The Program: Lessons From Elite Military Units for Creating and Sustaining High Performance Leaders and Teams

by Eric Kapitulik, Jake Macdonald

Discover the military’s keys to excellent leadership and team building training The Lessons From Elite Military Units for Creating and Sustaining High Performing Leaders and Teams offers a hands-on guide to the winning techniques and tactics of The Program, the acclaimed team building and leadership development company. Drawing on the actual experiences of The Program’s instructors from their personal combat stories to working with world-class athletic teams and successful corporations, the book clearly shows how The Program’s training operations can help to achieve life goals and ambitions. The Program offers a road map that contains illustrative examples, ideas, and approaches for improving teammates and leaders at all levels within an organization of any size or type. This important book explores the military’s leadership and team building concepts that can be implemented to ensure an organization creates and sustains performance that adheres to the highest standards of excellence. 

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Management, Psychology, Self Help

304 pages, Hardcover

Published September 4, 2019

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memorable lessons from THE PROGRAM

To consistently accomplish the mission on whatever our chosen battlefield, organizations must have (1) the best people, (2) goals and standards, and finally, (3) a daily commitment to holding one another accountable for achieving them

TEAMS DON’T FAIL because of a lack of people. Teams fail because of who those people are.

Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely

When adversity strikes, we don’t “rise to the occasion.” We sink to the level of our training. More specifically, we fall back on the habits that we have created right up until that moment.

We don’t always get what we deserve, we only get what we earn.

Hard Work Is One More™ While your competition is running 5 x 400 m Sprints you are running 6 x 400 m sprints! Do one more.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful read for those who want to make their organization more effective. It goes over creating and enforcing a culture of excellence, what it means to be an effectice team leader/teammate, building toughness, the power of doing 'one more' and effective communication methods.

[Dimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and to the point. Has provided tons of valuable insight in setting a successful team up - and communicating clearly.

[Khan Ashraf Alif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neatly compiled and presented.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of really helpful stuff in here for leading teams!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great thoughts, action items, and stories about leadership and how to be a great teammate. Highly recommend to anyone looking to develop leadership skills and especially for any coach.

[Brad]

AoM podcast #561, 11/18/19

Core values -> standards -> behaviors
Nice and kind are different

[Leo Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for anyone in a position of leadership or influence.

[Kayla M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for Work

[Russ Adcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it because we took our team (I coach high school girl's softball) through "The Program" and it was recommended by my friend Cory Ross (who lead our team through the program and whose story is featured in the book). Great leadership lessons from a military perspective. Many nuggets of wisdom. The chapters are short and move quickly. Good for coaches, business leaders, pastors, or anyone who leads a "team" in any capacity.

[J.M. Guillemette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revised Review - My initial review of this book was extremely negative. That could have been the frame of mind I was in when I read it, the social environment of the time, and countless other reasons. This year I was asked to participate in a virtual class with the authors of The Program as part of my day to day job. After participating in the virtual class and re-reading the book I can honestly say I was initially a little harsh. There are good things in this book that can be put into immediate use if you were never taught them as a Supervisor. There are good reminders for those that have been in supervision for a long time. There are some slog chapters that just don’t apply to an office environment. If you go into this book with an open mind you will be able to pick out the good while skipping the parts that make in a slog.






This book was required reading for supervisors at my work. There are a few good things inside the book, but most of those items can also be found in other places like Harvard Business Review.

This book is filled with legacy “Command and Control” style leadership. If you desire limited to zero diversity of thought, then this is the book for you. If you manage knowledge workers that need the freedom to be creative in a constructive environment I suggest you stay away from the practices set forth in this book.

[John Pennington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Leadership Book I’ve read in years

Loved the way this book was layed out! There were educational lessons and great stories combined with real-life applications. All of these tied the leadership lessons together perfectly! Also loved the short chapters

[Tim Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical leadership

Inspiring stories complement clearly organized and very practical leadership training that can be applied in the home, the athletic field or the boardroom.