Leading businesses vs. leading people into battle

“There’s not much that scares me,” said Ant Middleton on the video that introduced his talk. He was imposing on the big screen. Deadpan. Supreme. Though over the course of the night, he’d go from looking down on his audience via a Curzon HD display, to looking up at us. To laughing with us, laughing at himself and grinning his way through the anecdotes and stories that had made him the man that stood at the front.

The man that stood at the front? Sure – nice quiff, handsome, cheeky. All the things you’d probably expect from a media personality/SAS tough-guy who’s already completed a third Channel 4 TV series. But also: self-aware, open and human. This wasn’t just Ant Middleton the brand talking. This was Ant Middleton. Just minus the belt, beret and battalion behind him. Here are, as he put it, “Some life lessons important to me.”

Know yourself

Most of us are fortunate enough to learn about ourselves through things like Myers-Briggs tests, StrengthFinders and performance coaches. But having had a traumatic childhood, where he’d moved to France and “didn’t know what was going on,” Ant said he concentrated on himself. He focussed on things under his control, going on to join the army at 16 – the earliest point possible. 

Over the course of the night, we listened to how Ant had focussed on what he was good at. How he’d recognised his weaknesses. From learning about himself from an early age, it had stood him in good stead. And his point was: get to know yourself and what makes you tick. No matter how you do it. 

Positivity is everything

From leaving the army to finding himself at The Job Centre and later mopping floors in a prison, Ant took us through some of his tribulations. But the thing that helped him bounce back? “Positivity”. He said, “Negativity is like mould – it grows. People can smell it.” Sometimes, he said, “You have to be honest with yourself. And this allows you to take stock, be honest with the people around you and be positive.”

“Teamwork makes the dream work”

Clichés aside. Ant took us to a time when he was standing at a doorway on a job. The tip of his gun in front of his nose. What was on the other side of that door? What would happen next? Before what happened next, someone in his team gave him a squeeze on the shoulder. No words. Just that gesture. He said, “It made me feel invincible.” He said good leadership was all about “leading from inside the team and giving others responsibility.”

Fail, fail and fail again

“If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything,” said Ant. “Failure isn’t an accepted word in society. But guess what – it’s an everyday part of life. Fact. The moment you acknowledge that is the moment you start using it to your advantage.” It got everyone thinking – our mistakes in meetings, our everyday slipups. It’s fine. We’re all human. Even the celebrities and ex-SAS heroes amongst us.

By Bert Preece, copywriter and Head of Words at PKF Cooper Parry. Follow him @PreeceOfficer