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Author: & Jocko Willink
Reference: Willink, J. (2020). Leadership strategy and tactics: Field manual. New York: St. Martins Press.
tags: #leadership #business
Status: #notesInProgress
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rating: 5/5
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Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics

Tactical: The immediate situation right in front of you, the actual existing battle that is happening here and now.

Strategic: the broad, long-term, overall objective you are trying to achieve.

previous notes

Strategies

Foundations

• 202108012051 - Laws of Combat
  1. 202108012052 - Cover and Move
  2. 202108012053 - Simple
  3. 202108012054 - Prioritize and Execute
  4. 202108012256 - Decentralized Command
  • 202108012057 - Extreme Ownership
  • 202108012302 - The Dichotomy of Leadership—{ The Dichotomy of Leadership

p48 202108012047 - The power of relationships

p52 Play the game

202108012035 - Play the Long Game

• You have to play the long game. Try to support the boss and perform your duties to the best of your ability.

• In playing the game, You are building up trust with your boss, you are building a relationship.

• You are not trying to build a relationship for personal gain; You are trying to build a relationship with your boss so we can better accomplish the missions.

• My goal was always the same: to build a relationships with them so they trusted me, gave me what I needed to get the job done, got of my way, and let me accomplish the mission

Hey boss, I just wanted to make sure I completely understand why you want it done this way so I can fully support your plan."

p55 202108041015 - When is mutiny in order?

p61 202108041039 - Refusal to comply

p63 202108041042 - Are leaders born or made?

p70 Leadership and manipulation

• Manipulators are trying to get people to do things that will benefit the manipulator, while leaders are trying to get people to do things that will benefit the team and the people themselves.

  • the leader puts themselves on the bottom of the priority list The good of the mission and the good of the team outweigh any personal concern a true leader has for themselves.

• Sacrificing others for yourself never pans out in the long term; people eventually notice and take stock of the fact that you are not looking out for the good of the team, but instead you are looking out for yourself. When people notice that, they will not follow you for long.

p72 - 202107281009 - Subordinate your ego

• To put your ego in check you much have incredible confidence. If you find you cannot put your ego in check because you are afraid it might make you look weak, then guess what? You are weak. Don't be weak.
• By subordinating your ego, you have the strength and confidence to give the other person credit, and they will recognize and respect that confidence.

Core Tenets

p86 Be capable and ask for help

• Most people avoid a the process of asking for help because they fear they will look stupid.

• Some leaders feel it is a weakness to ask for help. That couldn't be further from the truth.

  • What subordinates don't respect is a leader who tries to appear to know everything.
  • They understand that their leaders might not know everything.
  • Put your ego in check and ask for help.

p88 - Travel to the front lines

^50e25e

• Complete ignorance of what is happening on the front lines makes you appear out of touch, and yes, the troops will lose respect for you
  • ("An officer who has given an order goes out and sees for himself whether it has been carried out."){ The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done#^7049cd
  • Just because you have gone down and done something once doesn't mean you are good to go. Always go back for more. Keep learning and getting better.
  • When you get down in the dirt with your front line troops, you get to know them. You build relationships. When you have relationships with the front line troops, they actually tell you what is going on. They give yo info. They tell you what's working and what isn't. { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^b7ebe6

p89 - Building Trust and Relationships

• To build trust and relationships down the chain of command, you have to give trust.

  • That is why as a leader "I" will start to build trust with small, incremental steps.
    • build trust in subordinate leaders by giving them responsibility. As trust builds, give them bigger objectives.
  • If a subordinate failed in carrying out a mission or making the right decision, or solving a problem, "I" wouldn't drop the hammer of punishment on them. Instead, I would look at their mistake as an opportunity to teach them, to counsel them, to mentor them.
  • The more trust that is built, the more hands-off the leader can be. And the overarching goal of leadership is to not have to lead at all.

Up the chain of command

• Make sure you distinguish between telling the truth about things the boss needs to know and complaining about every little thing that goes on.

Trust and 202108012256 - Decentralized Command

• Trust must be built in order for subordinates to respond honestly to orders, and trust must be maintained in order for leadership to trust the response from subordinates.

• Not only did he have to trust me when I first gave him the order to go to the building, but now that he has said "Negative" to me, I have to trust him.

