by Jocko Willink
- The goal of leadership is simple: To get people to do what they need to do to support the mission and the team.
- What makes leadership so hard is dealing with people, and people are crazy. Everyone has their own characteristics, personalities, and perspectives.
- One of the underlying themes of SEAL Team culture is you can never rest on what you have achieved in the past. You always have to improve.
- Do not get caught up in the miniscule tactics of a problem. Instead get a higher mental altitude to see more. This is called detachment.
- First, be aware. Pay attention to yourself and what's around you, and ensure you don't get absorbed in the minute details of any situation.
- Lift your chin up and look around. Then take a deep breath and exhale. This cues you to do the same thing mentally.
- Decentralized Command is telling people what needs to get done, and then having those people figure out how to do it.
- Someone who executes on his or her plan instead of your plan is already bought in, already completely committed to making it a success.
- Showing humility, and not looking down on someone, instills respect and encourages that person to follow you.
- You don't need to be at the center of decision making. Your job is to support the team and the mission, which may mean supporting the boss.
- Don't jockey for position and maneuver against one another rather than maneuvering against the enemy.
- Subordinating your ego to the mission and to the boss does not mean you are weak. It means you put the team and the mission above yourself so that you can win.
- Jocko's Laws of Combat: 1) cover and move; 2) simple; 3) prioritize and execute; 4) decentralized command.
- Cover and move is two teams working together to make progress. A unit in the field by itself is a fraction of what it is when it has another unit supporting it.
- Simple means a clear goal, and communicating plans and directives up and down the chain of command in a simple, concise manner that is universally understood.
- Prioritize and execute means if team members try to accomplish too many things at once, they will likely accomplish nothing.
- Once the other laws are implemented, then decentralized command can be utilized, where everyone on the team can step up and lead.
- Extreme Ownership means not making excuses or blaming anyone or anything when problems occur. You must take ownership to solve problems and improve teams.
- The Dichotomy of Leadership says any trait, technique, or attitude can easily go too far in one direction or another. To lead properly, a leader must be balanced.
- The better the relationships, the more open and effective communication is. The more communication there is, the stronger the team will be.
- Don't build a relationship with your boss to garner favor from them. Build one so your boss trusts you and so you and the team can more effectively accomplish the mission.
- Complete the tasks expected by your boss on time, on budget, and with little drama. Over time your boss will know you're the person who makes things happen.
- Make things happen, so when you raise an objection your boss knows it is founded on solid facts that should be considered.
- If you don't raise any objections with your boss over something that makes no sense, your team will recognize your failure to speak up.
- Burning bridges and leaving scorched earth in your wake destroys everything for short-term gain.
- Play the game and support your boss, to build trust and a relationship. Not for your personal gain, but to better accomplish the mission.
- If a subordinate objects to your approach and presents an alternative, listen and say yes as much as you can to build trust with them.
- This isn't manipulation – the goal is to actually support your boss. A collateral benefit is that you build the relationship.
- Disobeying a boss causes disruption to the team, sets back progress, and may result in mission failure and disintegration of the team.
- If a leader is asking the team to do something that is illegal, immoral, or unethical, then you must report it up the chain of command.
- If the leader is leading the team in a direction that results in catastrophic failure, then disobeying the leader may be required.
- Before making a last stand, attempt to understand the boss one last time. You may miss some details he or she sees at a higher altitude.
- Ideally a subordinate presents the boss not only his or her concerns but a solution to the problem.
- Don't present objections in an offensive manner. Doing so makes your argument sound emotional instead of logical, and attacking the boss causes them to dig in.
- It's better for a subordinate to ask questions that puts the fault on themselves, saying they lack the understanding or experience of the boss.
- Don't pit your idea against the boss's idea. Root your ideas back to the boss so the idea is tied directly to them, because most people like their own ideas best.
- If the leader does not change his or her plan:
- The leader can stick to the plan and replace the subordinate with someone more obedient, but the team will suffer because the voice of reason is gone.
- The subordinate can refuse to execute the plan or quit in protest, but after making this statement there is nothing more the subordinate can do.
- The subordinate can follow through, mitigating the negative impacts of the poor plan, noting the harmful effects so that they can be explained clearly, and continuing to build a relationship with the boss for better outcomes going forward. But the subordinate is still culpable for the outcome.
- Just as a person can improve their physical capabilities, they can improve their intellect until they reach the limits of their genomes.
- To become more articulate, practice speaking, study to expand your vocabulary, and read and write to improve your ability to clarify and communicate thoughts.
- To become better at simplifying things, detach and think about problems abstractly, and reprioritize and remove unimportant things.
- To become more charismatic, improve your posture, look people in the eye, listen intently, and speak loud and clear with humble authority.
- To improve your ability to read people, pay attention to body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.
