I often listen to ESPN Radio on my morning and evening commutes to and from work. Tonight, I was listening to The Will Cain Show. Before going any further, I should tell you that Will Cain is a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan and thinks Dak Prescott is the next NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. He may be right. He may be wrong. I don't know. I actually don't really care. I am telling you all of this because this evening's show was heavy on a dose of criticism for the Cleveland Browns.
The Cleveland Browns lost yesterday to the Pittsburgh Steelers to drop their season record to 5-7. After several years of mediocrity (I am being generous), the Browns finished the season last year at just below 0.500 with a record of 7-8-1. They loaded up with talent in the offseason and were predicted to finish near the top of their Division this year. Unfortunately, their season has fallen short of these lofty expectations.
Will Cain argued on his show this evening that the problem with the Browns involved a "trust issue" versus a talent issue. As evidence, he cited a popular online video of the author, motivational speaker, and leadership consultant Simon Sinek, whose bestselling books include Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and his latest, The Infinite Game. Don't worry, this is not another book review! In his latest offering, Sinek talks about one of the ways that the U.S. Navy SEALs look for in their prospective recruits. He talks in particular about how SEALs are chosen to be part of SEAL Team 6, which is arguably one of the most elite military commando units in the world. The SEALs look for so-called "high-trust" individuals.
Sinek constructs a graph with "performance" on the y-axis and "trust" on the x-axis (see his video here). He argues that just about every industry knows to select the individuals with a high degree of trust and performance (those individuals in the top-right quadrant of his graph). Here, performance essentially refers to how an individual performs on the job (for the SEALs, performance is how well a sailor does on executing the mission). Conversely, trust refers to personal integrity and character. In other words, can you count on an individual to "have your back" and be there when needed. High-trust individuals exhibit humility, empathy, patience, and resilience. It really doesn't matter what industry you work in, the top right quadrant is where you will find the best individuals.
On the other hand, every industry also knows to avoid hiring or selecting those individuals with both low-trust and low-performance (the bottom left quadrant). Everything makes sense so far, right? Both the low-trust/low-performance and high-trust/high-performance individuals are easy to spot. Unfortunately, the high-trust/high-performance individuals are a rare find.
What about the rest? Would you rather have a low-trust/high-performance individual (top left quadrant) or a high-trust/low-performance individual (bottom right quadrant)? The Navy SEALs (at least according to Simon Sinek) generally avoid the low-trust/high-performance individuals - they call them "toxic team members." They would rather have someone with high-trust and average or even low-performance instead.
So, back to Will Cain's argument. Cain claims that the Cleveland Browns, or at least the 2019 version of the Browns, are mostly low-trust/high-performance individuals. They are extremely talented, but not very reliable in other words. Conversely, the team that won the game yesterday, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are mostly on the high-trust/medium-to-low performance side of the spectrum. As proof, the Steelers used a 3rd string quarterback for the entire game and still won!
There are countless examples of professional sports teams (or even college teams for that matter) that were loaded with talent, yet failed to perform to their expectations. On the other hand, there are perhaps just as many examples of sports teams that seemed to play beyond their level of talent and find a way to win. Just look at this year's Washington Nationals baseball team that won the World Series. Now, which would you rather be - the Cleveland Browns or the Washington Nationals? Which would you rather be a part of in your professional life, a team with average talent and a high-trust factor or a team with toxic talent and low-trust? It's a fairly easy question to answer when you come right down to it...
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