Men, being the captain of the baseball team at West Point will be no different than any other leadership position you hold in your life. With that being said, I think there are three things that are worth focusing on. First, you have to love your people/team. When you deeply love your team, and make it clear that you love them, you will receive love back from them. Love fosters a trusting environment and gives you the freedom to ask for hard things during tough times. When we lost soldiers in combat, I cried like a baby with the rest of the unit. My clear devotion to and love for the soldiers gave me the freedom to say, “get your gear on and let’s go out into harm’s way again.” If there wasn’t mutual love then they would have sent me out onto the battlefield by myself.

Following love you have to earn respect. Respect is not earned by being the best at everything. Respect is earned by doing the right thing every time and by never asking your team to do something that you wouldn’t do or have already done. I would have never asked my guys to go into a building where bad people were going to shoot at us unless I was the first one through the door. In your case, don’t expect 110% effort unless you are there every day giving 110% effort. To be clear, being the best isn’t a requirement, but when you are the leader you should be striving to be the best constantly.

After love and respect are achieved, you hold people accountable. All championship teams have high standards. You think it’s okay for the Patriots to practice in a mediocre fashion? Do you think Nick Saban lets his football players joke around when it is time to get better? The answer to both of those is no. As leaders, you are responsible for setting and ENFORCING a high standard. You don’t have to be mean about it, but if the standards are high, it should feel uncomfortable at times. Trust me, people get over the uncomfortable feeling. Winning with high standards is a whole lot of fun. Plus, love and respect will grow in your favor when you force people to be the best version of themselves as a ball player, soldier, or employee they can be. Lead the team to becoming champions by forcing them to act like it every day.