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Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership
Three-time Navy SEAL platoon commander and founder of Perfect Fitness reveals how to put together teams that can accomplish any objective—by leveraging an unexpected set of values and priorities. SEALs and civilians operate in extremely different environments, but what makes both kinds of teams excel comes down to the same service to others, trust, empathy, and a caring environment. Alden Mills has experience working in both the military and the private sector, as a SEAL platoon commander and as a startup founder of Perfect Fitness. He’s seen firsthand what it takes to lead an unstoppable team of individuals.Teams are nothing more than a series of interconnected relationships with a collective, single-minded focus. Success almost never depends on individual talent and valor; instead, Alden Mills shows, it depends, first, on creating a strong foundation for yourself and, second, using that foundation to help others go beyond their individual pursuits and talents to create something bigger and better—an unstoppable team.Unstoppable Teams show managers at every level, at both large and small organizations, including private, public, and nonprofit, how to inspire, motivate, and lead the people around them. Mills draws on stories from his own experiences to impart these surprising team-building many people mistake groups of individuals for a team.No two people are alike, but we all have the same genetic drivers that motivate us—our will to survive, our ego-driven desire for personal gain, and our soul-driven yearning to be a part of something greater than ourselves.When we override our fears about survival, we can focus on our desire to thrive.The more you care for your teammates, the more they will dare for the team.Great ideas are not reserved for a select few—true teams embrace diversity of thought to find winning ideas.These lessons aren’t exclusive to the Navy SEALs; they are used by successful entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, coaches, and sport captains—and now you can master them too. Unstoppable Teams is the handbook for how to build care-based teams that will push people to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
240 pages, ebook
Published March 26, 2019
63 people are currently reading
626 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
September 26, 2019
The introduction, first chapter and conclusion include fascinating glimpses into the life and thoughts of a navy seal commander. The general premise of the book is good and a quick summary of what it means to be a compassionate and driven leader. The framework feel flat for me though. As long as you subscribe to the “don’t be a dick” management philosophy, you probably do much of this already.
I’m enamored with military leadership and have learned a lot from studying these men and women. No matter how hard I try though, most of the examples don’t translate well to the civilian business environment. The stakes are just too different. No matter how critical you are to your business, your absence will never be as critical as when a military leader is taken out or a team comes under fire. The book is worth a quick scan paying special attention to the beginning and end. The glimpses of Mr. Mills’ experiences are truly fascinating, well written and worth the read.
I’m enamored with military leadership and have learned a lot from studying these men and women. No matter how hard I try though, most of the examples don’t translate well to the civilian business environment. The stakes are just too different. No matter how critical you are to your business, your absence will never be as critical as when a military leader is taken out or a team comes under fire. The book is worth a quick scan paying special attention to the beginning and end. The glimpses of Mr. Mills’ experiences are truly fascinating, well written and worth the read.
September 22, 2020
Meh. The author relied too much on rhetoric and anecdotes, and thereby missed an opportunity to deliver something truly powerful. One's own experience without the overlay of, say, the wealth of research on this topic, lacks applicability beyond a certain personality type and set-up. While we might agree that the "CARE" framework indeed contains key pieces of the puzzle, Mills fails to really dig into the nuances of leadership and team dynamics. What do you do, for example, if your team members are *not* engaging with one another well? I can throw all the respect around I want, but at the end of the day even one individual on a team can create significant problems for the rest of us. All the acronyms and pumped up key words in the world won't solve that problem without significantly more nuance and depth brought in.
Not sure this one is really worth your time. There are better books (blog posts, even) on the topic of building teams.
Not sure this one is really worth your time. There are better books (blog posts, even) on the topic of building teams.
June 28, 2021
This is another book that is a little outside of my comfort zone! Definitely a more informational read about how to build a team in whatever professional setting you find yourself. I read this through the lens of someone trying to build a classroom community/team. This book would definitely be more suited for someone interested in a start-up company or in a more business related profession. I was interested about the author’s experiences being a SEAL.