- A good leader finds other people to bring onto the team who compensate for his or her shortfalls.
- People who lack humility can't improve because they don't acknowledge their own weaknesses, and won't bring on others to compensate for them.
- Manipulators get people to do things that benefit the manipulator. Leaders get people to do things that benefit the team and the people themselves.
- If you sacrifice others for yourself, people will notice you are not looking out for the good of the team, and they won't follow you for long.
- If you make sacrifices and put other people and the mission first, then people will recognize that and follow you.
- Subordinating your ego is the ultimate form of self-confidence. You have not backed down, but shown you have the strength to give the other person credit.
- Many people, including leaders, fail to deliver the hard truth because it hurts as much to say as it does to hear.
- If you communicate often with someone, then delivering them bad news will sting less.
- If people are unsure why something is happening, and the truth is withheld, they will make up their own reasons that are likely much worse than reality.
- Withholding the truth erodes trust in the leader's words, plan, and vision, and so the team and the leader will fail.
- When a mistake is made, the leader must be truthful about what happened, what mistakes were made, and how they are going to fix them.
- Don't wait to have hard conversations, as they will only get harder.
- Sandwiching negative criticism between two positive points is a poor shortcut to having actual relationships with your direct reports.
- Most people don't like criticism, so most criticism is best delivered indirectly and with the minimal amount of negativity to get the desired change.
- In any group of people, leadership is occurring. Note the successful techniques leaders use and how you can apply them.
- If a leader thinks they have reached their peak, then they are stagnant in their skill set and unconsciously giving off the stink of arrogance.
- If a leader doesn't understand a skill or job that plays a role in the accomplishment of a mission, ask and then actually practice the task.
- Learning front-line skills demonstrates humility – it shows you don't know everything, and that you're not above what those troops are doing.
- Before going to the front-line, at least be familiar with what they do, or else you will appear out of touch and you will lose their respect.
- Build relationships with the front-line troops; they in turn will tell you what's going on, and what is working and what isn't.
- We need relationships to form a team, and we need trust to build relationships.
- To build relationships down the chain, you must give trust.
- A subordinate may make a bad decision, fail to solve a problem, or fail a mission, so start to build trust with small, incremental steps.
- If the subordinate is successful in a task, mutual trust increases and you can assign bigger tasks.
- If the subordinate is unsuccessful in a task, use the mistake as an opportunity to mentor them. Do not punish them.
- Tell the truth – but do not complain. Do not tell your boss what you think he or she wants to hear.
- Lies come back to hurt the mission, the team, and the boss. The boss will remember you fed them incorrect information, and their trust in you will be diminished.
- Once a subordinate understands why they are doing something, they can take ownership of a task and execute it while making adjustments as needed.
- Open dialogue between a leader and subordinates is required to fully understand the situation and to formulate the best possible plan.
- Too often leaders think they deserve to be respected because of their rank, and equate their position of authority to influence.
- The more you respect people and allow them to influence you, the more respect you will gain, and the more influence you will have over them.
- Extreme ownership means that leaders are responsible for every action the people on their team make.
- The moment a leader decides he or she is going to allow excuses, it opens the door to shift blame onto others, and that leads to failures.
- Preemptive ownership is taking ownership of things to prevent problems from unfolding in the first place.
- When you're blamed for something, accept it, and then either explain your solution or say you are trying to figure one out.
- When you are a leader and someone blames you for something going wrong, you own it and accept the blame.
- Any leader wants people on his or her team who step up and take ownership, so be one of those people.
- When a job is too taxing on the troops, it is important to get down in the dirt with the folks on the front line and do work.
- A leader should also do this during high-risk operations or anything where there is a significant level of discomfort.
- By doing the hard things their subordinates do every day, leaders never forget to respect the job itself and the people who do it.
- Also, the leaders recognize the leaders willingness to shoulder some of the burden so he or she can understand the challenges of the job.
- In any situation that has stagnated from fear or apprehension, or which is arduous, a leader stepping up and taking action is a solid solution.
- A leader in the weeds of day-to-day operations loses visibility of the broader events unfolding, and the decision-making process suffers.
- When the leader allows the team to come up with a plan, those members have already bought into it; there is no need to convince them of anything.
- The best ideas often come from the team members on the front line, who are closest to the problem. They have the knowledge, so give them the power.
- Anything you might say in the moment is based on incomplete and likely inaccurate information, so wait for the situation to unfold before speaking up.
- Overreacting is always bad, because not only does it lead to poor decisions, but it also makes you look bad as a leader.
- Take a step back, detach from your emotional reaction, understand what is really going on, and then make calm, logical decisions.
- The ability to not care is a hard ability to acquire, as it requires you to subdue your ego – the most powerful driving force a human being has.