  • He was able to execute-we were able to execute-not only because of Decentralized Command and his understanding of the why but also because of the relationships we had built, through trust, up and down the chain of the command. That is leadership.

p97 Earning Influence and Respect

• Similar to building trust, to build respect and influence you have to give respect and influence.
  • treat people with respect. Allow them to give their opinion{ The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done#^a1a6da. Listen to them. Don't interrupt them. Don't disparage the importance of their job or position. Share the burden of hard tasks.

p98 Extreme ownership of everything

• The leader is responsible for everything. Absolutely Everything.
• Taking extreme ownership means that leaders are responsible for every action the people on their team make. It is as simple as that.
  • Staying within your field of fire prevents you from shooting your own people.
    • How can a gunner in a team not be at fault for shooting outside his field of fire?
      • "Well, the gunner aimed the weapon. He pulled the trigger. It is his fault."
      • Answer: Actually it is the leader's fault.
      • "How can it be the leaders fault if it was the gunner who shot the weapon?
      • Answer: It is the leader's responsibility to brief the gunner. A leader is responsible for everything a person on his or her team does.

p103 Preemptive ownership

• Take ownership of problems before they happen.

p104 taking ownership when being blamed

• When you are a leader and someone blames you for something going wrong, you accept the blame. You own it.

• Who does the team leader want on his team? The rifleman who evades the blame and shirks responsibility? Or the one who takes ownership of mistakes, even those made by someone else in the fire team? **Any leader wants people on his or her team that step up and take ownership.

p107 Picking up brass

^b7ebe6

• Picking up brass is a miserable task and usually takes a couple of days of gutting through high temps in the desert heat and crawling on your hands and knees picking up shell casings.
• As a leader, when you do tasks that seem "beneath you," you not only display that no job was above you, it's also a good time to interact with the front line SEALs, bond with the subordinate leaders and troops, and observe how everyone interacts with on another.
• Good leaders will do the hard things their subordinates do every day so they never forget to respect the job itself and the people who do the job, and also so the troops recognize the leader's willingness to shoulder some of the burden so he or she can understand the true challenges of the job. { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^49a969.

p109 Leading from the rear

• When dealing with direct tactical problems like being in a firefight, the leader won't have much visibility beyond that, and that will cause decision making to become difficult at best.
• The same thing happens in the business world; if a leader gets into the weeds in minuscule details of the day-to-day operation, then they lose the visibility of the broader events unfolding, and the decision-making process. (ref: { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^114919)
  • The job of a leader is not, for example, to clear rooms, engage targets, or grapple with detainees. Their job is to detach, assess all the dynamics of a situation, and get their men the support they need. looking up and out instead of down and in.

p114 Don't overreact

• Remember that anything you might say at the moment is based on incomplete and likely inaccurate information. Allow for the situation to unfold and for a more solid picture to appear before you speak up.
• If you are told that a project is significantly off track, don't start yelling and screaming. Instead, calmly determine what is causing the problem and what support is needed to get the project back on track.
  There is no reason to overreact: So take a step back, detach from your emotional reason, find out what is really going on, and then make calm, logical decisions based on the reality of the situation.
  • 010 Brain/040 Synthesis/041 Questions/What is a logical decision?

p116 Don't Care

• To actually win strategically in the long game, you have to not care.
  • To not care, you have to 202107281009 - Subordinate your ego, Normal Face
  • Oh, you don't want to lower you price? That's fine. I don't care, keep it.

