We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Glen Burton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Glen below.
Alright, Glen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Our company mission is to help individuals and teams be the best that they can be to achieve mission success. What does that mean? Well, it’s about winning, surviving, growing, and always moving forward to achieve your goals rather than being in a comfort zone.
Throughout my time in the military during operational deployments, and then while leading protective operations in over 130 countries over the past two decades, achieving mission success was vital to myself and the teams I was a part of, both leading and as a team member. Anything less than success would be classed as failure, and that simply wasn’t an option.
To achieve that mission success, we had to be aligned as one cohesive unit but it all starts with us as individuals – ensuring our mindset was on point, taking care of ourselves and making sure that we were ready for the mission. For that reason, our company brings a vast array of collective experiences and life lessons to help individuals and teams go beyond their limitations, where they step out of their comfort zone as we give them a platform of learning, adventures, challenges, and opportunities that are designed to help them grow in confidence and within themselves.
Glen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Born and raised on a tough housing estate in the North East of England, Glen Burton decided to leave behind the disruptive crowd he was hanging with and the comfort zone he was living in. With little interest in school, he made the decision to join the Army at 16-years old. Spending the next 10-years in an elite Infantry unit, Glen participated in a number of operational deployments with the highlight being working as part of the personal team for General Sir Michael Rose, former Commanding Officer of the SAS as well as Director, British Special Forces, during his time as Head of the United Nations Military Protection Force in Bosnia.
Upon leaving the military, Glen pursued a career in the global security industry and soon found his passion and purpose in the private sector. With a focus on close/executive protection, Glen worked his way up to become one of the most highly sought after consultants and has one of the most impressive resumes within this field. Having spent two decades working with some of the most influential people in the world, Glen has managed and led protective operations in over 130-countries for high net worth individuals and families, A-list entertainment figures, Fortune 100 executives, as-well as members of international royalty.
Throughout his career in this field, Glen has attended numerous high level red carpet and world leader events, been immersed in poverty stricken environments, participated in international humanitarian efforts, been shot at multiple times, avoided kidnap in South-East Asia, been responsible for one of the world’s top private sector rescue missions following a major terror attack, and was wrongly accused of kidnapping a baby from Africa for a celebrity. He has been a trusted and reliable resource for distinguished individuals and families the world over due to his global knowledge, experience, and unique operational methodology.
Based on the experiences he’s gained around the world while working with some of the most influential business leaders, Glen has developed a uniquely creative mindset which allows him to be completely dedicated and focused in all that he does. With his forward thinking, forward progress mantra, his goal is not only to share his knowledge and life experiences, but to give others the platform and tools to succeed both in life and in business. As a highly regarded mentor and life coach, Glen is committed to helping others become the best that they can be in all that they do, primarily working with teenagers and young adults to help them go beyond their limitations. Glen is a Certified Professional Coach and the author of two books, ‘In Harm’s Way’ and ‘The Fortitude Warrior’.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Working within and leading a team requires you to be aware of so many dynamics for that team to function correctly for mission success. It’s imperative to ensure that all within that team are aligned – what is the goal, how can we achieve it, what are our obstacles, how do we face challenges, how to we overcome setbacks, and how do we function and focus on the objection.
Too many people place an emphasis on boosting team morale but if the team is focused on winning together, as a cohesive unit, all on the same page and going in the same direction, then morale is where it needs to be. Does everyone in the team need to be best friends? Far from it, that certainly isn’t the case in the military especially when operating within small elite teams, but being focused on the mission to achieve success, is what excites and ignites a passion within people.
One thing we focus heavily on is the accountability factor which I made a chapter in my new book ‘The Fortitude Warrior’. Each member of the team must be prepared to hold themselves accountable for their actions, this means both positive and negative. Everyone makes mistakes but as we work together as a solid team then those mistakes get fewer and fewer and we are moving closer to reaching our objective. This in turn boosts morale because it builds trust, and when you have trust then that team is winning.
For a good leader to succeed, they must be prepared to make decisions that have a positive impact on his or herself first and foremost, and then a team or company. As a business leader, you might spend a lot of time focusing on internal company factors — processes, people, targets, goals, and growth of the company. You may be constantly trying to shape and influence these factors to bring you and your team closer to your goals and objectives, that is of course commendable and part of your role as a leader. But, how often as an individual and leader do you spend time focusing on you? By focusing on you and developing strong personal leadership traits for yourself, you will become more productive, knowledgeable, and focused which helps the team to be effective
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
There have been countless times both from my military career and being deployed on operations, to working in the private sector and leading protective operations around the world, where resilience has played a pivotal role in my life. I’ve seen and witnessed things that would break most people, sadness and despair, extreme poverty, mass genocide, death and destruction, loss of life, some innocent, some colleagues, so being resilient where overcoming that sadness and adversity has been essential or it would have been allowed to take over and settle within me.
Many might think that a soldier goes through rigorous training and is then deployed for either peace or war time operations, in part, that is true, but it is not the sole focus. There is much more that today’s soldier learns, absorbs, and utilizes from a mindset standpoint, and this applies to every soldier, regardless of rank or roles. In battle, a soldier needs to have the right mindset, if he or she doesn’t, then missions and operations can fail and people can lose lives, that’s the seriousness of it and explains why the military focuses heavily on mental resilience and not just on training people to be action men or women.
The mindset of a soldier isn’t governed by any rules or guidelines, nor is it a standard operating procedure for soldiers to learn, it is just picked up over time. It becomes a state of mind and is a regimented set of principles that all military personnel take onboard throughout their service. It is how they process information, how they carry out tasks and how they interact as part of a team who are all on the same page. This is why those who served in the military are often sought after in the private sector, because they come with discipline, leadership, and confidence, as well as other key skills and characteristics that companies can rely on. The mindset component plays an important role with what we offer at DEVGROUPFIVE, and we use it as a driving factor to go beyond our limitations to be the best that we can be.
I needed to bring that resilience I learned and the mindset I embraced into everything I’ve done since I left the military and honestly, I’m so fortunate that I feel strong in mind when so many today are facing struggles. My best advice to build resilience is to keep pushing forward with a positive attitude, because there is always a positive to be found despite a negative situation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.glenburton.com
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/glenburt0n
- Twitter: @glenburt0n
- Other: Business – www.devgroupfive.com
Image Credits
Glen Burton