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Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.

Jocko Willink

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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Planning Simplicity Team Understand
Good leaders are rare; bad leaders are common.
JOCKO WILLINK

Bad Goodness Leadership
Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.
JOCKO WILLINK

Control Discipline Freedom Result Time
Leadership is simple, but not easy.
JOCKO WILLINK

Easy Leadership Simplicity
Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes.
JOCKO WILLINK

Motivational One Liner
Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.
JOCKO WILLINK

Act Simplicity
Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone
JOCKO WILLINK

Planning Simplicity
There are no bad units, only bad officers. This captures the essence of what Extreme Ownership is all about.
JOCKO WILLINK

Bad Control Politics
Good leaders don’t make excuses.
JOCKO WILLINK

Goodness Leadership One Liner
Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.
JOCKO WILLINK

Discipline Expectation Motivational
Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.
JOCKO WILLINK

Leadership Quality
But, in fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.
JOCKO WILLINK

Discipline Freedom
A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.
JOCKO WILLINK

Goodness Leadership Problem Success
The greatest of these was the recognition that leadership is the most important factor on the battlefield, the single greatest reason behind the success of any team.
JOCKO WILLINK

Greatness Leadership Team
There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.
JOCKO WILLINK

Discipline Inspirational Morning Night Practice Success
People do not follow robots.
JOCKO WILLINK

People Technology
If 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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Development Leadership Mistake Wrong
Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.
JOCKO WILLINK

Blame Leadership World
Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.
JOCKO WILLINK

Future Leadership Yourself
Trust is not blindly given. It must be built over time.
JOCKO WILLINK

Time Trust
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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Goodness Leadership Learning Myself Remember Struggle Time Win
Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.
JOCKO WILLINK

Break Independent Team Understand
leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance.
JOCKO WILLINK

Leadership Team
Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit.
JOCKO WILLINK

Performance
Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.
JOCKO WILLINK

Decision Force Greatness Leadership Stay
In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.
JOCKO WILLINK

Accomplishment Believe Inspirational Leadership True
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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Action Blame Live People Problem

Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.

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Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.

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