As I noted in my last post, I am a goal setter and regularly take stock of where I’ve been and where I’m heading at intervals throughout the year. I’m on a mission to share my High Performance Frameworks to help leaders and high performance teams achieve more than they originally thought possible. As I reflect on what I’ve shared on this site, I’ve come up with a baker’s dozen of blog posts that earned their way into the top-viewed posts of 2019. I am so grateful for your readership, and as as we look back on these posts from 2019, here’s to keeping the Unstoppable momentum going and making 2020 our BEST YEAR yet!
What Do You Think LEADERS Do?
Leadership doesn’t start when you have people that work for you; it starts with you leading yourself—you are your own first client. So by the time you are charged with the responsibility of leading others, you recognize that NO ONE works FOR you, they work WITH you. With that in mind, I am sharing a summary of my responses to the question: “What do you think LEADERS do?”
Why I Wrote Unstoppable Teams
The reason I’ve written this book, Unstoppable Teams, is that I have seen firsthand the importance of care-based leading. From leading Navy Seals to leading startups, it’s been my experience that anybody that truly cares about something and is willing to care, not just for the goal but for those around them, can be an Unstoppable Team leader. This is why I wrote Unstoppable Teams.
Characteristics of Unstoppable Teams
Unstoppable Teams are characterized by their ability to bring diverse individual gifts to bear upon the team’s goals through a shared sense of purpose and a deep commitment to each other. You can assemble as many individual superstars as you’d like, but they won’t become unstoppable unless they believe in each other and in their collective mission.
Navy SEAL Mindset Training—Motivational Secrets
In this post, I would like to share more navy SEAL mindset training secrets to gaining confidence and developing persistence in the face of adversity. To put the source of these motivational mindsets into context, here is a little background on the most difficult physical, mental and emotional tests a Navy SEAL in training can experience.
Teamwork, Soft Skills, and the Leadership CARE Loop
Teamwork soft skills are leadership actions that show you care about your team’s growth and well-being, which catalyze the transformation of a group of loosely knit individuals into an unstoppable team. The highest performing teams are built on a foundation of care—the same bedrock emotions that keep families healthy and happy.
Alpha Mike
Alpha Mike is your acronym for starting each day. Committing to All in–Move out. No matter what your goal you must do two simple things: commit and take action—that’s what Alpha Mike stands for. To go “All in” is to commit your action platform (mental, emotional and physical) to work toward your goal. To “Move out” is to make actions toward your goal happen.
High Performance Training, Team Building and Leadership
My motivational keynote speaker engagements cover three main topics: leadership, team building, and high-performance training. They can range from just a small segment of Navy SEAL stories to making the entire thing about a Navy SEAL inspirational experience. The point is I work with you, the owners and the event planners, to make a transformative experience for everybody in the audience.
How to Be Unstoppable—TEDx IESE Barcelona
At the Naval Academy, I would go to sleep thinking about those individuals who said I couldn’t graduate; I would hear their voices, I would see their faces. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was personalizing my goal and visualizing its outcome. For every goal since then, I’ve used an Outcome Account to outline my reason for putting my head down, working hard, and filtering out those who will help me from those who want to see me fail.
7 Traits of Unstoppable Teammates
No one person can do it all. The challenge is to overcome our self-centered thoughts and to willingly accept that other people can have better ideas. Having led all kinds of different teams in the last twenty-five years, from sports to SEALs to companies and charities, I have discovered seven traits that characterize unstoppable teammates.
Respect: What Goes Around Comes Around
Respect—from within the team and for the team—must be earned. The goal of Respect is contribution—where all team members willingly contribute their best efforts and new ideas. Earning it is the right thing to do for its own sake, but it also has a deep impact on a team’s performance and its ability to gain visibility and resources from others.
The Number One Demon is Doubt
Without question, the number one demon that you must slay on a daily, hourly, and sometimes minute-by-minute basis, is doubt. It comes in all forms and has one mission—to distract and redirect your efforts. Doubt is powerful, because it ultimately comes from you. You have a choice—we always have a choice—and the choice is deciding what you want to hear.
Three Ways to Connect with People
It doesn’t matter whether you’re coaching basketball teams, leading SEAL Teams, or building corporate teams; all teams are built on relationships. A team builder’s role is to be a relationship builder, which requires learning how to connect with people mentally and emotionally. Connecting with all kinds of people is a process of trial and error. Don’t despair if you don’t get everything right at first.
The Five Leadership Actions to Achieve Results
Teams exist for one reason: to achieve results. So many people confuse a group, club, or a gathering of people with a fully realized team. However, getting a group of people together is only the first step in the process (See my Seven Traits of Unstoppable Teammates). Forming connections comes next (Check out Three Ways to Connect with People). Now, we turn to the next step, which is setting the team’s direction.
THANK YOU for joining me in being unstoppable and hope you have a FANTASTIC New Year!
Go Forth, Team-up, and Make Greatness Happen!
Ready to dig deeper into this idea? Buy a copy of Unstoppable Teams.
Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership Unstoppable Teams is the handbook for how to build care-based teams that will push people to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Alpha Mike.