p118 Everyone is the same, everyone is different

• Everyone is the same: Shy, confident, quiet, loud, bold, aggressive, etc. These characters are everywhere; everyone is the same.
• Everyone is different: As much as you can categorize someone as a "leader" or a "loner," they are still completely different from other leaders and other loners you may have worked with.
• While a piece of wood is a piece of wood, and all wood is the same fundamental material, there are different types of wood, and because of nature and circumstances and chance, each piece is completely unique. Every piece is the same, but every piece is different.
• It is easy for a leader to mistakenly use all his or her leadership tools universally in all situations (generically).
  • One technique worked with one group, so it will work with the next; if a tool worked on one person, it will work on the next person.
  • Just as a woodworker applies to much pressure with a tool and the wood splits or burns or warps and the wood is ruined, a team or some of the individuals on the team can be ruined if the. leader's approach is inappropriate or is applied with the wrong around of pressure.
• A leader, instead of simply applying a tool in the same manner as before, will assess the situation, look at the team and study the individuals that make up the team, and analyze the dynamics of the situation. Then the good leader will adjust the manner in which he or she is utilizing the tool or will try a completely different one. { The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done#^057d05
• Just as a fine woodworker is not merely a craftsman but and artists, a leader cannot simply apply leadership tools universally and with indiscretion; a leader must apply them to teams and individuals with tact, diplomacy, prudence, and subtlety. That is the art of leadership.

p125 Isolation as a Leader

• There is no doubt that as a leader, you have to be comfortable being alone.
• You will have a tendency to be alone because you will likely be working more than anyone else, showing up earlier, and going home later than the rest of the troops.
• You will also be alone with the decisions, because as the leader, decisions are ultimately yours and yours alone. Sure you can seek counsel and gain consensus, but when the final decision is made, it is made by the leader alone. That is the burden of command.
• While leadership can be isolating, it does not have to be lonely.

Know what is important and what isn't

• A good commander understands when enemy movement is just a plot. A good commander ignores things that will not have an actual impact on the battle.
• When a leader is directly involved in any problem and they immerse themselves in the minutiae of a situation, every problem seems important, every molehill looks like a mountain.
  • How will this problem impact the team's strategic goals? Can it cause mission failure? Is it worth my time and effort to engage in it? How bad can it get if I leave it alone? { The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done#^32c991
• A leader should err on the side of not getting involved in problems; the goal is always to allow problems to get solves at the lowest level. When subordinates are solving low-level problems, it allows the leader to focus. on more important strategic issues. looking up and out instead of down and in

Principles

p130 The most important member of the team

• At any moment on a patrol, any one member of the team could easily become the most important person. If any one member of the platoon failed the team at a critical moment, it could be catastrophic.
  • This should be the attitude you take with any team: that every person's job is absolutely critical.

• Everyone has the most important job. Let them know that.

p132 Span of control

• How many people can you lead?
  • 202108012256 - Decentralized Command meant that I never had to try and keep track of all forty people in a platoon.
• Getting a head count by utilizing subordinate leaders and Decentralized command was infinitely better than those task units that tried to use another method, such as having each person count off or assigning a. leader to walk around and count every single person.
  • Get a head count in seconds: Troops > Squad Leaders > Platoon commanders > Fire team leaders
• If you end up with too many people under your control, it may be more effective for you to elevate a few of the high-potential troops to be leaders of some smaller teams beneath you.

p135 Taking care of your people with discipline

• People think "taking care of your people" means making sure they are comfortable and happy, doffing them, giving the as much time off as possible, and not pushing them hard.
  • This is wrong. If you you really care about your people you won't coddle them at all. You will push them hard. You will train them hard. You will make sure they understand the tactics of war and the weapons and the radios they operate. You will ensure they are in top physical condition and prepared for the mental and emotional stress of combat.
  • The best way to make sure your people are taken care of is through the hard training that comes from discipline.
• While lives may not be on the line, if you really want to take care of your people, you need to push them. You need to make sure they understand their jobs. You need to drive them toward their goals. If they fail professionally, they fail to achieve their financial goals and cannot take care of their families or provide for them the way they want to. So when you are a leader, the best thing you can do is push them toward their goals.
• The easy path leads to misery. The path of discipline leads them to freedom.

p137 Imposed Discipline

• Optimal discipline in a team is not imposed by the leader; it is chosen by the team itself. Optimal discipline is self discipline.
• When you give a direct order and impose your will on the team, you are removing your subordinates' input from the equation. When people have not input, they have no ownership; when they have no ownership, they have no personal stake in driving mission success.
• Whenever possible, explain the why , make sure the team members understand the benefits to the mission and to themselves and, finally, give them as much ownership as possible so they execute driven not by imposed discipline but by the will of their own intrinsic discipline.

p140 Pride

• Pride can tear apart individuals and teams, yet it can also be an aspirational influence that drive successful positive behavior.
  • When team members have pride, they put in the extra work, care about the details, and, accordingly, tend to perform at a much higher level than a team or organization without pride
• When the past is held up and put on display in honor, it becomes the standard for all to pursue.
  • Give teams the opportunity to earn pride. Pride does not develop simply by telling team members that they are great or by hanging up banners. All banners and signs and flags mean nothing if they aren't earned.
  • To build pride within a team, you have to put the members in situations that require unity, strengths and perseverance to get through.
• Over time, the complaints faded, my imposed discipline turned into the team's self-discipline and that self-discipline ultimately tuned into pride.

