From Marine Artillery Operations Chief to Business Leader: Translating Combat Stress Management
The Fire Mission That Taught Me Everything About Leading Under Pressure
The radio crackles. "Odin, this is Reaper, adjust fire! Grid NT 2167 3487. Enemy troops in the open. Fuse time in effect."
Inside the Fire Direction Center, everything moves at once. A young Marine marks the grid on the map, another calculates deflection, quadrant elevation, and charge. The operations chief verifies the data, checks the safety box, and clears the mission. Final checks and safety verification is done by the Fire Direction Officer (FDO). The gun line receives the fire command, then Six howitzers adjust, load, and prepare to fire. From call for fire to rounds downrange: 45 seconds.
There is no time for hesitation, no room for error, and no second chances when friendly forces are 600 meters from the impact zone. Every Marine in that FDC knows their job, trusts the system, and executes without hesitation because lives depend on it. That is not adrenaline, that is discipline and training. That is what high-performance operations under extreme stress actually look like.
I spent years as a Marine Corps Artillery Operations Chief, managing fire missions where mistakes cost lives and hesitation gets people killed. The stress was constant, the stakes were absolute, and the margin for error was zero. And what I learned in those years has shaped everything I do as a business leader and operations consultant today.
Because here is what most civilian leaders do not understand about high-stress operations. Stress does not break systems, it reveals them. If your systems are not built to handle pressure, your team will collapse the moment things get hard.
What High-Stress Operations Actually Require
Most business leaders think stress management is about staying calm, taking deep breaths, or maintaining a positive attitude. That is not stress management, that is coping. Real stress management is about building systems that function under pressure so your team can execute when everything is falling apart.
In artillery operations, we did not manage stress by meditating or doing team-building exercises. We managed stress by building systems so clear, so practiced, and so ingrained that execution became automatic even when the situation was chaotic. When rounds are flying, radios are screaming, and friendly forces are in danger, you do not have time to think. You execute. And execution under pressure only happens when the system is stronger than the stress.
High-stress operations require three things that most business environments lack: clarity, discipline, and trust. Without those three elements, stress will overwhelm your team every time because people default to chaos when the system does not hold them steady.
Clarity: Everyone Knows Their Job
In the Fire Direction Center, every Marine has a specific role. One Marine handles the map, another runs the calculations. The chief verifies and clears the mission. The radio operator communicates with the gun line and the observer. Nobody guesses, nobody improvises, and nobody steps outside their lane unless the system breaks down.
That clarity is not accidental. It is trained, drilled, and reinforced until it becomes second nature. Every Marine knows what they are responsible for, what the person next to them is responsible for, and how their role fits into the larger mission. When the fire mission comes in, there is no confusion about who does what because the system has already defined it.
Most business environments lack that clarity. Roles are vague, responsibilities overlap, and when stress hits, people either freeze because they do not know what to do or they step on each other trying to do everything at once. That is not a people problem. That is a systems problem. And systems problems create stress that competent people cannot overcome.
If you want your team to perform under pressure, every person needs to know their exact role, their decision-making authority, and how their work connects to the mission. Ambiguity kills performance when stress is high because people waste time figuring out what to do instead of doing it.
Discipline: The System Does Not Bend
Artillery operations are governed by strict procedures that do not change based on how you feel, how tired you are, or how chaotic the situation gets. The fire mission follows the same sequence every time. The safety checks happen in the same order every time. The communication protocols are identical whether you are on a training range or in a combat zone.
That discipline is not about being rigid or inflexible, but about creating consistency so the team can execute under pressure without thinking. When the system is disciplined, stress does not force you to make new decisions. It forces you to execute the decisions you already made when you built the system.
Most business leaders abandon discipline the moment things get stressful. They skip steps, cut corners, and make exceptions because they think speed matters more than process. But speed without discipline is chaos, and chaos under stress is catastrophic. The teams that perform best under pressure are the ones that hold the line on process even when it feels slow, even when it feels unnecessary, and even when leadership is tempted to override it.
Discipline is what keeps your team steady when everything around them is falling apart. If your processes only work when things are calm, they are not processes. They are suggestions. And suggestions do not survive stress.
Trust: The Team Executes Without Hesitation
In the Fire Direction Center, trust is not optional. The Marines plotting trust the Marine computing data to run accurate calculations. The chief trusts the Marine on the plotting board to mark the correct grid. The gun line trusts the FDC to clear safe fire missions. If any link in that chain breaks, people die.
That trust is built through repetition, accountability, and leadership that does not tolerate incompetence. Every Marine in the FDC has been trained to standard, tested under pressure, and held accountable for their performance. They trust each other because they know everyone in that room has earned their position and will execute their role correctly.
Most business teams lack that trust because leadership has not built it. They tolerate underperformers, avoid accountability, and promote people who have not earned it. When stress hits, that lack of trust becomes obvious because people second-guess each other, hesitate to act, and waste time verifying work that should have been trusted from the start.
If you want your team to perform under pressure, you have to build trust by holding everyone to the same standard, removing people who do not meet it, and demonstrating through your own behavior that competence and accountability matter more than politics or convenience. Trust is not built through team-building exercises. It is built through consistent performance and leadership that does not compromise on standards.
Lessons from Artillery Operations Translated to Business
The principles that make artillery operations effective under extreme stress are the same principles that make business operations effective under pressure. The context changes, but the fundamentals do not. Here is how you translate combat stress management to civilian leadership.
Lesson 1: Build Standard Operating Procedures for Everything
In artillery, we have SOPs for every fire mission, every equipment check, every communication protocol, and every emergency procedure. Those SOPs aren’t suggestions. They are the system, and the system does not change based on who is on duty or how stressful the situation is.
SOPs are what allow teams to execute under pressure because they remove decision-making from the equation. When the fire mission comes in, you do not debate the best way to process it, you follow the SOP. When equipment fails, you do not brainstorm solutions. You follow the SOP. The process has already been decided, tested, and proven, so all you have to do is execute it.
Most businesses operate without clear SOPs, which means every stressful situation becomes a decision-making exercise that wastes time, creates inconsistency, and increases the chance of error. If you want your team to perform under pressure, document the process for every critical function in your organization. Make it clear, make it simple, and make it non-negotiable. Then train your team to execute it until it becomes automatic.
When stress hits, your team should not be thinking about what to do. They should be executing what they have already been trained to do. That is how you turn pressure into performance instead of chaos.
Lesson 2: Train Until Execution Becomes Automatic
Artillery Marines do not learn fire direction procedures once and then hope they remember them under pressure. They drill those procedures hundreds of times until execution becomes muscle memory. By the time you are processing a live fire mission in combat, your hands are moving before your brain catches up because the training has made the process automatic.
That level of training is what separates teams that perform under stress from teams that collapse. When execution is automatic, stress does not slow you down because you are not thinking, you are doing. And doing is faster, more accurate, and more reliable than thinking when the pressure is on.
Most business teams are undertrained, which means they have to think their way through stressful situations instead of executing their way through them. That thinking creates hesitation, increases errors, and burns mental energy that should be focused on problem-solving instead of basic execution.
If you want your team to perform under pressure, train them until the fundamentals are automatic. Run drills. Simulate high-stress scenarios. Test their ability to execute under time pressure and distraction. And do not stop training until they can perform the process correctly without thinking about it. That is when you know they are ready for real stress.
Lesson 3: Communicate with Precision, Not Volume
In artillery operations, communication is precise, structured, and disciplined. Every radio transmission follows a standard format. Every fire command includes specific data in a specific order. There is no rambling, no unnecessary conversation, and no ambiguity because lives depend on clarity.
That precision is critical under stress because it eliminates confusion and ensures that everyone receives the same information at the same time. When the fire mission comes in, the gun line does not have to interpret what the FDC meant. They execute what the FDC said because the communication was clear, complete, and unambiguous.
Most business communication under stress is chaotic. People talk over each other, send incomplete information, and assume others understand what they meant instead of what they said. That lack of precision creates errors, delays, and frustration that compounds the stress instead of reducing it.
If you want your team to perform under pressure, teach them to communicate with precision. Use standard formats for critical information. Eliminate unnecessary conversation during high-stress situations. Confirm understanding before moving forward. And hold people accountable for clear communication because ambiguity under stress is dangerous.
Lesson 4: Leadership Stays Calm and Holds the Standard
In the Fire Direction Center, the Operations Chief is the anchor. When the fire mission comes in, everyone looks to the chief to verify the data, clear the mission, and maintain the standard. If the chief panics, the team panics. If the chief stays calm, the team stays calm. Leadership behavior sets the tone for everything that happens under stress.
That does not mean the chief is emotionless or detached. It means the chief is disciplined, focused, and committed to the process regardless of how chaotic the situation feels. The team trusts the chief to hold the line on safety, accuracy, and accountability even when the pressure is extreme, and that trust is what keeps the system functioning.
Most business leaders lose their composure under stress. They micromanage, they override processes, they make emotional decisions, and they create chaos that their team has to manage on top of the original problem. That behavior destroys trust, undermines the system, and guarantees poor performance when the pressure is highest.
If you want your team to perform under pressure, you have to model the behavior you expect. Stay calm and follow the process, all while holding the standard, then trust your team to execute the system you built. Your job under stress is not to do everyone else's job. Your job is to keep the system steady so your team can do theirs.
Lesson 5: Debrief Every High-Stress Event
After every fire mission, we debriefed. What went right, what went wrong, and what needs to be adjusted. That debrief was not optional, and it was not about blame. It was about learning so the next mission would be executed better than the last one.
That debrief culture is what allows teams to improve under stress instead of just surviving it. When you debrief every high-stress event, you identify process failures, communication breakdowns, and training gaps that need to be addressed before the next crisis. You turn stress into a learning opportunity instead of just an ordeal to endure.
Most business teams do not debrief. They survive the crisis, celebrate that it is over, and move on without analyzing what went wrong or how to prevent it next time. That means they make the same mistakes repeatedly because they never took the time to learn from the stress.
If you want your team to get better under pressure, debrief every high-stress event. Ask what worked, what did not, and what needs to change. Document the lessons. Update the SOPs. Retrain where necessary. And make continuous improvement part of your stress management system so your team gets stronger every time they face pressure.
Building Stress-Resistant Teams in Civilian Operations
High-stress operations in business are not the same as combat, but the principles are identical. Whether you are managing a service operation during a staffing crisis, responding to a customer emergency, or navigating a financial downturn, your team's ability to perform under pressure depends on the systems you built before the stress arrived.
Stress-resistant teams are not born. They are built through clarity, discipline, trust, and leadership that refuses to compromise on standards even when things get hard. If you want your team to perform under pressure, you have to build the system that makes performance possible.
Here is how you do it:
1. Define roles with precision. Every person on your team should know their exact responsibilities, their decision-making authority, and how their work connects to the mission. Eliminate ambiguity.
2. Build SOPs for critical functions. Document the process for every high-stakes task in your organization. Make it clear, simple, and non-negotiable. Train your team to execute it.
3. Train until execution is automatic. Run drills by simulating high-stress scenarios. Test your team's ability to execute under pressure. Do not stop until the fundamentals are muscle memory.
4. Communicate with precision. Use standard formats for critical information. Eliminate unnecessary conversation during high-stress situations. Confirm understanding before moving forward.
5. Lead by example. Stay calm and follow the process, all while holding the standard. Trust your team to execute the system you built. Your composure under stress sets the tone for everyone else.
6. Debrief every crisis. After every high-stress event, ask what worked, what did not, and what needs to change. Document the lessons. Update the SOPs. Retrain where necessary.
7. Remove people who cannot execute. Stress reveals incompetence. If someone cannot perform under pressure after training and support, remove them. Protecting your stress-resistant team means not tolerating people who break the system.
The Discipline That Makes Performance Possible
The difference between teams that perform under stress and teams that collapse is not talent, resources, or luck. It is discipline. Discipline to build the system before the crisis. Discipline to train until execution is automatic. Discipline to hold the standard when everything is falling apart. And discipline to learn from every high-stress event so the next one is handled better.
I learned that discipline in the Marine Corps, processing fire missions where hesitation cost lives and errors were unacceptable. And I have applied that discipline to every business operation I have led since because the principles do not change. Stress reveals your system. If your system is strong, your team will perform. If your system is weak, your team will collapse.
If you want to lead in high-stress environments, stop managing stress and start building systems that function under pressure. Define the roles. Document the processes. Train your team. Communicate with precision. Lead by example. Debrief every crisis. And hold the standard no matter how hard things get.
That is how you turn pressure into performance. That is how you build teams that do not break under stress. And that is how you lead when everything is on the line.
