Leadership Strategy and Tactics Field Manual; Willink

Posted on by Don Wright

So, this one: I’m a Jocko Fan. This is for new leaders or for people who think they are leaders but are lacking…. Something. This is also for people who want to be peer leaders or technical leaders or who are aspiring Supervisory leaders.

THIS book is not (in my opinion) a walk-up. First, you should probably invest in some Jocko Wisdom through the Podcast. It’s called (surprisingly) The Jocko Podcast and is full of interviews of heroes (mostly), review of books (many) and usually a parable or life lesson to carry.

Jocko Podcast

Second: Extreme Ownership (book, or better, Audiobook from Audible) followed by the Dichotomy of Leadership (same)

Extreme Ownership
Dichotomy of Leadership

This book is modeled after the military strategy and tactics field manuals that have been covered a few times in the podcasts. Jocko likes the Marine Corps style manuals. This books is chunked into Part 1: Strategy, Part 2: Tactics. Go Figure.

Now it seems like a fan of Servant Leadership (see Leaders Eat Last) would not look for Navy Seal / Hell Week tactics to employ. Seems easy to just yell louder and be meaner BUT: this book and Jocko’s other teachings are all about service to the team, building Oxytocin, making a team and team members into a family that will support each other and the mission. Some of my key takeaways?

Part 1 STRATEGY:

  • Be capable / ask for help: Ego in Check; Admit what you don’t know*
  • Lead from the Rear: Stay out of the weeds; Detach
  • Pickup Brass: Lead by Example. Do your grunt work. Show them how.
  • Everyone is the same/ Everyone is Different: Situational Leadership

*Parable: I was a the leader who NEVER wanted to ask for help. My first significant leadership experience was serving a lazy boss. She didn’t want to learn or prepare and didn’t know our work, and any engagement that we needed was an imposition. One time, I had to ask for leadership / management intervention. I needed her to ask her peer to help our team. It didn’t happen, I failed the task and my appraisal that year said “Don Should ask for help before failing task X” My bad. I know it’s a snake, why did I pick it up? Lots of Big C (Cortisol) on that job.

Part 2 Tactics:

This is actually pretty awesome if you are / have been or want to be a leader. It’s how to act. How to behave. How to communicate. I could read and reflect on times I was AWESOME and about times where I should have been tarred and feathered (Keep Your Ego in Check!) This section builds on Extreme Ownership and Dichotomy and the multiple lessons therein

  • Becoming a leader: Transitioning, New Sheriff in town, Imposter Syndrome
  • Leadership Skills: Decentralized Command, Don’t be the Easy Button
  • Maneuvers: Leading Peers, Micromanagement (almost never), Boss Management
  • Communications: Inform, Rumors, Clear Guidance, Why, SIMPLE!, Truth, Praise, Apologize

Servant Leadership According to Sinek

Posted on by Don Wright

Leaders Eat Last:

  • Servant Leadership and Sustainable Teams

So, I read Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. I’ve been on a kick around Servant Leadership and Simon starts off talking about Marine Corps. Kick your butt / scream, my way or highway right?

Not really. It’s about building a Tribe. The tribe is full of people who enjoy their individual victories (Endorphins and Dopamine) but are in a CIRCLE OF SAFETY where they can gain Serotonin (Love of accomplishment / leadership and contribution) and Oxytocin (Family, trust, camaraderie). Great organizations create the CIRCLE OF SAFTEY. Inside the Circle: Your biggest fear is letting the team down. Your biggest hope is making the team better, contributing.

Outside the circle? Danger. Danger creates Cortisol. Cortisol makes you anxious, fearful. Are you happy to go to work or are you anxious, tense and fearful?

Why would there be danger inside what should be a circle of saftey? What if your top leadership is investor and bottom line focused such that headwinds are pushed onto the team? Are there seemingly random pay cuts, layoffs to make a cash target? Is bonus or pay sacrificed to make investors happy or make stock buybacks?

Sinek compares the vaunted GE (Jack Welch), up or out / rank em yank em people policies to those of Costco. GE grew faster (at first) but ended up tracking the S&P which means it had ‘average’ leadership. Costco started slower and outpaced the market without brutality to the circle of safety.

Other reinforcing references: Jim Collins / Good To Great, Built to Last, Tribes by Sebastian Junger, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

I’m working on a thesis that the great quality principles and thinkers build on team work, enabling the worker to excel robust systems. The only thing I DON’T understand about Lean and Leadership and Quality is: Why does everyone have 14 points?

So, that’s Leaders Eat Last, about 330 pages with notes. Read it someday.

Survivorship Bias

Posted on by Don Wright

This is a classic – classic quality tale about inspection. I had parts with green stickers that were good and parts with 2 green stickers that were bad. The supplier said 2 green stickers meant that they’d been tested twice! Better!

What I found out was that the first green sticker was awarded if it sort of passed the final test and to make sure, they sent it through again! It became an easy way to identify intermittent failures.

This is a great summarization of the WW2 Bomber parable. Two Lessons:

1. Survivorship Bias and

2. GREAT demonstration of plotting data on a physical representation of your part or assembly line or your vehicle or your human body.