Unlocking Potential: How Great Leaders Get the Most Out of Individuals, Teams & Organizations

by Ben Bergeron, Christine Bald

Ben Bergeron has dedicated his life to maximizing human performance. He is best known for his work with CrossFit Games champions, but his success extends well beyond the world of sports. Long before he coached anyone to a CrossFit Games title, Ben was maximizing the performance of his businesses—CrossFit New England and CompTrain. In the follow-up to his bestselling first book, he shares the leadership principles that propelled both organizations to the same level of success enjoyed by his athletes. Unlocking Potential does for leaders what Chasing Excellence did for individuals—reverse engineers Ben’s approach into a blueprint that works equally well for parents, teachers, surgeons, military officers and CEOs—anyone in a leadership position who wants to help their team break out of average and achieve greatness. In UNLOCKING POTENTIAL, you’ll learn how to lead people further than they could ever go on their own, so that your team can achieve more than it ever has before.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

224 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2021

Reviews

[Emily Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

First chapter is written a little sloppily, but the rest is well edited. It’s like the Ideal Team Player meets CrossFit.

[Espen Stølan Holten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Praktiske, konkrete lederskapserfaringer med caser fra å lede en CrossFit Box. Moro hvis man er litt «inn i» CrossFit, ellers ikke den skarpeste boken.

[Murr BOOKS · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does it mean to be a leader? How can developing a clear vision, purpose and mission help teams reach their true potential? Ben Bergeron explains his model for leadership that highlights what could help change any business; be it a gym, a restaurant, a store or even a barn. By combining a sense of culture, vision, and execution organizations may move up the ladder of success, fostering samepageness, trust and group flow in order to influence extraordinary results. This book is chalk full of actionable advice on not only the principles of success to follow but how to communicate and implement these principles effectively. A must read for any leader (and I'll give you a hint; we're all leaders in some capacity).

[Shelly P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I follow the author, Ben Bergeron. He is a husband, father, successful CrossFit Games coach, accomplished business owner of Crossfit New England, Comptrain and podcaster. Now 2 time best selling author. I like the simplicity and unpretentious delivery of a high level concept. I appreciate the presentation of an idea followed by an example of action. Lot's of take aways for everyday individuals who interact in any position, regardless of your title.

[Steffen Lautrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Er vild med Ben's historier og hans måde at forklare komplekse ting.
Her får man en masse værktøjer til at få det bedre frem i andre, men også stof til eftertanke omkring en selv.

Giver den 5 stjerner da jeg ikke kan give den 4.5.
Den bliver trukket lidt i langdrag fra tid til anden. Altså at en pointe bliver beskrevet gennem tre historier er lidt for meget efter min smag.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this is the first book on "Leadership" that you have ever picked up, Ben does a great job at summarizing and putting into practice some great and popular concepts. The fact that it is written from a perspective of a gym owner and coach makes it easy to digest and apply if that is you as well.

Overall easy read, good take-aways.

[Eric Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a lot of respect for Ben and the knowledge, passion, and ideas for growth he has and shares. However, this book offers a collection of ideas that are similar across many leadership books. Although I do agree with what he points out in his book, I expected more and something different.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read for any small business owner, not just those in the CrossFit industry. Ben is an excellent example of an effective leader and shares his journey in becoming one.

[Tyler Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of, if not the, best leadership book I have ever read. I will say this book is not for everyone but if you like tough love, hard truths, and a challenge - this book is for you.

[Patrick Sawler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book about bringing out the best in ourselves and others

[Trevor Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the way the Ben approaches leadership. His insight in both applicable and relatable. Throughout the book, he gives detail of how his close attention and lack of attention to specific things in both businesses led to improvements for the teams and their cultures. Ben works in the health and wellness space and most of the book is written from that pov, but I felt was relatable to outside endeavors.

[Stijn Grijsbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book on how to build an effective team in a business. If you’re in to CrossFit, than this will be a great mix. Ben truly is an inspiring person with lots of knowledge. I think the methods described in this book are timeless, you can implement this in every context where you have to work with a team!

[Mylon Pruett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Unlocking Potential and I really think it sets itself apart from standard leadership or development books. At its core Unlocking Potential is about how great leaders develop their teams specifically focusing on the importance of three key components: culture, vision, and execution. But there’s a lot of books out there similar to this, and in fact I’ve read many of the books that this one references, but I do believe that Unlocking Potential does something unique.

Where most leadership books seem to write from a place of success, Unlocking Potential always begins with what went wrong. Throughout the book the formula is to tell a story about what went wrong, what the solution was, what they did to implement the solution, and how it improved things. I think it really connected with me because it felt like somebody was telling me how it went wrong for them so that I could avoid it.

While I do think the book is just a little short, and possibly a little high level I don’t know that that’s actually bad. While he doesn’t deep dive into any one topic it also doesn’t feel like he skips over anything. It’s as if Unlocking Potential gives you the tools you need and trusts that if you want to know more about a specific topic you’ll utilize the references in the book to dive deeper.

I really think I’ll recommend this book to many, many people. Maybe, if they’ve already read most of the books he is citing then I would say they could pass on it, but I already know I’m gonna hand this book to several people because I think it’s an amazing read.

Time to Read: 3 hours