  • "We work harder than anyone else at this team," and "No one else comes close to our task unit."

  • If you aren't in Task Unit Bruiser, you wish you were.

• If you want your team members to have pride, you have to make them earn it through hard work.

p146 Giving Orders

• When giving orders, simply tell the what the mission objective was—the goal I wanted the platoons to accomplish. This is what the military refers to as Commander's Intent.
  • When I did this, it allowed the platoon leadership and the other SEALs in the platoon to come up with a plan themselves.
    • When they came up with their own plan, picked their own troops, picked their own timelines, the plan became their plan, not mine—which means they owned it.
• Leaders often see themselves as the only one actually capable of coming up with the right plan. All those thoughts and feelings are driven by the ego. Let it go.
  • With each iteration of planning they conduct, and with each correction you give them, you team will become better. Soon, their plans will be as good as yours, if not better. When that happens, you can begin to looking up and out instead of down and in, which is actually what a leader should be doing.

p149 202108012048 - Yes Men

p151 The exception to No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders

• & Napoleon Bonaparte: There are no bad regiments, only bad colonels.

• & David Hackworth in { About Face: There are no bad units, only bad officers.

• There are no bad teams, only bad leaders, but there are good teams that delivers outstanding performance despite a bad leader.

  • Just because a team is performing well does not necessarily mean that the leader is the driver of that success.

p157 Leadership Tactics

Tactical: The immediate situation right in front of you, the actual existing battle that is happening here and now.

Becoming a leader

p157 How to Succeed as a new leader

p159 How to be chosen to lead

• The number one way to give yourself a chance for a promotion and leadership is simple and straightforward: performance. Do you job well. Work hard. Be the first person to show up to work and the last to leave. Volunteer for the most challenging tasks, projects, and missions that no one else wants to do, including those that are simply mundane or unrewarding.
• Make you goal helping the team win.

p160 When you are not chosen

Instead of allowing yourself to become angry and frustrated, take the opportunity to do a good, honest assessment of yourself to see why you were not chosen.
- Don't say
> Hey Boss, why wasn't I selected for promotion? I am just as good, if not better, than the person you have the role to.
- Say instead
> Hey boss, I wanted to get some feedback from you. As you know, there was a recent promotion here, and I eventually want to move up into a more senior leadership position too. I want to know if there is anything that I can focus on or do better so I am more qualified and more prepared to lead when the next opportunity comes.

• Don't be defensive — actually listen.
• Don't hold grudges against the person who got the promotion. Help them win.

p162 Impostor syndrome

• Feelings of impostor syndrome: Some people worry they aren't ready for a leadership position. Some even feel once in that position that they don't deserve to be there.

• Double down on focus. Double down on prep. Focus on learning as much as possible and doing a good job.

• If you force your plan down your team's throats, they might execute it, but they will do it begrudgingly compared to how they would execute if it were their plan.

• A leader with impostor syndrome should open up. Ask questions. Find out why a certain team member did a certain thing at certain time. Ask for input about a plan. Solicit advice on how to best move forward.

  • #dichotomy Don't ask dumb questions. If you haven't taken the time to research as much as you can, if you haven't looked through manuals, read operating instructions, studied the names and basic qualifications of the team—basically, if you haven't done your homework, the team will see just that: you didn't care enough to invest in understanding the mission, the gear, and the equipment, and most important, the people.

