Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Adam Steelhammer is a leadership advisor who has a vast amount of experience mentoring at the strategic, operational, team, and individual levels. He has a strong background in leadership development, crisis action planning, leadership in high-stress environments, moral and ethical decision making, executive personnel assessment and selection, strategy, coaching and counseling, and developing innovative solutions to complex problems. Adam served in the U.S. Army as an officer for 24 years, primarily in special operations and special missions units. He has been deployed in support of operations worldwide, with more than 14 combat tours; directed operations for 17 classified Presidentially sanctioned National missions; advised commanders at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and other remote locations. Most recently, he successfully directed multiple global operations to recover American hostages held abroad.
Adam is considered a thoughtful leader and instructor focused on the development of leadership behaviors and values suited to dynamic environments and situations of ambiguity and adversity. He received the Army’s highly competitive General MacArthur Leadership Award for his outstanding leadership in combat and recognition as the Honor Graduate from the rigorous Ranger Leadership School. Adam brings a mindset of a relentless pursuit of excellence in all that he does. Because of his history of innovation and unconventional thoughts on education and leadership, the military had him focus entirely on new and transformative methods for rapidly deploying forces across the globe to defeat terrorist activities. The principles of leadership he applied in the military can be directly translated to today’s business environment.
Adam holds a Master’s Degree from the Marine Corps University in Military Science and a Bachelor’s Degree from the United States Military Academy. He regularly speaks at events on leadership and spends his free time coaching youth lacrosse as a US Lacrosse certified coach. Adam served in the 82d Airborne Division, 75th Ranger Regiment, Asymmetric Warfare Group, Joint Interagency Task Force – National Capital Region and 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment- Delta. He earned three Bronze Stars, six Meritorious Service Medals, as well as a Legion of Merit and Joint Commendation Medal.