US military branch accelerates mission-readiness with BetterUp

A branch of the US military was undergoing a significant transformation, shifting its focus from “time and place” to battles characterized by their asynchronicity, invisibility, and unpredictableness. The ability of the force’s personnel to respond to this shift had a direct impact on the military’s ability to defeat an enemy or to provide aid to those in need.

This evolution meant a new type of mission-readiness. It meant vigilance – but also mental strength and cognitive durability. It required hundreds of thousands of personnel around the world to show up for duty, prepared for the unexpected and innovative, enabled thinkers at every rank, equipped with agile minds and the capacity to look around the corner. And finally, it required empowering personnel to  make confident decisions and communicate with speed and efficiency.

To achieve this level of peak performance, the military branch has begun to partner with BetterUp to provide groups of personnel across ranks and grades with Whole Person^TM coaching, emphasizing both personal and professional acuity, scaled across geography and time zones. 

To-date, this effort has equipped scores of personnel to operate confidently in the increasingly complex situations that define their scope of duty. Those who have experienced working with BetterUp express mental shifts that help them better balance the demands between work and home, to navigate complex scenarios with fluency, and to become empathetic leaders who inspire their units. 

The partnership with BetterUp has proven successful at developing mission-ready leaders. In just four months, those who flexed their Mental Fitness with BetterUp are 13% better prepared for their wartime jobs and 8% more committed to making the military their career. There has also been a multiplier effect for leaders’ units: members that engaged with BetterUp rated their units as 15% better prepared for their wartime jobs. 

Further, coaching also impacts the bottom line and budgets when personnel remain committed to making the military their career. An 8% increase in this area translates to roughly 158,000 active duty service members and reservists who are more likely to stay in the military when considering an average of ~2 million personnel across the DoD — meaning potential cost savings of U.S. taxpayer dollars in the billions that would have been spent recruiting and training new service members to be combat ready.

These shifts are characterized by greater mental agility, increased emotional regulation, clearer self-awareness, and improvements in the overall well-being of the personnel who have taken part in coaching with BetterUp. These leaders are building barriers against burnout and developing a keener sense of resilience – two critical factors in their sustained capacity to carry out their wartime jobs. All these changes, resulting from BetterUp’s precision development, contribute to a more precise organization, better prepared to fight and win in a constantly changing world.