• Some SEALs leaders didn't carefully consider their words and actions and they didn't feel they needed to listen to anyone up or down the chain of command. They felt extremely qualified. That attitude is the opposite of impostor syndrome; it is plain arrogance and it will destroy a leader and a team.

p166 Insecurity as a leader

• The way to overcome your insecurities is not by trying to hide them but by being humble enough to admit what they are. Instead of trying to shield them, present them. Ask for help. Explain your shortfalls and what you want to do to correct them.

p167 Transitioning from follower or peer to leader

1. Come up with a plan.
2. Give simple, clear, conscience direction.
3. Stay humble, take input, and listen.
4. And, of course, lead.

• The goal is to looking up and out instead of down and in—this means the leader should not be doing much of the actual doing. Let the troops do the doing.
  • Don't be the leader with you hands in your pockets, but don't be the leader with you hands in everything #dichotomy

p173 New Sheriff in town

• Don't change things that are working, but don' accept things that are not working. The better the team is, the less you have to change. The worse it is, the more will need adjusting.
• The better the team members, the more I will lean on them to come up with solutions in areas where improvement is needed. Ideally, I identify problem areas and they come up with solutions for them.
• If the team is subpar, I will certainly listen to the members' input, but I will do so more critically, as their track record indicates a lack of ability to identify and solve problems.
• [Establish relationships](202108012047 - The power of relationships) and sense of understanding with a high-performing team and start making incremental adjustments until they reach max efficiency.
• For a low-performing team, do the opposite: start with dramatic changes and back off over time as things begin to function properly.

p178 Don't go overboard, Rambo

Don't go overboard. Not as a leader, not as a mentor, and not as a coach. Don't be Rambo. Instead, be as subtle as you can—until you can't. And then lead

INSTEAD OF

• I'll tell you how we are going to execute
  Let me coach you how to do that
  I will mentor you
  TRY the Indirect approach( #makeNote )

• How do you think we should execute?
  Can you explain why you do it that way?
  I would love to compare how you do things to how I do them.

• The people who taught me the most about leadership, strategies, and tactics never explicitly told me they were coaching or mentoring me; they subtly guided me along the path, filling my head with knowledge, while I barely even noticed it. They managed to teach me without teaching me, putting ideas in my brain so delicately that I thought the ideas were my own. That is the most powerful way to teach, mentor and coach.

Leadership Skills

p182 When to step up and lead

• By letting a little more time pass, by letting that leadership void. linger just a little bit longer, everyone else would begin to notice it; they would recognize there was a problem. Since that time passed and now everyone else new there was a problem, when "I" gave orders on how to solve it, people would listen and they would execute.
• If two people fill a leadership void at the same time, they usually bump into each other when they get there.Then, while the problem they are trying to solve grows, they have to take precious time to sort out which person is going to actually lead and which one is going to stand down. Don't let egos crash.
• Dispersion:"Don't bunch up."
  • When we're scared, having another person nearby can be comforting.
    • ref: { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^1dab8a
    • Bunching up on the leader hurts the team. By trying to crowd the leader, you're finagling your own ideas and plans into the mix. It does not help. Instead, give the leader room to lead.

p187 Don't take things personally

• Don't take criticism personally
  • Not about the plan you came up with
  • not about the idea you has
  • not about the presentation you gave
  • not about the decision you made

p188 202108012045 - Digging In

• Don't overcommit to ideas. Keep and open mind and lead yourself and out.
• What really makes for a horrible situation is when people not only think their idea is the best but they dig in to protect it.
  • When people dig in to defend their ideas, not only can they not advance them, they also cannot maneuver and change their thoughts. They are dug in and can't move.
• If an your idea isn't good, concede and accept an opposing point of view. If the ideas were relatively equal, defer to theirs so they have ownership. If your idea was far superior, the differences were usually obvious enough to convince the person with the opposing view that they were wrong—and you would never have to admit that you're wrong because you never claimed that you were right.

p191 Iterative Decision-Making

• Analysis paralysis: The leader is overwhelmed by the events unfolding around them and can't decide what to do.
• When unsure about a situation or don't have enough information to make a bold clear decision, utilize iterative decision making.
  • Look at the situation and make small decisions to move toward a direction that aligned with the best guess on what the situation was, without overcommitting since it wasn't sure.

p184 Decentralized Command or Lazy Designation?

