ERIC KAPITULIK served as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Eric is the Founder and President of The Program LLC. JAKE MACDONALD is a graduate of Tufts University and served as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps. Jake completed two combat tours in Iraq and later deployed to Afghanistan as a Scout Sniper Platoon Commander.

• Introduction xiSection I Creating a Championship Culture 1Chapter 1 The Fundamentals of a Championship Culture 3Chapter 2 Determining “Best” 6Chapter 3 Defining “Best” 10Chapter 4 Core Means Core! 13Chapter 5 Recruiting and Hiring “Best” 15Chapter 6 Talent Still Matters 19Chapter 7 Determining Goals 24Chapter 8 When You Face a Hairpin Turn in the Road 28Chapter 9 Determining Standards 32Chapter 10 A Commitment to Goals and Standards 36Chapter 11 Hold “Best” Accountable 39Section II Teammates 43Chapter 12 A Special Operations Teammate 45Chapter 13 Meet the Standards: Be a Thumb Teammate 47Chapter 14 Do Your Job! Agreed, Kinda . . . 50Chapter 15 Winning Still Matters 52Chapter 16 Great Teammates Hold One Another Accountable 55Chapter 17 We Have Seen the Enemy 58Chapter 18 The Price of Not Holding Teammates Accountable 60Chapter 19 The Benefit of Team Accountability 62Chapter 20 Nice and Kind 65Chapter 21 How to Be Kind 67Chapter 22 Wash Your Hands! Developing a Culture of Accountability 70Chapter 23 Do Not “Lead by Example” 73Chapter 24 Consistency Builds Trust 77Chapter 25 Friend or Teammate? 80Section III Team Leaders 87Chapter 26 Wild-Goose Chase 89Chapter 27 What is and Isn’t Leadership, and Who are and Aren’t Leaders? 93Chapter 28 The Mission 96Chapter 29 The First Standard of a Leader: Accomplish the Mission 100Chapter 30 Leaders Ask “How?” 104Chapter 31 The Little Things Take Care of the Big Things 107Chapter 32 The Second Standard of a Leader: Take Care of Your Teammates 112Chapter 33 Mission First, People Always 115Chapter 34 Controlled and Uncontrolled Environments 118Chapter 35 Developing Leaders 124Chapter 36 The Power of Delegation 128Chapter 37 Leadership is a Contact Sport 130Chapter 38 The Roles of a Leader 134Section IV Be Tough 143Chapter 39 Mount Everest: Facing the Challenge 145Chapter 40 The Case for Physical Fitness 147Chapter 41 Defining Toughness 151Chapter 42 A Light Switch, Not a Dial 153Chapter 43 Toughness: A Learned Trait 155Chapter 44 Developing Physical Toughness 157Chapter 45 What is Mental Toughness, and When Do We Need It? 162Chapter 46 Don’t Rise to the Occasion 165Chapter 47 Be Passionate, Not Emotional 169Chapter 48 Choose a Positive Attitude 172Chapter 49 Inoculate Against Stress 175Chapter 50 Go or No Go? 177Chapter 51 Go! 180Chapter 52 The Death Zone 182Chapter 53 The Summit, but Not Mission Accomplishment 185Chapter 54 Mission Accomplished 188Section V No Excuses 195Chapter 55 No Excuses 197Chapter 56 A Life-Changing Explosion 199Chapter 57 I Don’t Have Enough Time 203Chapter 58 Make Preparations, Not Excuses 206Chapter 59 Being Motivated is Not Enough 209Chapter 60 We Don’t Get What We Deserve—We Get What We Earn! 211Chapter 61 Don’t Let Anyone Make Excuses for You 213Section VI Hard Work is One More™ 217Chapter 62 A Female Marine in Helmand Province, Afghanistan 219Chapter 63 We Work Hard 221Chapter 64 One More™ in a Combat Environment 223Chapter 65 Long-Term Greedy 225Chapter 66 Focus on Strengths, Address Weaknesses 227Chapter 67 Determining Our “Why” 230Chapter 68 The FET is a Target 233Section VII Effective Communication 239Chapter 69 Alone on the Beach 241Chapter 70 Using CLAPP to Communicate Effectively 243Chapter 71 Listening to Understand 247Chapter 72 Battlefield Communication 250Chapter 73 Three Important Questions 253Chapter 74 Tell Your Teammates What You Want Them to Do! 256Chapter 75 Using a Back Brief 259Chapter 76 Closed-Loop Communication 261Chapter 77 Ignoring the Noise 263Chapter 78 Putting the Communication Techniques Together 265Acknowledgments 271About the Authors 275

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