November 27, 2020
In a nutshell... old wine in a new bottle, with new analogies! Might be a good read for a first timer for team and leadership genre.
August 12, 2023
Book of the Day – Unstoppable Teams
Today’s Book of the Day is UNSTOPPABLE TEAMS, written by Alden Mills in 2019 and published by Harper Collins.
Alden Mills is a three-time Navy SEAL platoon commander, a longtime entrepreneur, with over 40 patents, the CEO of Perfect Fitness, and an expert in high-performance leadership, sales, and team-building.
I have chosen this book because of the distinctive approach it proposes to building and inspiring teams.
Alden Mills has a long experience in team leadership, starting from the Navy SEALS. This makes his point of view extremely practical and goal-oriented. The right approach to appreciate this book is to remember that even if SEALs and civilians seem to be far away in their approach and operative fields, what makes a good team is almost the same: helping others, trust, empathy, and a (mutual) caring spirit.
According to the author, teams are not just a bunch of people put together in the same place. A team is a series of interconnected personal relationships with collectively agreed-on focus and goals.
Starting with this definition, it becomes clear that successful teams are the ones that do not depend on individual talent, skills, or knowledge; instead, they rely on improving every member’s skills in helping and serving others, to have a group of individuals whose collective achievements are bigger than the sum of the individual ones.
Unstoppable Teams shows its readers how it is possible to lead a team by motivating its members in the most meaningful way. Mills brings his own personal and professional experience to the drawing table to create his own framework, called CARE.
To put together unstoppable teams, the author suggests any leader, whatever the environment the team is working in, should:
Connect
Achieve
Respect
Empower
The main goal of this approach is to let every member of a team find his/her own motivation and then use that to proactively develop a sense of community, where the entire team pursues something that is greater than themselves, something that will have a tangible, positive effect on many more people.
Using this approach, with a strong, distinctive reminiscence of military and sports training, every member of a team will develop a deep sense of belonging and a collective mindset, that will help him/her work for the higher interest of the team goals, ideals, and values.
In this scenario, diversity of thought is an essential tool to find and develop winning strategies. Also, the focus of team-building is on the creation and fostering of meaningful relationships between the members, who should develop empathy, care, and altruism as ways to succeed and grow.
In conclusion, even if the book could sound a little bit too rhetorical in some points, I find it a good handbook about how to build teams where the members will support one another to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Today’s Book of the Day is UNSTOPPABLE TEAMS, written by Alden Mills in 2019 and published by Harper Collins.
Alden Mills is a three-time Navy SEAL platoon commander, a longtime entrepreneur, with over 40 patents, the CEO of Perfect Fitness, and an expert in high-performance leadership, sales, and team-building.
I have chosen this book because of the distinctive approach it proposes to building and inspiring teams.
Alden Mills has a long experience in team leadership, starting from the Navy SEALS. This makes his point of view extremely practical and goal-oriented. The right approach to appreciate this book is to remember that even if SEALs and civilians seem to be far away in their approach and operative fields, what makes a good team is almost the same: helping others, trust, empathy, and a (mutual) caring spirit.
According to the author, teams are not just a bunch of people put together in the same place. A team is a series of interconnected personal relationships with collectively agreed-on focus and goals.
Starting with this definition, it becomes clear that successful teams are the ones that do not depend on individual talent, skills, or knowledge; instead, they rely on improving every member’s skills in helping and serving others, to have a group of individuals whose collective achievements are bigger than the sum of the individual ones.
Unstoppable Teams shows its readers how it is possible to lead a team by motivating its members in the most meaningful way. Mills brings his own personal and professional experience to the drawing table to create his own framework, called CARE.
To put together unstoppable teams, the author suggests any leader, whatever the environment the team is working in, should:
Connect
Achieve
Respect
Empower
The main goal of this approach is to let every member of a team find his/her own motivation and then use that to proactively develop a sense of community, where the entire team pursues something that is greater than themselves, something that will have a tangible, positive effect on many more people.
