Last week I came upon Jocko Willink and I read his book about leadership, the leadership tactics manual. His stories and the style, being a former Navy Seal, resonated with me, as I am in the fortunate position to have military training as well. By becoming an officer, I had the chance to practice leadership a lot, which is, looking back, one of the more valuable things I did.
After reading the book, I found that my experience showed several common traits Jocko Willink and others also stress repeatedly - although he labels them differently and, frankly, he has way better stories to tell than I do.
Let's look at four principles, specifically.
Great leaders bring out the best in others and build the ones around them up.
If you lead, you don't drive the vehicle yourself. But you should be capable of how to.
Effective leaders are humble.
You can only lead if you can communicate.
Lesson one:
Great Leaders bring out the best in others and build the ones around them up.
I am but one person and I can not move a cruise ship by myself. But I can gather people and bring them to the point where they can do it as a team by sharing a common mindset and aim.
And if I do a great job at this, they can run the ship themselves, steering it to the direction we all have to go.
My job, therefore, is to build them up. To help my team understand the big picture and their role in it. I want them to be so good, that they can support each other and are confident to decide within their tasks what the best path is for all of us. They are the specialists, and they shall know that I fully trust them and their decisionmaking and that they can easily take over if I am suddenly not there anymore. I want to empower the individual and ultimately, the entire team.
So build them up, don't push them down.
Lesson two:
If you lead, you don't drive the vehicle yourself. (But you should know how to anyway)
Meaning, you need to have an overall view so that all people in your team walk into the same direction. If you focus with your eyes glued to the road, you can not read the map and tell the others. That is why there are two people in a rally car, one driving and one checking the map. The person driving the car will be the one who understands driving better than you do. Your job is to create a team that speaks out if they see that the road is blocked.
If they do well, it gives you the time to step back and assess the bigger picture.
The same applies if you feel overwhelmed.
If you're feeling like what you've got on your plate is too much, step away from it all for a moment. You can even literally move away from your desk or any physical place that a situation is going on. Take a moment to breath and to reorganise your thoughts. In most cases, you have the time to let an issue rest for a day before having to decide.
"This works so well because the pause lets you release built-up emotions that may be clouding your judgment. You can only make the best decision when you don't have strong feelings getting in the way. And it's best to take a breather to let this happen."
J.Willink
Lesson three:
Effective leaders are humble.
I keep this short. People prefer leaders that continually try to become better over those that are arrogant.
Your followers will learn that you are approachable if you dig in and also work with them, doing their work. When they see you performing also the menial tasks, it will make them feel like you don't think you're too good for any work. At a certaint point of company size, this will become difficult, yes. But until then, give it a 100%.
It improves your trust with your team. They feel like you're one of them, and they know you are willing to do the grunt work – just like them.
Lesson four: You can only lead if you can communicate.
You can not expect people to walk alongside you if they do not understand which direction you are heading to. It is a must to learn how to give information effectively, how to communicate calmly and how to listen actively.
Think about how easy it is for your spouse/partner to confuse and misinterpret that WhatsApp text you sent. People that don't know you that well will understand you even less. Mistakes, getting left behind, and the chances are high that badmouthing starts to happen at some point. Your job is to communicate in a way that limits this as much as possible.
Willink addresses one point I loved especially that I never thought about in that manner.
He wrote: "when giving praise, make sure to be specific about it. For example, saying something like "Your confidence was key to our success in that sales pitch we did last week!" is a lot better than "You did great!". "
Willink's approach addresses the achievement and highlights the overall goal, which gives them a view of the bigger picture.
Being precise and honest means that you want to include all of your team.
This also applies to feedback rounds, where you are the one that needs to hear critique the most. If you can explain someone their task better and more efficient, they will make fewer errors and understand quicker.
recap
Bring out the best in others.
Keep a view of the big picture
Stay humble and real.
Communicate often and clearly.
If you like military stories, maybe pick up a copy.
I surely enjoyed them.
That's it, no ads, no sales pitches, no affiliate links.
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Cheers
Andreas