• If a leader wants to be in charge of everything, then he or she should try to be in charge of nothing
• If you sense any inkling of attitude from the troops that you are shying away from the tough missions or tasks,then take charge of the most challenging ones and crush them. Set the example. Lead from the front (counter: { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^478461).
• Is you head actual complains from your subordinates about being assigned a particular task: "Oh you don't want to do that? Okay, I will." (counter: { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^4ef639, { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^63a4f0).

p196 The easy button

• While occasionally stepping in and problem solving is required of a leader, if it becomes you default mode, and if the troops begin to expect it, then it will. ultimately hurt the team because you will constantly be looking down and in instead of up and out.
  • You will stunt the collective growth and progression of the team and individuals that make it up. Don't solve evrey problem the team comes to you with. Don't be the easy button.

p200 202108012040 - Conform to influence

• To be in the group, don't be overaggressive. Don't alienate yourself from the group. Become part of it and earn you influence.

I can't change the group if I am not in the group

Don't fall to 202108012045 - Digging In

This mission is stupid and so is the boss

• Instead of disagreeing outright on the one extreme or echoing your coworker on the other, try and answer in the middle: "Well, it certainly is hard to understand the mission from our perspective. Why do you think the leadership has us working on it?" (question to ask when aiming for a shallow-to- deep workload ratio cc. Rule 4 of 202107191134 - Rules of Deep Work

207 Everything is good (but not that good)

• Bad things are going to happen. When they do, it is important for the leader to maintain a positive attitude, to find the good in the situation.
  • We were denied the funding we wanted? Good, we can learn to be more efficient.
  • The mission we has been planning was canceled? Good we have more time to prepare.
  • The client we were about to sign walked away? Good, no we can focus on building better relationships with our other clients.
• Be positive, be realistic.

Maneuvers

p209 Using leadership to teach and build

• Putting people into leadership roles is one of the most common remedies for a wide variety of leadership challenges.

fixing a negative attitude

• Give people responsibility—just make sure that it is the appropriate level of responsibility (Cleaning bathrooms vs. planning missions)

teaching humility

• How do you teach humility to a leader who has become arrogant? How do you put their ego in check?
  • Put the overconfident leader in charge of a mission or project that you know is outside his or her comfort zone or level of competency.
    • Either they look at the mission, start the planning process, realize they're in over their heads, and come ask for help.
    • If they don't ask for help, the second possibility is failure. This failure will humble them and they realize they aren't as awesome as they thought they were.

building or rebuilding confidence

• The medicine for a lack of confidence is very similar to the medicine for overconfidence: put the individual in charge.
  • When the person needs confidence built, put them in charge of a mission you know they are capable of leading and executing well: a softball
  • Find the balance, apply the right amount of pressure to encourage growth

building high-level team players

• A person doesn't need to have a problem to benefit from being put in leadership positions. In fact, good leaders develop their teams by putting junior people in charge so they become more experienced and knowledgeable.

p221 Leading peers

• 202107281009 - Subordinate your ego and take the high ground, or the high ground will take you.
• Shoulder hard assignments but don't take control of too much #dichotomy
• Put the team ad the mission before yourself.
• Do the right things for the right reasons. Support your peers. Stay humble. Take ownership of the problems. Pass credit on the rest of your team. Build relationships. This is how you lead your peers.
• If you have

p226 Micromanaging, indecisive, or weak bosses

Micromanaging boss

• A micromanagers attitude isn't going to change overnight; you have to show sustained performance to get them t back off. Don't get frustrated. Don't let you ego get the best of you. Push them information, and perform consistently. Build a relationships with them. Over tie, they will give you trust and room to maneuver on your own.
  • The boss just cares and so do I.

indecisive boss

• Assess and prioritize the list of things that needed to get done, and then present that list to the boss in a humble and tactful way, so as to not offend his ego.

  • Hey boss, I know there is a lot to get done, and I'm going to get it all done. But to be efficient, I need to focus my resources a bit, so i wanted to run these priorities by you to make sure they make sense and reflect what your vision is so I can best support it.