Using this approach, with a strong, distinctive reminiscence of military and sports training, every member of a team will develop a deep sense of belonging and a collective mindset, that will help him/her work for the higher interest of the team goals, ideals, and values.
In this scenario, diversity of thought is an essential tool to find and develop winning strategies. Also, the focus of team-building is on the creation and fostering of meaningful relationships between the members, who should develop empathy, care, and altruism as ways to succeed and grow.
In conclusion, even if the book could sound a little bit too rhetorical in some points, I find it a good handbook about how to build teams where the members will support one another to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
January 15, 2022
In Unstoppable Teams, Navy SEAL platoon commander Alden Mills shares his CARE framework for leadership. To put together unstoppable teams, we should: Connect, Achieve, Respect, and Empower. From the author: “We’ll look at how emotional connections are formed, how goals are established and achieved, why mutual respect can become a renewable resource, and finally how empowerment keeps the team’s momentum rolling.
All in all… it was fine. If you’ve never read a leadership book before, you’ll probably get a lot out of it. Otherwise, it will serve as a good reminder of things that you’ve probably heard before. Not my favorite leadership book of all time, but I don’t regret reading it.
All in all… it was fine. If you’ve never read a leadership book before, you’ll probably get a lot out of it. Otherwise, it will serve as a good reminder of things that you’ve probably heard before. Not my favorite leadership book of all time, but I don’t regret reading it.
January 22, 2020
This book means so much to me as the unstoppable team I was so fortunate to have been a part of has disbanded. It is evident the author has experience being on and leading unstoppable teams and I think that a lot can be gained from his words both to those that would like to lead an unstoppable team to those who think unstoppable teams aren’t real. They are real and once you are on one it’ll be your mission in your life and career to keep the wheel moving and be apart of another one again.
Great read.
Great read.
April 19, 2019
I don't read a lot or really any non-fiction, but I picked this book up and funnily enough I found myself actually gaining motivation from the book to finish the book.
A great read through and through - I finally feel like I understand how leading means empowering those around you. Highly recommend not just for business, but for relationships of any kind - I've been working on being a better husband and this book has helped a lot.
A great read through and through - I finally feel like I understand how leading means empowering those around you. Highly recommend not just for business, but for relationships of any kind - I've been working on being a better husband and this book has helped a lot.
April 19, 2019
I don't read a lot or really any non-fiction, but I picked this book up and funnily enough I found myself actually gaining motivation from the book to finish the book.
A great read through and through - I finally feel like I understand how leading means empowering those around you. Highly recommend not just for business, but for relationships of any kind - I've been working on being a better husband and this book has helped a lot.
A great read through and through - I finally feel like I understand how leading means empowering those around you. Highly recommend not just for business, but for relationships of any kind - I've been working on being a better husband and this book has helped a lot.
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July 21, 2022Positive leadership is the ability to inspire others to imagine and dream with light-heartedness and joy, activating the desire to learn, grow and build outside the box and the status quo.
It stimulates the creation of new patterns in the mind, the abandonment of the cages of preformed patterns, the opening of new doors that lead to new actions and decisions in the direction of our vision.
Inspiring book!
It stimulates the creation of new patterns in the mind, the abandonment of the cages of preformed patterns, the opening of new doors that lead to new actions and decisions in the direction of our vision.
Inspiring book!
January 6, 2020
Easy to read book.
I did see another review that said "If you are a strong leader these are things that you are already doing." I can't agree more. What I did see in this book are a few unique approaches to it. The C.A.R.E. was a nice way of going about it.
If you are new to leadership I think this is a great book that is a must. I will be offering this to my employees to read.
I did see another review that said "If you are a strong leader these are things that you are already doing." I can't agree more. What I did see in this book are a few unique approaches to it. The C.A.R.E. was a nice way of going about it.
If you are new to leadership I think this is a great book that is a must. I will be offering this to my employees to read.
