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Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.

Jocko Willink

As a leader, it is up to you to explain the bigger picture to him—and to all your front line leaders. That is a critical component of leadership
JOCKO WILLINK

Explanation Leadership Photograpgh
The leader must own everything in his or her world.
JOCKO WILLINK

Himself Leadership World
There is no growth in the comfort zone.
JOCKO WILLINK

Comfortable Growth One Liner
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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Planning Simplicity Team Understand
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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Control Enemy Failure Goodness Important Thinking
Relax. Look around. Make a call.
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Action Breathe Inspirational See
A leader must lead but also be ready to follow. Sometimes, another member of the team—perhaps a subordinate or direct report—might be in a better position to develop a plan, make a decision, or lead through a specific situation.
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Decision Development Leadership Team
Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.
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Blame Leadership World
Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.
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Future Leadership Yourself
Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.
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Ability Action Decision Right Wait
Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems.
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Action Blame Live People Problem
The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas.
JOCKO WILLINK

Leadership Virtue
When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.
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Leadership Philosophy Tolerance
If we could execute with a monumental effort just to reach an immediate goal that everyone could see, we could then continue to the next visually.
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Effort Goal See
The test for a successful brief is simple: Do the team and the supporting elements understand it?
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Success Team Understand
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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Fight Learning Thinking
leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance.
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Leadership Team
Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.
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Act Simplicity
Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness.
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Direction Leader Problem Struggle
Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead.
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Leadership Person Team Togetherness
Our egos don’t like to take blame.
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Blame Ourselves
The most impressive thing about this improvement in performance was that it did not come from a major process change or an advance in technology. Instead, it came through a leadership principle that has been around for ages: Simple.
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Age Change Improvement Leadership Simplicity Technology
For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.
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Accomplishment Development Focus Humility Leadership Mistake Simplicity
A mission statement tells your troops what you are doing.
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Team Yourself
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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Myself Reputation Responsibility Right Time
As a leader, you have to balance the dichotomy, to be resolute where it matters but never inflexible and uncompromising on matters of little importance to the overall good of the team and the strategic mission.
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Goodness Importance Leadership Team
The U.S. Navy SEAL Teams were at the forefront of this leadership transformation, emerging from the triumphs and tragedies of war with a crystallized understanding of what it takes to succeed in the most challenging environments that combat presents.
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Challenge Leadership Present Success Team Tragedy Transformation Understand War Win

Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.

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Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.

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