The Unspoken Super Power In Business.
In a world where many Navy SEALs and other seasoned professionals separate from the military or their past careers and choose a path of executive coaching, motivational speaking, or are searching for a paid corporate board position…
…many of them don’t find immediate success and often give up after a handful of months.
Over the last 5 years, I have had the opportunity to connect with hundreds of these professionals as they transition into their next chapter of life and career.
I ask them all a common question: do you want to do this alone or with a team?
To my surprise, many of them say, “I want to do this on my own and build a soloprenuer business that’s mine.”
As an entrepreneur myself, I will not criticize someone in pursuit of their American Dream.
But, as you noticed, I did say “to my surprise.”
I am surprised that elite performers who have found success and performed at optimal levels in a TEAM environment, now choose to pursuit a path without a team.
A few things I will note that were important to me when I started Victory Strategies:
The name. It had to have meaning that was unrelated to the military and didn’t draw credibility or components from my previous career as a Navy SEAL. It was also important to me that our company’s name represented who we are, who we serve, and didn’t silo us into only being a team of “one kind.” When I was thinking about starting this company I began conducting market analyses and in doing so, I read the book, “The Firm: the story of McKinsey” by Duff McDonald. In this book, there is a portion of it that discusses the hardships the company faced when the founder, James McKinsey passed away. Clients were left wondering, “well if the guy who’s name is on the door is gone, is the company as well?” So crafting a name for our company with my name in it was out of the picture.
The people. I have always enjoyed working with team-players. No, I didn’t say high-performers, or great subject matter experts, or people who have accomplished great things in the past. I said, team-players. People that perform, and execute our objectives because they want the team to succeed (knowing that if the team succeeds, they succeed). Team-players are always focused on supporting each other, team initiatives, and continuous improvement of themselves so that they can perform better for their teammates. There is a level of “pressure” on the Victory Strategies Team to perform at a high-level and deliver solutions for our clients that truly accelerate their leadership. If you asked a Victory Strategies Team member where that pressure comes from, they will more than likely reply with, “I don’t want to let my team down.” Another truth is, every single Victory Strategies Team member has achieved incredible things throughout their life journey so far and could be successful as a soloprenuer…but they don’t care to be one because it’s lonely, it has a limit, and most importantly, it means they don’t have a team to learn, grow, develop, and win with.
The value. When I say value, I’m not just speaking of our company’s core values (which are the foundation of our identity), but I’m also speaking of the value we provide to our clients. At the conclusion of 2022, we ended the year and entered 2023 with a client retention and renewal rate of 94%. We keep a close eye on this conversion metric because it is an example of the value we are providing to our clients and teammates that we work alongside. On a regular basis, we are consistently evaluating what our team can do to improve our processes, methods, services, customer service and so on…so that our clients continue to receive value from our ability to influence their leaders and culture which in return influences their organization’s performance. We offer five services- we could offer 20+ but we have chosen to provide our five core services because we know that no one else in the market can do what we do better than us…and our clients know it too.
As any entrepreneur knows, there are thousands of thoughtful decisions that have needed to be made and will continue to be made but for now, it was important for me to mention the three above.
I titled this article, “The Unspoken Superpower In Business” because the reality is, many organizations do not contribute enough of their success to their team and from personal experience, Victory Strategies is what it is today, because of the team we have been thoughtful in assembling.
The #1 thing we look for in a potential teammate is, “are they a team-player?”
Everyone can intend to be a team-player but what truly matters is their actions.
Do they embody what it means to be a team-player with how they live their life? Personally and professionally.
Life is full of choices.
I’m curious what might be your next life adventure?
Will you do it alone?
Or will you have a superpower?
A team.
Authored By: Jacob Werksman, Founder & CEO
