Navy SEAL shares lessons in servant leadership

Marcus Capone is everything you would expect in a Navy SEAL. Physically fit, standing 6-foot, 4-inches. Mentally tough. Smart. He answers questions -- the nonclassified variety -- with clarity and focus. But for the former Southern Illinois University quarterback -- who was a teammate of Cape Girardeau banker Jeff Brune while playing for the Salukis -- it was the movie "GI Jane" that inspired him to join this elite group of the military.

Last week the Cape Chamber held its first Chamber Young Professionals' Emerge Summit. Capone was the keynote speaker for the event and shared his background as a former Navy SEAL and what lessons he learned along the way.

Capone, now the owner of a security consulting firm, realizes the movie is not an accurate picture of the SEALs. But it made clear one thing: SEAL training is some of the toughest training on the planet. As a college football player who needed to decide his future after sports, this was all the inspiration he needed.

Capone spent 13 years in active duty, spending time with SEAL Team 10 and later SEAL Team 6. He finished as a 1st phase BUD/S Instructor. BUD/S stands for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.

Most recently he starred as lead instructor in the History Channel's "The Selection: Special Operations Experiment," where 30 civilians compete to see who can make it through the SEAL training.

"The idea is if they can make it -- there's no money, there's no prize -- there's just a handshake and you're part of the brotherhood," Capone told 130 young professionals at the summit.

He used a video clip from the series to launch into a message on servant leadership. Capone shared, and the video confirms, he didn't scream or rule with an iron fist. In fact, many times he tried to stay in the background and help others carry forward the mission.

And that's how he defines servant leadership: "...empowering the people who you work with," he told the audience.

Within the framework of servant leadership, Capone shared three traits necessary to win as a SEAL and the private sector.

1. Laser focus.

"Do you know what your 'why' is? I look back at training again, I know what my "why" was," Capone said referencing the popular TED talk by Simon Sinek. "It was finishing training. That was it. And you have to have laser focus to get through really anything nowadays. I think there's too many distractions. It really was laser focus."

"The noise pulls you off the path of where you're trying to go," he said later, noting that in his class, only 27 out of 175 finished training.

One particularly challenging phase of training is how long can you hold your breath under water. During the first 10 to 15 seconds, the participant can think about anything. But the longer it goes on, ultimately the focus is only about breathing. It's this "laser focus" that Capone said is vital to SEAL training but also in other areas of life.

2. Self discipline.

If laser focus is the why, then self discipline is your path to get there and project management, Capone said.

"Your thoughts really define your actions. What you're thinking about, you're actually going to do that, and what you do is going to define your outcomes. And that's the truth.

"If you ask any SEAL whose been through BUD/S they'll all tell you physically it wasn't bad...what they don't tell you is how mentally defeating it is."

3. Integrity.

"You can have those first two things, but if you don't have integrity, I don't want to deal with you. If you lie to me, if you're not transparent, we can't have that.

"Especially in the SEAL Teams, from Day 1 you get ingrained that you have to have integrity, no matter what. When I tell you to do something and you go away and nobody's watching, what are you going to do? That's the biggest thing."

He added that while most of his SEAL members had a good moral compass, there were some who lost their way.

"Without integrity, your words have no weight."

Capone referenced Matthew 20:28 from the Bible as he went on to talk about servant leadership: "...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Capone's talk centered around the military, but the lessons translate to any industry. Too often today the idea of self sacrifice is foreign. Capone's message is an important reminder of service before self.

Lucas Presson is the assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian. His email is lpresson@semissourian.com.