Training Teamwork and Leadership

Training is an effective teambuilding and leadership training arena when programmed and coached with this goal in mind. Injecting a leadership or team drill into the equation when the team is fatigued and under simulated stress is a great way to test for and inculcate leadership skills. Can your team perform technically while under duress? Do they “go within” or take care of their teammates? Who steps up to lead when there is a vacuum? We have a long background teaching leadership and teambuilding and firmly believe that these attributes can be trained. Having said that, the

“will to lead” must come from within. Program your Unit or Team PT with leadership, teamwork, mental toughness and durability as goals. Following the online SEAL FIT.com WODS and modifying them for a team is a good start.

Here are some tactics for using your team PT as a teamwork and leader development experience:

•Coach your team to be self-reliant with prepping the workout, setting up stations and loads before being told to do so, breaking things down and cleaning up without prompting. Hallmarks of a great team are when every single person takes personal responsibility for the workout – from planning, to set up, equipment and safety, transitions, the welfare of their teammates, etc.

• Teammates much check their ego at the door. Hold them accountable if they let their ego get in the way of team effectiveness. The best way to do this is to have the team call it out. Also use the debrief to address deficiencies of form and character.

• Humor: have fun, tell jokes. Humor is a hallmark of mental toughness and a team that jokes in good form (ie: not directed at anyone’s expense, not caustic or demeaning) while working hard is a solid team. The coaching staff usually leads the charge in the hilarity department. During SEAL BUD/s training I was convinced they sent the cadre to funny school. We laughed all the way through 6 months of hell.

• Encourage the team and demand full measure. Call out anyone leaving it on the table while the rest of the team is putting out. Call out anyone with questionable numbers on a count. Absolute integrity in the Teams work effort is to be hammered home at all times. Demand fast transitions between sets, and working session with limited or no rest.

Coach individuals to time their “rest” and transitions by the breath (limit to 3-5 breaths) and coach the team to move “fast but not chaotically” through the working sessions.

• Coach the team to load to challenge personal standards. When working sessions have more than one person on bar, pair similar strength trainees together and load the bar slightly heavier than the weakest person. Consider having the stronger members perform an additional rep or two. Allow them to add / subtract weight (such as 3RM sessions, and perhaps Strength Stamina sessions if you are not pressed for time. Avoid overloading at the risk of slowing the team down or causing injuries.

• Develop a team culture of seriously hard work and mutual respect. Have fun, limit caustic remarks and encourage “silent professional” behavior. The pride that comes from accomplishing the punishing WODs of SEAL FIT should be shared internally, not externally with bravado. Remember there is always someone out there doing it harder, better, stronger or faster than you. The key is to train hard, strong and fast every day. In the long-run it is the best trained man / team that wins, not the most talented.

• Coach with a strong presence and don’t hesitate to train during the WOD alongside your team. “we eat our own dogfood” is our mantra at the SEAL FIT training center. The guys love it when the boss can beat them at a WOD. Even if I don’t beat them (which is often the case) I always put out 100% lead by example. 

Working out and coaching simultaneously is somewhat of a dance – your workout may be less intense than you would like, because you have one eye always glued on the action and are ready to address any issue that arises. You must be totally present and aware, watching for safety issues, load challenges, form, team- building opportunities, leadership challenges, equipment shortfalls, intensity modulation and other nuances while you are also throwing loads over your head.

can be very gratifying. We allow teammates to coach segments of the WODs to give them leadership experience.

• Be patient. Safety is paramount. Your team is not very effective if a third of them are on the bench. There is always tomorrow if equipment, weather, or something else seriously challenges the practicality and prudence of sticking with the plan. “No plan survives first contact” is a reference to military plans meeting the reality of the battlefield. 

Plan your dive, and be prepared to dive your plan, but also don’t hesitate to be flexible if circumstances are unfavorable. Don’t rush things that should not be rushed. Modify the workout on the fly if you are running out of time or space, or if it is not working out as you thought it would. We modify all the time at the SEAL FIT training center – it keeps the team on their toes and accustomed to constant change. This builds mental toughness and flexibility.

• Coach team to quickly support an injured teammate, then get back in the fight. A durable team will dress the wound and train through the pain of light injuries. Show-stopping injuries are dealt with immediately and with proper medical attention. Always have a first aid kit on hand, and a basic medical plan (who is the “doc?” where is the emergency room? Where is the med kit? Who is the driver? Who will call 911 if necessary? Etc.).

• Don’t let perfect get in the way of solid training. A perfect snatch takes years to develop. Just do it (safely at an appropriate load), and get better in the doing. Same with a team WOD – a perfectly designed WOD is like a perfect mission plan – it may not survive contact with the enemy!

“I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.” - Teddy Roosevelt

Team PT leadership:

• Have the team set up the workout space and loads in advance so you can start immediately after the brief.

• Brief the session like a mini-PLO. Situation, Mission, Execution, Command and Control, Logistics, Safety, etc. Again this can be SOP so it is not a slow or laborious process. The session brief should be only a few minutes, and it is the time to make sure everyone is crystal clear on what is expected of them, and the flow of the training session. Good teams take the time to brief well.

• Be the taskmaster if the session is moving too slowly, or the team is too chatty or un-motivated. Get the workout going as quickly as possible. Getting people moving is the best way to get them motivated.

• Coach the team to take care of Team gear first, then personal gear.

• Debrief every training session. The focus of the debrief is lessons learned, personal victories and challenges, and call-outs for poor performance. Calling someone out must be non-personal – meaning it is not a personal attack but a teaching opportunity. The offending teammate must not leave feeling chastised, rather that his performance was observed and he is now motivated to not repeat the poor performance.

Team PT design:

• Treat each training session like a short mission

• Start with the objectives of the session. We plan our training sessions monthly and build the objectives into the plan so that we do not miss or repeat things. The plan should include the workout stages, loads, reps, sets, timed or not timed, who is leading, team assignments (if necessary), etc. Much of this can be “SOP” so that it is done as routine.

•Determine time constraints

•Determine equipment required and other resources (water / food, transportation, etc.)

• Determine skills to be trained, both hard and soft skills

• Balance the session based on the fitness and skill level of the team

• Add some inter-team competition into the Work Capacity segment – it pays to be a winner.

•Consider a theme for the WOD: ie: Hero benchmark, Full Mission Profile, etc.