Leadership Strategy & Tactics
By Jocko Willink
Below are my notes and key hi-lighted passages from Leadership Strategy & Tactics by Jocko Willink. (Italics = quotes from the book. Bold = my personal notes)
“The goal of leadership seems simple: to get people to do what they need to do to support the mission and the team. But the practice of leadership is different for everyone. There are nuances to leadership that everyone has to uncover for themselves. Leaders are different. Followers are different. Peers are different. Everyone has their own individual characteristics, personalities, and perspectives. I often tell leaders what makes leadership so hard is dealing with people, and people are crazy. And the craziest persona a leader has to deal with is themselves. That being said, even a crazy pattern; there are patterns to human behavior. If you can recognize the patterns, you can predict the way things are likely to unfold and influence them.”
“That is one of the underlying themes of SEAL team culture: you can never rest on what you have achieved in the past. You always have to improve.”
Foundation - Detachment: “By stepping back, I had detached myself mentally and physically from the immediate problem, and now it was easy for me to see the solution, clearer than even the more experienced SEALS in my platoon.”
“Detachment is one of the most powerful tools a leader can have. The question is, pragmatically, how do you do it? Step one is to be aware. Pay attention to yourself and what is happening around you. Make it a goal to avoid being fully absorbed in the minute details of any situation. Don’t let it happen. If you are staying aware, checking yourself, you will be likelier to avoid getting tunnel vision. Listen to indicators like your breath, your voice. Are you breathing hard? Are you raising your voice? Be aware of your body. Are you clenching your teeth? Squeezing your fists?”
“Looking back it was obvious this particular officer tried to use his massive ego to make up for what he lacked in experience.”
“Our commanding officer was a highly respected leader. He was down-to-earth and charismatic, with a great reputation as a tactical operator - a rare reputation for a senior officer to have.”
“This alone might have been a good leadership lesson for me as a young SEAL: arrogance and throwing rank around does not work.”
On a new officer/leader: “He also had a relaxed way about him. He seemed very calm, usually carrying a half smiles on his face. When he spoke to us for the first time he said - “I’m looking forward to working with all of you.”
He didn’t say - “I’m looking forward to leading you.”- “I’m looking forward to being your boss.” He spoke of his anticipation of WORKING TOGETHER.
“There was another thing he did that made an impression on me: he took out the trash. At the end of each day, he would take out the trash. Maybe run a broom through the space. It was no big deal; it took him less than two minutes to push the broom, then consolidate the trash from the two or three garbage cans in the platoon space, take them outside, and throw them in the dumpster. But those two minutes left a mark on me. This was a tangible and physical action that represented pure humility. He was the most senior man in the platoon; he also had the most experience. But there he was, taking out the garbage. And yet I was too good to do it?”
The most senior man - doing the most menial, low, level task. Pure humility, and pure servant leadership.
“The core of what he taught me was the importance of humility. He had all that experience and all that knowledge and the rank and the position; he had every reason to elevate himself above us, every reason to look down on us, every reason to act as if he were better than everyone else, but he never looked down on us at all. The fact that he didn’t is what made us respect him and want, truly want, to follow him. I still try to follow this example to this day.”
“I learned that even though I had to be ready to lead, I also had to know when to follow - and that to be a good leader, I had to be a good follower. I learned to subordinate my ego to the mission and to my boss. Does that mean I am weak? No, it means I put the team and the mission above myself so that we can win. And that simple lesson played out thousands of times throughout my career.”
Foundation - The Power of Relationships - “Leadership requires relationships; good relationships with people above you, below you, and beside you in the chain of command are critical for a strong team. The better the relationships, the more open and effective communication there is. The more communication there is the stronger the team will be.”
Are Leaders Born or Made? - Both - “People are born with, and limited by, their own genetic makeup. These characteristics and their limitations play out clearly in sports and physical competitions. We can try to reach our genetic potential and perhaps push slightly beyond that, but eventually we are confined by our DNA.”
“The same is true with leadership characteristics. There are certain traits a human being can be born with that are beneficial for leadership. Being articulate is one. The better a person can communicate their ideas in a simple, clear manner, the more effective a leader they will be. And some people are born more naturally articulate than others.”
“So there are quantifiable ways for leaders to improve their natural leadership characteristics, but it would be unrealistic to think a leader can go from a low level in any category to an exceptional level, just as it would be unrealistic to turn a world champion marathon runner into an Olympic champion weight lifter. The genes just aren’t there.”
“So how can a leader become great if they lack the natural characteristics to lead The answer is simple: a good leader builds a great team that counterbalances their weaknesses.”
And that is what a good leader does - finds other people to bring onto the team who compensate for his or her shortfalls. By doing that, even the biggest deficits in leadership traits can be overcome. Combine that with hard work to try to improve on areas of weakness and soon any person can drastically improve their ability to lead.”
There is one type of person who can never become a good leader: A person who lacks humility. People who lack humility cannot improve because they don’t acknowledge their own weaknesses.”
“But a leader puts themselves at the bottom of the priority list. The good of the mission and the good of the team outweigh any personal concern a true leader has for themselves.”
Sacrificing others for yourself never pans out in the long term; people eventually notice and take stock of the fact that you are not looking out for the good of the team, but instead you are looking out for yourself. when people notice that, they will not follow you for long.”
