Be a quiet professional
In a recent article on CNN, former Navy SEAL Chris Heben discusses how SEALs live by an unspoken code – “Be a quiet professional”.
Like most young men, there was a time in my early twenties when I wondered if I had the will and determination to join the SEALs. I never actually considered enlisting, but for an entire summer I practiced 50m underwater swims (not recommended), earned a SCUBA license (amazing), practiced 100 consecutive pushups (easy), and flirted with long-distance running (impossible). I retreated back to the safety of sport, 30m runs, warm water, and waking up at 11am.
Thankfully I didn’t forget everything that summer. I also read every book about SEALs I could find, including my personal favorite “The Warrior Elite, the forging of SEAL Class 228” by Dick Couch. A few important things have stuck with me from that book.
To be part of the SEALs is to be part of a warrior culture. A small part of that code is approaching your work as a quiet professional. That simple philosophy is worth its weight in gold when it comes to sport.
In 9 years of sliding I’ve witnessed and (sadly) participated in my fair share of complaining, bragging, whining, bitching, moaning, and two-faced mumbling. Fortunately I’ve also had the privilege of working closely with quiet professionals. I don’t need to name them. They know who they are, and so do you.
These athletes have taught me the value in rising above the level of petty gossip while embodying our own Olympic code. Most of them have gone on to achieve their Olympic dream, as well as success after sport. Season after season they focused on the things that matter, like physical and mental toughness, positive attitude, and skill work. They rose above the bullshit and completed their mission. That’s not easy, but as the SEAL instructors tell their trainees, suffer in silence.
I’m embracing this philosophy and making it a part of my training. Reading about SEAL culture makes me realize how simple that should be by comparison. In every community, sport-related or not, there will be people who sling mud, but the true professionals will keep quiet and complete the mission.
Side note: I’d like to settle an old score with a few friends (I’m looking at you, Sand, Burgess, and Antoine). in 2005 While living in Chula Vista, CA at the Olympic Training Center, we had a debate about maximizing the distance of an underwater swim. I had read in Dick’s book that deeper is better, but I couldn’t remember the details. For your reading enjoyment:
The secret to underwater swimming is going deep early. The trainees learn that if they swim along the bottom in deeper water, the increased partial pressure of oxygen in their lungs will allow them to hold their breath longer and swim farther.
Burn, 6 years later.
This is something you learn when you go from regular employee to manager or boss of a company.
It’s a hard thing to learn but it’s an important lesson everyone should learn.
I love the last part, good article & good writing. BURN!
Thanks
The only problem here is that being a quiet professional typically doesn’t pay off or benefits you in the real world, aka our market-driven capitalist economy. Soldiers live and function in a socialist culture with rigid, strictly enforced rank and class structures in place. Hence the refrain: “What the hell do you think you are, soldier? An individual?!”
I’ve worked in paramilitary cultures. They all have the same characteristics: Be a quiet professional, don’t make waves, conform, fit in, don’t question authority.
And when you’re getting shot at in Iraq or running around fighting forest fires (like I was), this makes sense.
But in a dynamic, entrepreneurial economy where people all the time come out of nowhere and make a name for themselves, being a quiet professional is sure path to peon-hood or, best case, middle management.
If you want the brass ring and you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you gotta make noise, it’s that simple. Either that, or you can play by the rules and hope that the man actually rewards you.
Those SEALs kicking doors, those Marines taking bullets, they do it so that people like you and me have the freedom to make noise, create new things, and maybe, if we’re lucky, make a small dent in the universe.
But they don’t do it so we can be like them; Because their world is more Soviet than anything else in these United States of America.
I agree that in the military the quiet professional is a characteristic that is valued. However even in the military one must make a certain amount of ‘noise’ to develop one’s career. If you want to make a certain grade, you have to standout in terms of accomplishment. Seal members, while serving in their units do so with steadied reserve. However in some aspects they have already made ‘noise’ by becoming a Seal in the first place. They have demonstrated qualities the few others have. In the totality of their careers they are standing out by simply accomplishing membership.
Quiet professional doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll disappear by remaining quiet. As Reggie pointed out, SEAL’s made their noise by becoming a SEAL in the first place, and continue to shout quietly by remaining one of the elite. Same applies to your career. You can stand out by maintaining a degree of excellence consistently. It will make you noticed, it will make you stand out, and it will make the loud mouths look like kids by comparison.
Great experience to share with us.yeah you are right quiet professionals always do their work if other make noise about their work.For every sport mental toughness,positive attitude,grit and determination are prerequisite to our goal.Good to read this article.
Alex, I think you misunderstood the article. Being a quiet professional doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and joke around, especially with friends. Furthermore, they are current teammates not former ones.