LET’ S DO BUSINESS
5. REVIEW THE WINS AS HARD AS THE FAILURES
Failure naturally produces questions. Downes says elite teams also interrogate success.
After an SAS mission, completing the objective wasn’ t enough.
“ We wouldn’ t just give each other a pat on the back and say,‘ Yeah, we’ ve all done good there,’” he says.
“ It was:‘ Right, that’ s been finished. How could we improve? How can we get this even better? How could we make this mission better?’
“ Even if hardly anything did go wrong, we can still improve.”
Downes sees an obvious parallel for companies.
“ You finish this project. We’ ve done everything really well. We’ ve made money on this business. Okay, well next time let’ s do it better.”
Success should be something to learn from, not simply celebrate.
6. PREPARE— THEN BE READY FOR THE PLAN TO CHANGE
Downes spent years preparing for situations in which uncertainty was unavoidable.
In Baghdad, his team could enter a building looking for a senior member of Saddam Hussein’ s regime without knowing precisely what awaited them. There might be bodyguards. There might be children and families. Intelligence might be wrong.
Preparation therefore wasn’ t about predicting every eventuality. It was about building a team capable of responding when reality diverged from the plan.
That matters in business too.
Markets change. Customers disappear. Projects encounter problems. Technology disrupts industries. Leaders rarely possess every piece of information they would like before making a decision.
Strong teams prepare thoroughly— and retain the flexibility to react.
7. DON’ T UNDERESTIMATE HUMOUR— OR KINDNESS
Alongside classlessness, humility, integrity and the pursuit of excellence, Downes
highlights another characteristic of the SAS ethos that may surprise people: a sense of humour.
After a career spent in extreme environments, he also places enormous value on something considerably simpler— how people treat one another.
He talks about using people’ s names, smiling at strangers and saying good morning. If somebody doesn’ t respond, he doesn’ t assume they’ re rude. They may simply be having a terrible day.
“ Negativity breeds negativity, and positivity breeds positivity,” he says.
Leadership isn’ t only demonstrated when the pressure reaches its highest point.
Sometimes it is visible in the atmosphere a leader creates every ordinary morning.
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