April 16, 2020
An interesting take on how to build an "unstoppable" team. I think it does well to talk about CARE and what that means to members of the team. While well-structured, I did feel that some topics were belabored in a way and the was a tad disengaging at times.
All in all, I do believe it drives home what it's like to work with humans and what leaders should do to make their team the strongest.
All in all, I do believe it drives home what it's like to work with humans and what leaders should do to make their team the strongest.
July 7, 2020
Easy read and reinforced a lot of common sense ideas. I enjoyed his examples from his Navy SEAL days. There's much here that's relevant to the corporate world. This book serves as a helpful reminder to do all the things you know are the right things to do as a leader, even if they aren't groundbreaking.
June 6, 2019
Much more technical than Alden's previous book and has less of the fictional story fascination.
Still, an extremely useful business book about how to apply Navy Seal skills to business.
If you need to learn how to build a team, this is the book!
Still, an extremely useful business book about how to apply Navy Seal skills to business.
If you need to learn how to build a team, this is the book!
July 29, 2019
Good solid material. How would one begin to build unstoppable team? Well, the book lays a foundation on where to begin: connecting, achieving, respecting and empowering. The CARE we show to our team(s), reveals the true package of how we love each member.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2019
Easy reading and I enjoyed the focus on C.A.R.E. - create achievement respect empower.
Filled with examples from his military and his business experience, the author creates an inspiring story and framework to follow to create high-performing teams within Amy organization.
Filled with examples from his military and his business experience, the author creates an inspiring story and framework to follow to create high-performing teams within Amy organization.
April 9, 2020
This is a great book related to leadership and the mistakes we can make as leaders and how to overcome them. It's a great resource for motivating others to be their best. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I met the author virtually and he is very genuine and supportive.
I met the author virtually and he is very genuine and supportive.
November 14, 2020
OK book - not too much to highlight. A big takeaway would be the 3 Rs to motivate your team from consideration and respect.
1. realize: respect comes from your own actions
2. recognize: publicly recognize your team on a frequent basis
3. require: respect your team so they will respect you
1. realize: respect comes from your own actions
2. recognize: publicly recognize your team on a frequent basis
3. require: respect your team so they will respect you
December 29, 2020
Good read, reinforcement of many points to building that unstoppable team. the one that sticks out was CARE loop, connect, achieve, respect and empower.
For all coaches and leader that want to improve your team, this is worth the read.
For all coaches and leader that want to improve your team, this is worth the read.
January 25, 2023
I found that this book was a gem. It focuses on a in my opinion otherwise largely neglected aspect of leadership. The strategies are simple but not easy. It definitely was one of the better books so far.
May 16, 2019
How to become the ultimate leader of an unstoppable team - the US Navy seals way. Fight through rainy days, don’t be a whiner.
Not my cup of tea! DNF
Not my cup of tea! DNF
August 26, 2019
While not as meaty as many leadership books, the CARE (Connect, Achieve, Respect, Empower) framework is a simple and easy to implement framework that can be used for all teams, professional and otherwise. The author's stories of his life as a SEAL and how this framework was used in high stakes situations are also interesting.
December 28, 2019
If you need a new way of thinking about leadership, you will be pumped to put the things you read into practice. Great book.
March 4, 2020
Simple, easy to follow advice on how to create great teams by someone who knows. A must read for everyone as we are all part of at least 1 team, most likely several.
August 25, 2020
I liked it pretty well. There were a couple of good takeaways for me, but I'm not sure it was as life-changing as I would have hoped.
February 5, 2022
The book is more about how it is like in the army then about teams. Then again the strongest teams might be formed in the army. Good key points to take away though.
January 6, 2023
Prescriptive nonsense: the 3 Rs, commitment, integrity and honesty - “don’t slouch in your chair”. Absolute dump of a book couldn’t finish it.
April 15, 2023
Had a hard time thinking that his methods based on his experience as a Navy SEAL will truly be applicable to a more complex, diverse group of people in a work environment.
November 11, 2023
Actually 4.5+ stars, Audible Book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews