The Three Fights Every Leader Must Win

Leadership isn’t tested in comfort; it’s revealed under pressure. In this episode, Tina sits down with Army veteran and executive coach Nate Allen to explore leadership when the cost of failure is real. Drawing on high-stakes military experience and profound personal loss, Nate shares his “three fights” framework—self, team, and mission—and why trust, vulnerability, and curiosity determine whether teams fracture under pressure or endure and grow.

Tune in and gain practical frameworks for leading with trust, clarity, and lasting impact in complex environments.

About the guest:

Nate Allen is an Army veteran, leadership scholar, and executive coach whose work focuses on developing effective leaders, teams, and organizations. A former Professor at the National Defense University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he taught leadership, organizational development, and national security strategy, and served as Director of the Army’s Center for the Advancement of Leader Development & Organizational Learning. He also worked at the Pentagon as Business Transformation Division Chief in the Secretary of the Army’s Office of Business Transformation.

A West Point graduate and Infantry Officer, Nate completed Airborne, Ranger, and Pathfinder training and served in the U.S. and abroad, including Somalia and Iraq, retiring as a Colonel after 24 years of service. He co-founded CompanyCommand.army.mil and PlatoonLeader.army.mil—award-winning professional forums recognized by Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. Nate is the coauthor of two leadership books and holds a Ph.D. in Management & Technology from George Washington University, as well as advanced degrees in national security, organizational psychology, and business.

Source

Resources

1. Follow and connect with Nate Allen on LinkedIn.
2. Learn more about TribusAllen on LinkedIn and explore their website.

Key Learnings:

• Effective leadership begins with self-mastery, as a leader’s mindset, behavior, and emotional wake directly shape team performance and trust.
• Teams move at the speed of trust, and trust is built through intentional relationships, vulnerability, and consistent efforts to repair misalignment.
• Leaders create stronger outcomes when they see people as human beings first, not just roles or functions, reducing friction and increasing collaboration.
• Transformational leadership balances deep care for individuals with high expectations and accountability, creating lasting growth beyond short-term results.
• Productive conflict resolution requires psychological safety, curiosity, and separating facts from stories and emotions to reach shared understanding before decisions are made.