Why did David take on Goliath?
Mindset Matters
Racing down an old country road with my heart throbbing in my chest; it climbs suddenly as another bead of sweat jumps from my brow onto my Oakleys. This time, leaving a translucent salty trail as it runs down the lens, annoyingly obscuring my vision as I approach the section of the road that has been on my mind for the last three months. I make the turn onto the fated road.-Mindset- "I will ride again."
Escalation is inevitable, your deescalation skills is where your value lies.
Visualization and Finding the ‘Hidden Reps’
Battle Daily, Destiny Awaits
“Bashert” is a Yiddish word intimating destiny, commonly used in the context of one’s soulmate.
The Platoon Commander tour for a Navy SEAL is the pinnacle for a young officer. It was for me. It’s the ultimate in operational leadership. While rank gets you professional courtesy, you must earn respect. As with many operational leadership roles, that happens through your experiences of shared misery - - in the trenches WITH them.
Be a Utility Player
When I started my college baseball career, my primary position was as a catcher. However, I quickly learned that I did not have the skill set required to be an everyday catcher in college. To find more playing time, I took advantage of every opportunity to learn and play new positions. My senior year…
The Greatest Country in the World
My Last Fist Fight
I was in Las Vegas, Nevada participating in medical currency training with a Las Vegas regional hospital, the city Fire/Rescue system and the contract ambulance service. This was around 1993, every two years our Paramedic, nationally accredited medical certification needed to be re-certified and certain performance and knowledge skills needed to be accomplished to reestablish our abilities endorsement. I am 28 years old, at the peak of my tactical game…
Focus On The Process
Most sports teams at the beginning of their season have lofty goals such as winning a national championship. Winning a national championship can be a daunting goal, and the path to reach that goal is long and arduous. To achieve such a lofty goal, you must break the journey down into smaller and more manageable steps. When my college baseball team won a conference title, we did so by focusing…
Micro Quits = Macro Quits.
Growth Mindset
Cyber Attacks are REAL...Do you have a plan for action or are you willing to just roll the dice?
It seems like cyber threats and attacks only happen to larger companies and organizations (due to the fact the media outlets report these large-scale breaches and outbreaks). The truth is the most frequent threat(s) actually occur in small to medium sized businesses. We actually saw this first hand with a client recently, where they were down for 3 days, result of a virus similar to what impacted The Weather Channel recently…
We cannot predict or see the future...but we can plan for it.
Failure Creates Winners…Quitting Creates Quitters…
Communicate the WHY
In sports, the military, and business it is easy to go through the motions of a task mindlessly, and many people mistake activity for productivity. For example, during a typical baseball practice, it was easy for me to field hundreds of groundballs mindlessly. However, if I did not have a clear purpose to what I wanted to work on when fielding the groundballs, then the time spent fielding the groundballs was a waste of time. The best coaches are the ones who can…
More Rest = More Performance?
Are you getting the most out of your team? Are you looking to enhance motivation and morale? Try giving your team more rest.
It was on my first combat deployment as the Special Forces team’s assistant detachment commander when I realized that one of my most important duties was understanding when my team needed to rest. We were living in an Afghan village, running missions day and night, and responsible for pulling guard on our compound. Fatigue leads to carelessness, carelessness leads to mistakes, and in combat mistakes can lead to serious injuries or worse.
5 Team-Building Tips from a Former Green Beret
Green Berets have a high degree of emotional intelligence and are great at training partner forces and building rapport. Green Berets are known as “the quiet professionals.” Their operations are designed to be done in secret, and for their work to go largely unnoticed and unrecognized. To operate this way takes a great deal of planning, cooperation, and, teamwork.
Commander's Intent
Motivating a team and aligning them against the same goal is a critical task for every manager. As a former Green Beret, I always think of the Commander’s Intent we used when planning missions as a great way to provide motivation and alignment. Green Beret and Army Commanders use the Commander’s Intent to sum up all the essentials of a mission with no extra fluff.
Embrace and Learn from Failure
Failure was a regular part of my life both while playing college baseball and in the Navy. Failure was accepted as a part of doing business in both communities. Failure is embraced by the best athletes and F/A-18 aircrew because they see the value in failure as an opportunity to learn and a necessary step towards improvement. Every hitter in baseball will go through the humbling experience of a hitting slump where it seems like you can’t even remember the last time that you got a base hit. Rather than hide from my failures as a hitter, I learned to embrace…