- Many of our feelings are tied to our egos, but our egos are very shortsighted and so we must set them aside. You must learn not to care.
- As much as you can categorize someone as a "leader" or "loner," they are still completely different from all the other leaders or loners you've worked with.
- When a leader applies the same leadership tool in the same way that's worked in the past, and it doesn't work, the leader reacts by applying the tool even harder.
- The prudent leader recognizes that the leadership tool being used is either the wrong tool or he or she is applying it in the wrong way.
- Different people in similar situations who have the same symptoms can require different treatment, so tools and approaches must be deployed with tact.
- To grow and learn, people must be assigned tasks that bring them outside their domain of competence.
- But people's primary duties should reflect what they are naturally suited to do. They will enjoy their work more and do a better job, benefiting them and the team.
- You will be alone with decisions, because as a leader, decisions are ultimately yours and yours alone. That is the burden of command.
- Build relationships, but relationships do not mean preferential treatment, or undue influence, or unfiltered candor and completely revealing one's thoughts.
- While it is good to build consensus around what the final decision is, that final decision rests with only the leader.
- The leader must make the final decision because the position of leadership reveals a perspective that is almost impossible for others to appreciate.
- To discriminate between things that matter and things that don't, a leader must detach, take a step back, and assess whether or not any detail in a situation matters.
- A good rule to follow is for a leader to err on the side of not getting involved in problems; the goal is always to allow problems to get solved at the lowest level.
- A leader should know what is important and when it is time to step down into the tactical situation and solve a problem before it gets out of hand.
- Explain to each team member what happens if they don't do their jobs well, and how their job fit into the big picture and the strategic mission.
- Beyond 8 to 10 direct reports, a leader doesn't have the time or bandwidth to keep track of events inside the worlds of their subordinate leaders.
- The better the subordinate leaders, the less supervision and intervention they require from the boss.
- If you have too many people under your control, it may be effective to elevate a few of the high-potential troops to be leaders of some smaller teams beneath you.
- If you want to take care of your people, push them. Ensure they understand their jobs, and drive them toward their goals.
- If they fail professionally, they fail to achieve their financial goals and cannot take care of their families or provide for them the way they want to.
- When you give a direct order or impose your will on the team, you are removing subordinates' input from the equation.
- When people have no input, they have no ownership; when they have no ownership, they have no personal stake in driving mission success.
- It is always better to have people embrace change voluntarily and to take ownership of it so they can drive toward success.
- A direct order may be warranted when individuals on the team have agendas that are not aligned with the leader's or the mission's.
- Whenever possible, explain the why, ensure the team members understand the benefits to the mission and to themselves, and then give them as much ownership as possible.
- In the worst case, pride becomes arrogance, the ego inflates, stagnation ensues, and the downward spiral begins.
- In the best case, pride is an unseen force that keeps team members working hard, giving their best effort, and holding themselves and each other to the highest standard.
- Optimally, a leader doesn't need to police infractions and motivate the team to give their best; if there is pride, the team polices itself.
- To build pride within a team, put its members through situations that require unity, strength, and perseverance to get through. Through hard work they must overcome shared suffering.
- No pride is built on easy wins, but a team has to win some to have pride. Try to find that point, and then fight to maintain it.
- Commander's Intent is where, when giving orders, you simply state the mission goal – the goal that must be accomplished.
- Let your subordinates come up with the plan whenever possible. Not only do they buy into it and take ownership, but it will give you the distance and altitude you need to see holes in it.
- With each iteration of planning they conduct, and with each correction you give them, they will become better.
- Subordinates should always push back against their leaders, ask why things are done a certain way, and offer information and recommendations from their perspective on the front line.
- If you want optimal performance, you cannot rely only on your brainpower. You must encourage the rest of your team to think and to question you.
- When subordinates on the team lead regardless of their rank, then you can have a good team that delivers outstanding performance despite a bad leader.
- In a successful team led by junior people, the structural leader does deserve credit for having the humility to letting subordinates run things.
- When it's unclear who is driving the success of a subordinate team, it can be problematic to make changes like moving personnel or making promotions.
- A bad team is without question the result of a bad leader, a good team is not necessarily the result of a good leader.
- Treat people with respect. Regardless of rank, everyone is a human being and plays an important role on the team.
- Work hard. As the leader, you should be working harder than anyone else on the team. No job is beneath you.
- Build relationships. A team is a group of people who have relationships and trust one another. Otherwise it is a disconnected and incoherent group of people.
- Get the job done. Your purpose is to lead a team in accomplishing a mission, and if you don't accomplish the mission then you fail as a leader.
- Being new is not an excuse for ignorance or lack of preparation.
- The best way to give yourself a chance for a promotion and leadership is outstanding performance.
- Do not focus on yourself, and don't make being chosen as a leader your goal. Instead, make your goal helping the team win.