I recently heard a story from Navy S.E.A.L. "Hell Week"...
If you're not familiar with Hell Week, it's where Navy S.E.A.L. recruits are put to the ultimate test. Sleep deprivation, physically grueling exercises and are subjected to massive amounts of psychological stress.
During one such Hell Week, the recruits were divided into teams and had to compete in a team obstacle challenge. Each team had a leader.Â
Over the course of the day, "Team Alpha" kept winning the challenge and getting rewarded with a much-needed break. "Team Delta", in contrast, was consistently getting last place and had to keep working.
Eventually, the leader from Team Delta complained to the commanding officers and said he kept losing because the people on his team weren't as good as the ones on Team Alpha.
Knowing the truth, the commanding officers put the leader from Team Delta in charge of Team Alpha and vice versa.
What happened next demonstrates the power of strong leadership.
Team Delta, the team that had been consistently losing, won the very next round of the challenge once they had better leadership.