Great leaders don’t always have the answers. But they know how to build teams that do.

In this episode of Long Blue Leadership, Mitch Torrel ’14 discusses the power of mentorship, constructive feedback, humility and creating an environment where everyone can contribute. His leadership lessons are just as relevant in the boardroom as they are on the battlefield.

1. Lead Through Fear, Not Around It
   Even when you’re anxious or scared, keep moving forward and executing the mission; courage is acting despite fear, not waiting for fear to disappear.
2. Trust Your Preparation
   When you hit uncertainty, fall back on the work you’ve already put in — physical, mental, and technical — rather than spiraling about what’s coming next.
3. Focus on the Team to Get Out of Your Own Head
   Shifting your attention from your own anxiety to how you can support and elevate others makes hard environments more endurable and improves performance.
4. Discover You Have “More in the Tank”
   Don’t treat real missions or selections like workouts; push past your comfort ceiling and you’ll find reserves of mental and physical capacity you didn’t know you had.
5. Break Big Fears into Small, Daily Gains
   You don’t need to be the best today — just better than yesterday; attack weaknesses with small, consistent, incremental progress.
6. Leverage Mentors and Learn Aggressively
   Assume you’re not the first to face a challenge. Seek out people who’ve done it before and copy their mindset, preparation and frameworks to shorten your learning curve.
7. Make Feedback Normal, Specific, and Frequent
   Build team habits where everyone gets clear strengths and weaknesses surfaced (even anonymously at first), then use trends in that feedback to drive personal change.
8. Balance Urgency with Deliberate Planning
   In crises, don’t rush in just because the situation is urgent. Pause to gather facts, build a simple plan and avoid making the emergency worse.
9. Use Your Team’s Brains — Don’t Lead Alone
   As a leader, your job is to facilitate: Draw out the quiet voices, aggregate the best ideas, and delegate execution rather than trying to be the sole problem-solver.
10. Set Clear Standards and Red Lines Early 
    Explicitly communicate what you will and won’t tolerate so you can enforce discipline fairly and consistently, protecting both people and mission over the long haul.
    

00:00:00 – Opening: Leading Through Fear
00:01:27 – Special Tactics Pipeline: Anxiety, Night Sweats and Uncertainty
00:03:50 – Trusting Preparation and Learning to Hate the Water Less
00:05:40 – Shared Hardship and Team Bonding in the Pipeline
00:07:27 – “More in the Tank”: Rucks, Mental Toughness and Selection
00:11:14 – Learning from Others, Mentorship and Owning Weakness
00:15:36 – Five Traits Torrel Looks for in Leaders
00:19:49 – Feedback Culture, Blind Spots and High-Performing Teams
00:25:34 – Thai Cave Rescue: First Mission and Leading Under Pressure
00:29:59 – New Leaders, Delegation and Facilitating the Team
00:36:34 – Failing, Standards and Command Red Lines
00:40:24 – Advice to Younger Self and Enjoying Each Season
00:43:25 – Transition to Business, Ongoing Service and Final Leadership Charge

Mitch Torrel, U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 2014, is a former Division I hockey player, Air Force Special Tactics officer, entrepreneur and founder of Sentry Operations. After beginning his Air Force career in pilot training, Torrel found his calling in special operations, completing the demanding Special Tactics training pipeline and serving in operational and leadership roles.

While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, Torrel served as operations officer for the U.S. team supporting the 2018 rescue of 12 young soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave complex in Thailand. The experience, his first operational mission, became one of several defining chapters in a career shaped by high-stakes decision-making, teamwork, resilience and leadership under pressure.