Ranger School sucks. Days never truly stop, but they all start at “before morning nautical twilight” (BMNT), thirty minutes before sunrise when the stars go out and the sun is creeping towards the sky. Coincidentally, this is also the coldest part of the day. Shivering, with little to no sleep, security is checked, weapons maintenance is done, hygiene is conducted, and chow is eaten (always last) all while the Patrol Leader receives another mission from HQ. The troops are bleary, but steely eyed by dawn, a Ranger practice that has been in place since 1755 under Major Robert Rogers.
The patrol initiates movement, before completing the plan, followed by a typical day of patrolling under grueling weight through the woods, mountains, or swamps. At some point, the unit conducts reconnaissance of an objective, attacks an enemy position, withdraws, and moves to a new patrol base - where everything is repeated. Day after day, night after night. It is relentless.
A lot of weird stuff happens during the dark and hopeless hours between midnight and sunrise in a patrol base filled with 40 exhausted, starving, and sleep deprived Ranger students. There are countless (and mostly true) stories of Rangers mistaking trees for vending machines, talking to shrubs, hallucinating an enemy in front of their position, and a host of other oddities you rarely see anywhere else. One night a Ranger was walking around the patrol base half naked with his imaginary key fob out clicking the horn button. He was quite upset to be informed that he would not be finding his car, but got over it once he was placed on his ruck and told to go to sleep.
Sleep may be an option (or a necessity) for an individual contributor, but not for the Patrol Leader. 3:00 am in the patrol base is where you make your money as a leader. Stumbling through the camp amidst the scattered, shivering bodies, you have to set your eyes on the tasks at hand to accomplish the mission. As a leader, you cannot “mail it in” at 3:00 am in the patrol base.
3:00 am in the patrol base is when the last thing you want to do is the first thing you need to do.
Your 3:00 am tasks can make or break you. In Ranger School, it’s when you check the position of the machine guns to create the best security perimeter for your platoon. In your organization, it might look like that monthly report, that monthly client update, or the project that you just haven’t gotten to.
You’ve worked that full day, coached your team, supported them during their trials, reduced those obstacles that keep them from achieving their monthly goal, or gone the extra mile for a company initiative. And yet there’s still those extra few tasks that are wholly yours or those delegated tasks that must be monitored for mission success.
A leader's work is never done. And a leader should never be out-committed by one of their people.
When it’s “3:00 am in the patrol base” in your organization, it’s your time to earn your salt, leader. Though imperfect at times, you must be the one in the patrol that insists your people get their 30 minutes of sleep while you check the guns to ensure the unit is covered. You have to check the sector stakes to make necessary adjustments, which means you have to get up and move.
Dig deep in that moment. In Ranger School, the difference between you getting your “GO” to graduate, or earning a “NO-GO” and recycling is the willingness to choose the hard right over the easy wrong at 3:00 am in the patrol base. In business, it might be the difference between your next professional breakthrough or another year of “good enough” performance.
You’ve put in the work, of that we have no doubt. We know you’re tired and hungry and deserve a little reprieve. But this is when your people need you most. Checking the guns at 3:00 am isn’t glamorous, and will likely go unappreciated - until it isn’t done and the patrol gets overrun. Trust us when we say that your consistency and intentionality compounded over time will ultimately breed mission and team success.
So, it’s 3:00 am in the patrol base, leader, what needs to get done?
Thumbnail photo credit: tfiorez via Unsplash