Joe Alberici on True Toughness

Joe Alberici is currently the Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach at Army – West Point. We could just have a conversation on lacrosse and that would be fascinating and how he leads, but being at Army and experiencing West Point, he’s going to bring a lot of the leadership principles that exist on that campus, and it is a unique special place and he’s going to take us behind the curtain as far as what makes Army – West Point so special. He’s going to talk specifically around captainship and leadership in this conversation. If Joe sounds familiar to you, he gave a speech that went viral recently about this notion of being a tough guy at life and how important it is to be inclusive and rethink about how we often think about toughness. And when I think about our military and I think about cadets that might go through West Point, we certainly think of them as physically tough, but Joe’s going to talk about in this conversation how much he values mental toughness and emotional toughness. I think you’re going to find Joe to be pretty holistically sound. We talk about culture, we talk about leadership, and how proud and how fortunate he feels to have the opportunity to coach at Army. And look, Army Lacrosse has become a contender. They beat the University of Maryland lacrosse team last year in the NCAA tournament; Maryland had won the National Championship the year before. So, he is coaching high level lacrosse players who also have a pride and a determination and a desire to serve our country. So, if I think about the type of people I would want my children to be coached by, I think about Coach Joe and I think about how he leverages his own faith, how he leverages his own philosophy, his upbringing, and his experience to pour into the student athletes that he surrounds himself with. So, this is a masterclass in humility, in confidence, in belief, and in having values and principles and being led by those.

Joe had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I’ve got a couple of built-in things to keep me humble” (6:15).

“I need to serve [my student athletes]. They deserve the best” (7:25).

“I look at [greatness] as something to aspire towards” (9:25).

“The way we honor the tradition is by building upon it” (11:30).

“We embrace [tradition], but we are always looking for better ways to do it” (12:50).

“There’s so many important things you do at the United States Military Academy… but what I’m of firm belief of… is there’s nothing more impactful than their time in our lacrosse family” (18:00).

“So much is made of the challenges here at West Point. The untold story is… there’s no place that supports you more than West Point” (20:45).

“When they accept you at West Point, they’re not telling you you’re good enough to get in, they’re telling you you’re good enough to graduate” (22:15).

“There’s a vulnerability that myself and my staff, we’re the first to model, and it permeates through our organization” (23:30).

“We tend to gravitate towards what we love the most; often what we love the most is what we do the best” (30:35).

“Our mission is to become a West Point man” (31:10).

“One of our pillars is being unrelenting towards excellence [in all that we do]” (31:40).

“You get to show up in this locker room with some of the greatest people you’ll ever know” (40:25).

“We’re above moral victories in this program. That’s not what we’re showing up to do against anybody” (47:00).

“It doesn’t really matter if we’re the better team than them. It only matters that we’re better for those 60 minutes” (47:15).

“Any time I have young people to speak to, I deliver the exact same message, and it is about being a tough guy or a tough girl” (54:00).

“It’s really important to give 100% 100% of the time” (56:20).

“One of the ways you demonstrate toughness is by being inclusive” (58:10).

“That decision to [bring others in] will make you better” (59:00).

“Don’t wait for the thank you, the appreciation. Just do it because it’s right” (1:03:35).

“If the leadership model is to bring everyone in, you’ve got to be humble enough to not have your stamp on it” (1:16:10).

“Be the model” (1:17:15).

“We want a team full of leaders. But part of being a great leader is you have to be humble” (1:17:55).

Additionally, you can follow Joe on Twitter and you can follow the Army Lacrosse Team on Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you so much to Joe for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.