There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.
JOCKO WILLINKIf mistakes happen, effective leaders don’t place blame on others. They take ownership of the mistakes, determine what went wrong, develop solutions to correct those mistakes and prevent them from happening again as they move forward.
More Jocko Willink Quotes
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The goal of leadership seems simple: to get people to do what they need to do to support the mission and the team.
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I can remember many times when my boat crew struggled. It was easy to make excuses for our team’s performance and why it wasn’t what it should have been. But I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.
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Most important of all, he believed winning was possible.
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But we can’t ever think we are too good to fail or that our enemies are not capable, deadly, and eager to exploit our weaknesses. We must never get complacent. This is where controlling the ego is most important.
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Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously.
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When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.
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But, in fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.
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Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.
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Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.
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The test for a successful brief is simple: Do the team and the supporting elements understand it?
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Remember to keep your ego in check. Don’t judge people.
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A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.
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Don’t try to plan for every contingency. Doing so will only overburden you and weigh you down so that you cannot quickly maneuver.
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If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing. If the plan is too complex, the team can’t make rapid adjustments to it, because there is no baseline understanding of it.
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There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.
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leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance.
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Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got—is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?
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Decisively engaged?
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Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone
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Such concepts are simple, but not easy,
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Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes.
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I had to take ownership of everything that went wrong. Despite the tremendous blow to my reputation and to my ego, it was the right thing to do—the only thing to do. I
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Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.
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Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.
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The leader must own everything in his or her world.
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Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.
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