“Ego is like a reactive armor; the harder you push against it, the more it pushes back. If I had confronted the CEO about his attitude and told him he had a big ego, he would have dug in even deeper. So I did the opposite. I disarmed his ego by subduing my own.”
“You might be afraid that if you subordinate your ego, you will get trampled. But that normally doesn’t happen because subordinating your ego is actually the ultimate form of self-confidence. That level of confidence earns respect.”
“Leadership in any chosen profession is just that - a profession. Being a leader is your life. Do everything humanly possible to know and understand everything there is about your profession and being a leader in that profession. Strive every day to learn and become a better leader.”
“None of this happens without humility. If a leader thinks they have achieved the pinnacle of leadership expertise, they are already going in the wrong direction, stagnant in their skill set, and, worst of all, unconsciously giving off the stink of arrogance. Don’t let this happen. Stay humble, and always learn.”
“Some leaders feel it is a weakness to ask for help. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Subordinates will actually respect the leader more if they come and try to learn and perform a task. What subordinates don't respect is a leader who tries to appear to know everything.”
“A leader must also earn influence and respect. Too often, leaders think they deserve to be respected because of their rank or experience. Similarly, they think their position of authority equates to influence.”
“Treat people with respect. What does that mean? Allow them to give their opinion. Listen to them. Don’t interrupt them. Don’t disparage the importance of their job or position. Share the burden of hard tasks.”
“Leaders might be above their subordinates in the rank structure, but they are not actually superior to those below them in the chain of command, and this means leaders must respect them. It also means their is no job too small or menial for the leader to do.”
“There are times when people will say and do things that make no sense. There are times when things will not go the way you want. When this happens, good leaders remain levelheaded. Don’t get agitated. Keep your emotions in check. Take measured account of the situation. Keep your opinions to yourself as you analyze, logically what is happening.”
“Yes, the ability to not care goes a long way, but it is also a hard ability to acquire. Why? Because it requires being able to subdue and subordinate the most powerful driving force a human has - their ego. If you drill down on the things you care about, you will find that many of them are rooted in ego, event the simple examples I just gave above - being asked to do a crappy, demeaning task. Why does that make us mad? Because of our egos. A good leader in that situation can put their ego aside and simply get the job done, no matter how crappy the job is.”
“The purpose is simply to provide awareness because it is very easy for a leader to mistakenly use all his or her leadership tools universally in all situations. The leader this that if a technique worked with one group, it will work with the next; if a tool worked on one person, it will work on the next person. And while success in the past certainly indicates a probability of success in the future, it does not guarantee it.”
“Just as a fine woodworker is not merely a craftsman but an artist, a leader cannot simply apply leadership tools universally and with indiscretion; a leader must apply them to teams and individuals with tact, diplomacy, prudence, and subtlety. That is the art of leadership.”
“If you want to build pride, you have to bring pain. Pride comes from shared suffering. Sure, pride comes from history, and pride comes from winning, but you can’t count on that. If you want your team members to have pride, you have to make them earn it through hard work.”
“The next thing to do to be selected as a leader is to not focus on yourself; don’t make being chosen as a leader your goal. Instead, make your goal helping the team win. Don’t feel you need to be the person in charge of everything. When someone else has stepped up and taken the lead, be a good follower.”
“If you are are humble person, which you should be, you will rarely, if ever, feel completely ready to move into a leadership position, so you must have faith in yourself and in the leaders above you who are offering one to you.”
“Don’t be the leader with your hands in your pockets, but don’t be a leader with your hands in everything.”
“Unfortunately, the people with the biggest egos are usually the ones who need the most coaching.”
“The people who taught me the most about leadership, strategy, and tactics never explicitly told me they were coaching or mentoring e; they subtly guided me along the path, filling my head with knowledge, while I barely even noticed it. They managed to teach me without teaching me, putting ideas into my brain so delicately that I thought the ideas were my own. That is the most powerful way to teach, coach, and mentor.”
“Many people have an intrinsic desire to be in charge. We want to make decisions. We want to be important. When we aren’t the ones in cage, our egos hurt. To prop up our egos, we start trying to infringe on the actual leader and prove we are the ones who should be making the decisions.”
“When you have an idea, thought, or opinion, don’t dig in. That means don’t overcommit to ideas. Keep an open mind, and leave yourself an out.”
“Let their be no doubt - the most important thing in a team is the team. Now, some people might think this is weak, but it isn’t. The whole reason the team exists is to accomplish the mission. The more unified the team is, the more capable it is of accomplishing the mission. If I am causing a rift in the team, I am hurting our mission capability.”
“As a leader, I can’t order them to do anything. I have to find another way. That other way is to influence them. To influence them, I have to build some kind of relationship with them. If I have no relationship, I have no influence. If I have no influence, I can’t get them to do anything. I learned an important lesson: I can’t change the group if I am not in the group. But if I am not in the group, I can move it - maybe not as much or as quickly as I want to, but I can at least move it in the right direction.”
“Play the long game. The truth will be revealed. Do the right things for the right reasons. Support your peers. Stay humble. Take ownership of problems. Pass credit on to the rest of your team. Build relationships. That is how you lead your peers.”