LeadershipStrategyTactics
Leadership Strategy and Tactics (Jocko Willink)
- Short and Sweet. Lots of good take-aways elaborations.
- To Detach, Step one is to be aware. Pay attention to yourself and what is happening around you.
- He seemed like a tactical genius. But what I realized later was that he was detached from the planning process, so he could see it from altitude and easily see where the holes were.
If your boss has a bad plan. Put the onus in yourself as to why the idea from your boss doesn't make sense. How much will be gained by approaching the boss and trying to convince them to change their plan ? IF the difference is minimal, its is probably not worth investing any time or effort into it. Next, ask yourself how much of your concern is just your ego. Lastly, ask yourself if you will be moving your relationship with your boss forward or backward by raising this issue.
- People almost always like their own ideas better than anyone else's.
Good leaders find other people to bring onto the team who compensate for their shortfalls.
Truth and honesty are perhaps the most essential of leadership qualities. Tell the truth to your people. Tell the truth to your boss. Tell the truth to your peers. And, of course, tell the truth to yourself.
- Subordinates will actually respect the leader more if they come and try to learn and perform the task. eg: the CEO of an equipment manufacturer should go and build a product from beginning to end at least once a month so they are always in touch with the process.
- To build trust and relationships down the chain of command, you have to give trust. If I want my subordinates to trust me, I need to give them trust.
What starts out as micromanagement becomes more and more hands-off.
To build respect and influence, you have to give respect and influence. Treat people with respect. All them to give their opinion. Listen to them. Dont interrupt them. dont disparage the importance of their job or position. Share the burden of hard tasks. IF you want to have influence over others, you need to allow them to have influence over you. That means when you listen to them, you actually listen. You consider their recommendations and, whenever possible, you incorporate their thoughts and ideas into what you are trying to accomplish. You keep and open mind.
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. Dont get agitated. Keep you emotions in check. Take measured account of the situation. Keep you opinions to yourself as you analyze, logically, what is actually happening.
- Everyone is the same, but everyone is different. The better a leader understand this dichotomy, the better they will understand people. There are archetype people in every organization. There characters are everywhere; people are the same. However, they have different motivations, different agendas, different idiosyncrasies, and different ideas. As much as you can categorize someone as a "leader" or a "loner", they are all still completely different from other leaders and other loners you have worked with.
- One of the things that distinguishes a jiu-jitsu black belt from a white belt is the black belt's understanding of what is important and what isn't.
A good rule to follow is that a leader should err on the side of not getting involved in problems; the goal is always to allow problems to get solved at the lowest level.
- The attitude you that with any team should be that everyone's job is absolutely critical.
Instead of me forcing my plan on them, I would have them go back to the drawing board, take the lessons they had just learned from their bad plan, and come up with a new one of their own. This allows them to have true buy-in and ownership of it. Let your subordinates come up with the plan. Not only will it result in their taking ownership it will also give you the standoff distance and attitude you need to see holes in it. The biggest obstacle in allowing subordinates leaders to come up with a plan is your ego.
- If you want optimal performance, dont just count on your brain power. Instead encourage the rest of your team to think and question you.
- Be balanced. Extreme actions and opinions are usually not good.
- If you are worried that you aren't ready for a leadership position , that means you are humble.
- If your team members want to do something a certain way, your goal should be to let them do it that way.
- For leaders there is such a thing as a dumb question.
- The true way to overcome your insecurities is to admit them to yourself, air them to the team, and then work to improve them.
- The people who taught me the most about leadership, strategy and tactics never explicitly told me that they were coaching or mentoring me; they subtly guided me along the path, filling my head with knowledge, while I barely even noticed it. The best leaders I worked for where also incredibly subtle. Very rarely did they come right out and give direct orders stating exactly what to do and how to do it. The best leaders usually led not by orders but by suggestion.
- Because the leader has been restrained from constantly making decisions for the group, when they do step in and make a call, it will be respected.
Even if you are in charge, if there is someone with a good plan who is giving direction to move in the right way, that's fine; take a step back and let them lead. Be a follower.
Tactic: You might want to hesitate a moment when you see that leadership vacuum appear. That is a tactic that I used as a leader throughout my career. If there was a problem unfolding slowly, dont rush to take charge; let the problem develop a little bit. Look around, detach mentally, and truly observe the situation. Confirm that what you are seeing is correct. Allow an opportunity for someone else to step up and fill the leadership vacuum - and if someone else does – internally assess their plan and the directions they are giving. If they are giving good guidance, support them. If they give bad guidance, continue to consider what a better plan would be, so you can give corrections when the time is right. By giving those last few moment to allow things to develop, the call you make will be better.
Even when someone who you dont think is on your level, someone who isn't even close to having the knowledge, position, or authority to give you one iota of feedback wants to speak, even then, do yourself a favor and just listen. Detach and listen to what they have to say and, from an objective mind-set, see if you can learn anything at all from their commentary. Then apply it. And say thank you. I know that stings. Get over yourself.
- Arguing is generally bad. It means wasting time without moving forward – and what is worse, people often argue not for the best idea but for their idea.
- If a leader wants to be in charge of everything, then he should try to be in charge of nothing. Only when a leader is in charge of nothing, when he has delegated all actions to his subordinate leaders, can the leader truly lead.
- One of the best tools a leader has to help shape others is leadership itself; giving people responsibility and putting them in leadership positions teaches them to be better in a multitude of ways.
When you need to teach a young confident leader humility: put them in charge of a mission or project you know is outside their level of competency.
The medicine for lack of confidence is very similar, put the individual in charge. Only now, put them in charge of a mission you know they are capable of leading and executing well.
- Putting junior people in charge makes them better. It makes them understand what is going on way above their pay grades and how their jobs tie into the strategic mission.
- One of the best ways to subdue your own ego and start building a relationship with the peers you lead is by supporting their ideas.
If you have a weak/indecisive boss, put the decision back on them, but make it much easier for them to make it. Instead of having to sort through a bunch of complicated details, do that for them. Narrow down their decision so all they have to say is "yes". Do it in a way in which your boss is clearly still the decision maker.
Asking for credit is a horrible move in any scenario.
- Explaining the why is important, but the why has to tie back to everyone in the chain of command.
To mitigate excessive praise: direct praise at individuals instead of at the team. Individual praise lets everyone know that you are impressed when things go well, but it is not a blanket statement that everyone gets to enjoy.
Remember: when you are the leader, your words will impact the behavior of your subordinates and the team more than you think. Think before you speak, and measure your words carefully.
- Hope is not a course of action. You cannot rely on hope. You have to plan. You have to consider contingencies. You have to stack the deck in your favor.
- Never make an ultimatum you can't keep.
- Reflect and diminish means to reflect the emotions you are seeing from your subordinate but diminish them to a more controlled level.
- Yelling because you are angry, frustrated, panicking, or otherwise emotional is weak leadership, and your team members will mimic your behavior. If you get angry, so will they. If you get frustrated, so will they. If you start to panic so will they. [BROKEN LINK: 9C0D1E2F-3G4H-5I6J-7K8L-9M0N1O2P3Q4R] [BROKEN LINK: Wife] Leadership
The less you talk the more people listen. Dont be the person who is always talking. When you listen to others speak and absorb what they say, you can formulate the most important and impactful statement of the discussion, which will increase your influence on the situation. Even if a debate among colleagues leave you with nothing to add other than your approval, that well-articulated approval will carry more weight than blathering on just to hear yourself talk.
Dont waste your words. Let other people do that; instead speak with poignancy and power.
Its all on you, but its not about you.