  • Narrow down their decision so all they have to say is "Yes."
• Good, that means I can set priorities and guide decisions.

weak boss

• Hey, boss, I know you have a lot going on, so I was thinking it might be helpful if I jumped on this project over here and moved forward with it. Would that be alright?
• Hey boss, I'm sorry for being slow on the uptake, but I just want to make sure I fully understand your vision. Do I have it right when I say...
• Hey boss, I'm trying to step up my game; would you mind if I took a crack planning this next project so I can get some experience?
• Is my boss weak? Good, that means I can step up and lead.

p231 WHen to Micromanage

• Make sure the individual understands the missions, the goal, and their specific role. Make sure they clearly understand the task required of them and all expectations around that task.
• If the individual/team fails to perform:
  • You might need to show exactly what needs to be done, perhaps even do it so they see with their own eyes exactly what is expected of them. Then monitor them closely; watch them do what they are supposed to do
  • Follow up with them. Check in with them. Micromanage them.

    Listen, I know it may see like I am breathing down your neck and micromanaging you, but I just want to make sure you know exactly how to execute. Once you have hot this under control, I will give yo the space and freedom you need to operate without so much oversight from me.

• Micromanagement is a tool, but it is not a permanent solution. Use it, but know when it. had reached its limitations, and then remove or replace personnel to fix the problem.

p235 The boss wants all the credit

• Asking for credit is a horrible move to make in any scenario. And in a scenario where you boss is asking for credit, it is an even worse move, because if you boss is asking for credit, it means they are likely insecure. They want the credit to build up their ego, so if you try to take it away from them, it is an attack on their ego, and they will not be happy. They will not trust you, and you will form an antagonistic relationship with them.
• If you are working hard and making things happen, credit will eventually come your way. Be patient. And when credit you have not asked for comes your way, it is doubly valued, since you simultaneously appear highly competent and humble, which is a winning combination.
• Play the long game

p237 The nearly indefensible leader

• When a decision is made or a course of action comes down from the chain of command, you must execute it as if it were your own.
• You have to balance defending the boss with connecting with the troops.

  • Listen, the boss might not be perfect, but his is driving us toward the same strategic goals we want to accomplish.
  • Look, the boss might not be ideal, but she still gives us the support we need. The better we perform, the more support we will get.
  • The boss has some quirks, but we know where he stands, so we work with him to the best of our abilities, which means dealing with those quirks so we can get the job done.
  • Complaining about the boss doesn't get us anywhere, and it doesn't make our jobs any easier. What we can do is try to form a good relationship with her so we can influence her in the right direction.

• 202108041015 - When is mutiny in order?

p240 Stress relief

• { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^81c555 is the first step in relieving stress.
• By building relatinoships, you get a read on when someone isn't acting like their normal self
• What do you do with a person who is struggling with stress.
  • Give them a break. Give them a rest. Take them out of the stress inducing environment.
  • Don't tell your men that you're giving them a break, as it may invoke guilt. Instead, provide them with a "mission" outside the front lines.

p243 Punishment

• Punishment must be dealt out at times, but a good leader should need to use it seldomly.
• Do not simply assume the troops have siply decided not to do what was required of them; instead, assume you did not give them appropriate direction and that is the reason for the transgression.
• The need to punish someone is a deflection of the leader and the failure to lead appropriately.
• In order for someone to be punished, one has to cross the line, and in order for someone to cross the line, a line must first be clearly defined and understood.
  • It is a good policy to lay out the consequences for violations.

p246 When to quit

• Detach, look for other options when a mission is not going according to plan.

• It is not so much about quitting as it is about retreating. We are simply giving up on one approach that isn't working to try another.

• Tactical: The immediate situation right in front of you, the actual existing battle that is happening here and now.

• Strategic: the broad, long-term, overall objective you are trying to achieve.

• Sometimes you have to quit on a short-term, tactical goal—you have to retreat. But never quit the strategic missions. Never give up on your long-term strategic goals.

Communication

p255 Keep the troops informed

• Troops that know what is happening remain engaged, prepared, and oprtationally capable of doing their jobs with efficiency and high moral. Uniformed troops are a disaster waiting to happen.
• You have to be proactive in unpdating your troops. You have to continually keep them abreast of what is happening. And you can't count on them to ask questions either; they might not know what they don't know. Don't assume they know anything; in fact, assume the opposite—that they know nothing—and then take responisbility as the leader to keep the troops informed at all times.

Rumor control

• The quicker you share the truth of what is going on , the better it will be received and the fewer problems you will have with rumors.

