(Inc.) — Imagine this for leadership training: It’s midnight, and you’re dropped into the San Diego Bay. The water temperature is a brisk 57 degrees, and you’re surrounded by strangers. Ex-military-types begin screaming at you to swim—but you have no idea where you’re going. When you finally reach the beach, two miles later, you collapse in exhaustion. Welcome to Leadership Under Fire—you’ve just begun your 72-hour lesson in becoming a better boss. ”The purpose is to tell them that they can walk into any situation and come out ahead,” says Rob Roy, the founder of the Leadership Under Fire series and a former Navy SEAL officer. “They can’t walk into a boardroom and think they can’t make it. They’ll refer back to this time, and say ‘Yeah, this is difficult, but I can make it through.”

Since 2005 Rob Roy has been teaching—and enforcing—leadership through his own unique vision. His company, SOT-G, which puts on the Leadership Under Fire series in partnership with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), has three full-time staff members, but will contract with 35-40 ex-Navy officers during a session. With over 25 years experience in the Navy and time served as a Navy SEAL, Roy has come to understand leadership in a way most leaders in corporate America don’t get to experience. For Roy, leadership has literally made the difference between life and death. “We offer something that you are not going to get from reading a book,” says Roy. “Motivation is not leadership—real leaders inspire, guide and give hope.”

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