Many years ago, I attended the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP), which is now known as the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP).
One of the events was a five-mile run that had to be completed within a strict time limit. It was designed to create stress and accelerate attrition.
About halfway through, I caught up to another candidate who was struggling and out of breath. He was in good physical condition, muscular and built more like a bodybuilder than a runner. He wasn’t a quitter, but this event just wasn’t his strength. I had a choice to keep my pace and finish comfortably, or slow down and help him. I slowed down and stayed with him. We spent the rest of the run pushing each other to finish. By the time we approached the finish line, everyone else had already crossed. Several candidates had already been dropped for not making it in time. The Black Hats (what our instructors were called) saw us coming from a distance. We were the last two across the finish line. And they informed us that we'd both passed. We’d moved on to the next round.
At the time, I didn’t think much about the decision, as during Infantry Basic Training, Advanced Individual Training, and RIP, one lesson was endlessly repeated:
Never leave your buddy behind.
As you could probably guess at this point, this story isn’t really about running or about my experience as a Rippie. It’s about a lesson that has stayed with me for more than thirty years.
And I’ve seen the same principle apply in business: Some of the best teams I’ve been part of were built by people willing to invest time and energy in helping others succeed, even when there was no immediate benefit to themselves. Likewise, many of the best leaders I’ve worked with understood that their job wasn’t to win alone. It was to help the team cross the finish line together.