Clear guidance

• Make your guidance to the troops 202108012053 - Simple, clear, and concise. More guidance does not necessarily make guidance clearer; in fact, more guidance can make things more confusing and convoluted.
• It is also importatnt that the team. understands why it was so important to follow the [protocols] in place.

p264 Because I said so

• "Because I said so" is clearly not the best way to get someone to so what you want them to do, and it is not a goo way to lead. That might seem obvious, byt "Because I said so" gets used in many forms:
  • It's my call
  • This is my project
  • I outrank you
• If one of your subordinates asks why you are asking them to do something a certain way, and the only reason you can give is "Because I said so" this is an indication that you don't know the reason why. And if you don't know why you are doing something, then why are you doing it?

p268 The thread of why

• No matter what the mission or the goal, the troops need to understand how it will positively impact them. So make sure the thread of why explains that to them in no uncertain terms.
• Jocko on the thread of why

p271 Tactfully Delivering the truth

• If you punch someone in the face with critcism, they will become defensie and are unlikely to take the criticism on board, so a more { Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^232fa6 is necessary.

1. Take care you your people
2. Take ownership of the problem

• INSTEAD OF

  • You failed to get the project done on time
  • You failed to meet the mission objective
    USE
    What support or asset could I have given you so that we could have gotten the project done on time?
    I don't think I did a good job of explaining the mission objective. Did you fully understand it?

{ Leadership, Strategies, and Tactics#^6673e2

p275 Balancing Praise

• You have to use caution when you dole out praise. Too much praise and people, consciously or unconsciously, back off their efforts just a little bit. Multiply that times a whole team of people and you get a negative impact.
  • #dichotomy praise should be given when warranted. But it must be given judiciously, and it should be tempered with a goal that requires the team to still push.
• Mitigate excessive praise by targeting the individual rather than the team.

p280 Hope

• Hope is not a course of action. You cannot rely on hope. You have to have a plan. You have to consider contingencies. You cannot have hope playing a role in planning or executing.
• Explain to your team that victory is possible. Explain how it will be achieved. If victory is too far off in the distance, designate some shorter-term goals that can be achieved.

p281 Ultimatums

• Like 202108012045 - Digging In, they allow no room to maneuver. Never make an ultimatum that you can't keep.

Making an ultimatum as the boss

• Where did my leadership fail?
• If it is absolutely necessary to impose an ultimatum on a collective effort, place it squarely on the leader.

Making an ultimatum as the boss

• THere is very little chance that making a demand for a promotion is going to work—and even if it does and you get promoted, there will be damage done. You have revealed the limits of your loyalty to the team, and you have placed the importance of your own promotion about the importance of the team and the mission. That will be remembered.

• Boss, I have been here for six years; I really love being here and want to continue to work here. But I also have a family to support and and provide for, and I need to do what is right for them. I know there are other opportunities in other companies for me to advance. Even though I don't want to, if I can't get some upward mobility here, I might have to start looking at some alternative companies where I can further my career.

Dealing with an ultimatum placed on you

• Start with telling yourself the truth. Do a hard, honest assessment of the situation and figure out if what you are being tasked with is actually possible.
• Tell you team members the truth. Let them know that the ultimatum has been placed on you and thereby the team, and explain why you are going to do you absolute best to get the job done.

p287 Reflect and Diminish

• To reflect the emotions you are seeing from your subordinate but diminish them to a more controlled level.
  • WIth emotions reflected, you are now on your subordinate's side.
  • If someone is sad, reflect but try t diminish that sadness a little bit. If someone is envious, mirror a little of that envy so you can then explain what envy really is (their ego!), and they will actually listen to you.
• Don't isolate your emotions from your team members. Foster shared emotions, deescalate, then solve the problem at hand.

p290 When to yell at subordinates

• There are times when you might have to yell, but it should be extremely rare and calculated.

p293 Getting people to listen

• Let a person talk. Let that person jump in and say what they want, and let them finish their thoughts.
• When they have nothing left, you will be able to make your point.
• The less you talk, the more people listen
• Don't waste words. Let other people do that; instead, speak with poignancy and power.

p294 Apologizing

ref: 202107281009 - Subordinate your ego, there are few times an apology isn't warranted or welcomed.