Leadership Strategy And Tactics - Jocko Willink

Leadership Strategy And Tactics

Great leaders are not born, they are made

Leadership capacities differ, but almost all of us will occupy a leadership position in our lifetime. If you're committed to growing in your career, then you will climb the ladder long enough to be made lead over a group of people. If you own a business and desire to expand, then you will soon have need for employees, and your leadership ability — or inability — will show. It's hard to find adults who aren't actively pursuing a career or doing business, but even if you don't belong to either of the two categories, you will someday be a parent who needs to lead their children. Bottom line is, we will all lead and influence people in our own ways.

With that in view, you will realize just how important it is to learn about leadership. No doubt, some people are natural leaders, others aren't. But both categories need to learn something about leadership.

Leadership is a skill that can be learned. If you're born with the natural qualities of leadership, you will still have to polish them if you want to live your full leadership potential.

Jocko Willink is a retired Navy SEAL who learned leadership throughout the course of his entire career. He applied the leadership principles that he learnt by observation and study and later began teaching other SEALs the leadership principles that worked for him. But after retirement, he found that leadership in the SEALS isn't much different from what's obtainable in politics and business — after all, leadership is all about leading people and humans are the same in every sector. So he expanded his horizons and began teaching civilian leaders the principles he had learned over the decades. Together with his former SEAL teammate, Leif Babin, they started a leadership consultancy called Echelon Front and wrote two leadership books, “Extreme Ownership”, and “The Dichotomy of Leadership”. Leadership strategy and tactics are his third book on leadership, and in this summary, you will find leadership lessons he learned directly from his career in the Navy.

Get ready for a transformation in your leadership as you learn and apply these timeless leadership lessons.

Your character affects your leadership ability

When Jocko first came to Navy SEAL Team One, they had a leader whose character didn't encourage his followers one bit. The man was arrogant, and he always reminded them through words and actions that he was the head of the team. The troops couldn't get along with his attitude, so they reported him to higher authorities. The man was removed after a few days.

Luckily for them, the new Platoon commander given to them was a good leader who had years of experience under his belt. The man, Delta Charlie lead his team successfully and Jocko learned many leadership lessons by just observing how Delta Charlie was different from his predecessor.

One of the major leadership lessons he learned was to respect the opinions of followers. Unlike his predecessor, Delta Charlie allowed members of the team to come up with their own strategy for any mission they would embark on. After they had brainstormed and developed a plan, Charlie would now go through it, identify the potholes in their plans then suggest the way forward.

According to Jocko, this attitude encouraged the team to put in everything they had. After all, when you're the one who came up with a plan, you won't have anyone to blame when things don't seem to go well — you find a way to fix it yourself. The fundamental lesson here for all leaders is that the ideas of your followers or subordinates are important, don't turn deaf ears to them, acting like you know it all. Every leader should seek to work with his followers as a team member, not as a boss who calls the shot and never cares about what others say or feel.

“Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support and opens the way to wealth, honor and happiness.” ~ J. Howe

Leaders build good relationships with everyone on board

As mentioned in the previous section, leaders who achieve their visions are those who work with their followers as a team. And there's a natural progression to this. It starts with trust; trust builds relationships and relationships build a team.

If all you have is a group of people who don't trust you or don't trust one another, then you don't have a team and it will be hard to fulfill your organizational goals.

Leaders in many organizations have both subordinates and superiors. Your goal should be to build a relationship with these two categories, and it's all hinged on trust.

Practice trusting your subordinates. Delegate tasks and don't supervise them. Show them you believe in their capabilities and they will feel motivated to put in their best. Of course, don't give them tasks that will have serious consequences if they fail. Start with simple tasks, then move to more difficult ones later on. If your subordinates fail at a task, don't belittle them or go on and start complaining. Take it as an opportunity to teach and guide them.

Trust is also key when it comes to building relationships with your superiors. Many leaders try to tell their bosses what will sound good to the bosses' ears, whether it be true or not. For instance, a sales leader might tell his boss that all is well with the sales team when in fact they aren't making any sales, but he said it just so his boss will be happy. Don't do those kinds of things. Tell your bosses the truth. It may not be what they like to hear at that moment, but the whole truth is better than telling a lie or half truth that will later be uncovered.

