Engagement and accountability are critical elements for growth, productivity, and profitability in any organization. But in this fast-paced twenty-first century age of disruption, improving engagement and accountability seems more challenging than ever before.
According to the 2017 KPMG Global CEO Outlook Report, 74% of CEOs claim they plan to invest more heavily in improving culture and engagement to sustain growth and their competitive edge. And even though organizations are investing more time and resources to improve engagement, few have moved the needle far. The good news is that when successful, companies that have higher levels of engagement experience 17% higher productivity and 20% higher EBITDA.
As a Navy SEAL combat veteran, I can assure you that – in the Teams – engagement and accountability are not issues we have to deal with. If you are lacking in these areas, you don’t make it far in our selection and training process. But we have the most challenging special operations training program in the world. It costs millions of dollars to acquire one SEAL. So you can imagine how important talent acquisition, engagement, and retention are to the organization.
Obviously, we can’t replicate this process in the civilian sector but there are some principles from our culture that I have ingrained in my own companies and companies I work with. And you can do the same.
The following sayings are derived from our philosophy and the Navy SEAL Ethos. They define our culture and how we approach life and work.