the ball down the field and were able to attempt a game winning field goal. That is something High School football teams simply don’t do. However, we ran a no huddle spread offense all the time and each week we practiced a hurried-up offense. We had trained for this scenario.
Where it isn’t quite obvious that the lack of training will cause issues under pressure is with your faith. Do we train for excellence regarding executing our faith such that when we are placed in a stressful situation or temptation catches us off-guard we are able to rise to the occasion? Are we simply compliant in our training, checking off the box of Sunday Service, focusing on being good? Jesus spent hours in prayer as his training for excellence. He spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted in preparation for his calling.
In Romans 12:11-12, Paul writes: “Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.” The word translated ‘fervent’ is literally boiling. The metaphor is simple. One’s spirit brought into contact with the fire of the Holy Spirit will naturally have its temperature raised such as heat making water boil. Such emotion is what Paul desires. This emotion is the only way by which a persistent and hardworking effort can be maintained at a level of excellence.
I once had a player came off the football field after making a big mental mistake saying, “my bad, coach”. My reply was, “No, it is not simply your bad.” If we train for excellence then we need to recognize the overall outcome, not the individual action. Due to his mental mistake on 4th and long, we did not get off the field and they eventually scored. His mistake undid the united efforts of his teammates. It was more than “his bad”. A Navy Seal who makes a mistake can cost his buddy his life. A customer service rep who mishandles a major customer’s concern can cost their company millions. A husband cheating is sinking to a level defined by his lack of discipline that might cost him his marriage and severely impact his kids. All of these are much more than “my bad”.
Training for competence will leave you short in addressing a worst-case scenario. At a recent school shooting an armed security office who was competently trained and licensed, failed to execute at the highest level during the crisis. Additional lives were likely lost as a result. We want to blame the individual, but in reality, he wasn’t properly trained.
Training for excellence is about transformation, not just incremental improvement. Don’t settle for being good enough or getting slightly better. Set the highest standard for yourself and train to reach that goal. It takes discipline to train for excellence and you will not see the results in common day to day performance. It will be when it matters most, and maybe when least expected, that you will bear the fruits of your efforts.