Leadership and decision making

Leaders are always told to be decisive. You will always hear this advice in all leadership seminars. No doubt, the leader is the head, the major decision maker in the team. But there are decision lessons every leader needs to learn. Telling leaders to just be decisive is not enough.

For one, it's not in all situations that a leader can take decisive actions immediately. There are delicate situations where you need thorough thinking and proper situation-assessment before taking any decisions. Rushing to make unguided decisions might mean risking the lives of your troops in the military, or losing a major investor in the business sphere.

The point is, you need proper situation analysis before taking actions.

When the time comes to make a decision, pause and ask yourself what potential consequences or benefits your decision will bring before pushing through with it.

Sometimes, the situation is so critical you need to make an immediate decision, we don't rule that out. But that's the time you have to be more careful, or risk running into loss. Here is what you can do: take iterative decisions immediately, based on your intuition. The iterative decision you take shouldn't have many consequences. The idea is to make small decisions in the interim while you assess the situation and try to understand it better.

For instance, if you're a leader of a troop assigned to capture a deadly criminal who was assumed to be spending the night in a particular location, wisdom demands that you don't just rush in and try to seize the criminal. You could be risking the lives of your men. For all you know, it could just be a trap, a lure to trick you.

Does that mean you should stay back and do nothing? No. You're the leader, you have to act. Begin by assigning your team members to plan the attack, while you stay calm and assess the situation further.

When it comes to decision making, leaders are sometimes so insecure they don't want to heed the ideas of their subordinates for fear of being controlled.

Don't be like that. Don't always insist your ideas are the best...sometimes, someone else has the best ideas. You will need to let your ego down to understand this. It helps to keep in mind that you're working as a team to move the organization towards its goal. That being settled, don't just kick away ideas from people, allow them to present their ideas then step back to really analyse and determine which is better.

If you find your subordinates' ideas are better, drop your ego and follow through with theirs.

Did you know? SWOT diagram, Pareto analysis, and decision matrix are tools you should master to facilitate better decision making.

How subordinate leaders can manage relationships up and down the chain

If you're a subordinate leader, then you have a lot of work to do.

You need to make sure you have happy relationships with both your boss and the people you're leading. This, sometimes, is a very hard thing to do.

And it's even more complicated if you have a boss who isn't a good leader. Your subordinates are seeing that your boss isn't leading well, you know it too and you're always butting heads with him. How can you influence the team to accomplish their goals in this kind of environment?

First, give your boss credit when he demands it and even when he doesn't demand it. Every leader — good or bad — likes to take credit for a successful mission, and it's hard to give in when it's obvious the team only succeeded because of individual contributions from your subordinates. But still yet, you have to let it go.

If you don't, you will be hurting your leader's ego, and that's not good for the team.

The second thing you should avoid is saying negative things about your leader in the presence of your subordinates. If you have issues with your leader, deal with them behind closed doors. If your leader gives orders you don't like, tell him about it privately, and if he insists, push through with the plan. However, never tell your subordinates you don't like the plan because that will get them disinterested.

“Show respect to people who don't even deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours.” ~ Dave Willis

Proper communication prevents rumors, arguments and conflicts

Communication is vital for any kind of relationship at all. Especially relationships that exist among workers.

For one, if you don't give clear instructions or guidance to your team, they won't understand exactly what you demand of them. Chances are they will waste energy doing the wrong things. Similarly, proper communication will prevent rumors from spreading in the organization. For example, if you're laying off some workers or stopping an ongoing project, clearly communicate the reasons for your actions, don't give room for assumptions and rumors.

Proper communication also boosts motivation. Let's say you're the CEO of a company that's working hard on developing a new software. If you don't communicate the reason why the project is important and what it hopes to achieve, both for your company and the end consumers, the workers won't see why they need to keep working overtime to make it happen. At best, they will only work because they need the salary. But you don't want that kind of drive among your workers

Conclusion

Character is everything for a leader. If you lack the right attitude, you will frustrate your career. This is why you need to learn and build quality character through study and observation. Don't let your ego get in the way; allow your subordinates to have a will and freedom of their own. Respect your superiors, give them credit even when you feel they don't deserve it. Lastly, communicate effectively. Don't starve your subordinates with lack of information.

Try this: Are you communicating properly to your subordinates, or are there a few things you're keeping from them? You will know through the feedback you have been getting. If your communication hasn't been effective, then work on that area. Also, pay close attention to your subordinates and show interest in learning their job descriptions