Ep 147 | Lessons from Jocko Willink

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about leadership, but specifically lessons learned from Jocko Willink. Jocko Willink. Now, Jocko is, is one of my favorite leaders, favorite characters, favorite podcasters, favorite authors. I really love the guy and I love what he stands for. And I was introduced to Jocko rather early in his civilian, you know, post-military career, shortly after he put together the book Extreme Ownership. When I attended an event in San Diego that Jocko and his partner Leif Babin were hosting. I did not know it at the time, though I guess I should say I suspected it, that they were going to blow up to the level they have. But at that time, I was just very much into Extreme Ownership, the book, and Jocko. And I went out to San Diego and I took pages and pages of notes over this couple-day event. And I was recently reviewing my notes and recognized there were 3 main lessons that clearly had an impact on me, not just because they were highlighted and starred multiple times, but that I think about them quite regularly, even still today, probably 5+ years after, after attending that event and following Jocko beyond Extreme Ownership and that book to to where he wrote Dichotomy of Leadership and his podcast and everything else he's involved in. Here are the 3 lessons. Okay. 3 biggest lessons I think that Jocko taught me. And, and I think they're all applicable in your world as well. From a leadership perspective, number 1, the concept of extreme ownership. It's exactly that. The leader bears full responsibility for all things. With respect to a business, a mission, all good outcomes, all, all negative outcomes, all great planning, all poor planning. The leader owns every aspect. In other words, uh, there are no such things as bad teams. There's only bad leaders. If leaders take responsibility for their team's performance, and the outcomes of the decisions that are being made. They do not blame others or make excuses when anything goes wrong. The quality of the team's performance is a reflection of the leadership, hence why there's no bad teams and, and there's only bad leaders. So if a team's not performing well and you're taking extreme ownership over that team's performance, it is the leader's responsibility to improve and train the team to right the ship. So first takeaway from Jocko, just the idea of extreme ownership, and this applies well outside of business as well. I mean, you think about, uh, relationships. If a relationship goes sideways or goes sour, oftentimes we have a tendency to look at the other party and point the finger and blame. But under the concept of extreme ownership, no, no, no, you own, you own what occurred. Or if you're, you're, you're part of a sports team and that team gets defeated, loses, sure, you can point to different aspects of the overall team's performance as reasons for the loss. But under the concept of extreme ownership, you own it. If you're the leader, you own it. Somehow, some way, you did not perform to the level that you could have to influence the outcome. So extreme ownership, just that concept, just thinking about when failure happens, to not blame others and take full responsibility. Just having that on my mind has made a sizable difference in my life. The next big lesson that, that I took from Jocko that I have all over my notes from, from a number of years ago when I attended his event in San Diego. And the thing that he made a video around that is arguably the coolest video on YouTube known as Good. Jocko's— if you just go search Jocko Willink Good, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. But this concept of good, And what does Jocko mean when he says that? What he's talking about is when things go haywire, when things go sideways, good, good. I'm glad it happened. Why? Because it gives me an opportunity to improve. When I lose, good. Why? Because it gives me an opportunity to learn. When I don't get the job that I've, that I've been working so hard to get, to get, Good. Now I get to correct and create a better resume so that that doesn't happen again. Or when I don't get into the college that I dreamed of getting into, good. Now I get to go pursue a different path and maybe carve a future that I didn't even know existed or could potentially exist. So I love this idea of good, right? Because through all things, There is light. There's a light to be found. And the quicker we move to a mindset of optimism and growth, the quicker we can accept the hand that's been dealt, the quicker we'll get into action and make change. And so this idea of good, I just find it to be just an amazing one. And I think it plays to emotional intelligence a bit as well. Right? Like for me, when I think about this good in a broader context, that has a lot to do with controlling emotion. That has a lot to do with self-awareness and acknowledging— acknowledgement of the hand that's been dealt and immediately getting into action towards the positive. The last lesson, key lesson that I think Jocko had taught me through his books and, and through, through that event I mentioned, and one that I think makes a sizable difference or would make a sizable difference for all of us if we understood it at a really high level. It's Jocko's concept of discipline equals freedom. Discipline equals freedom. What Jocko's saying there is simple. The more disciplined that you are, the more discipline and habit that you bring to your world, the more freedom you actually have, which is actually really interesting because I think it's counterintuitive to most. Most think, well, the more rigid I am, the less flexibility I have. Well, wouldn't that mean I have less freedom? And no, it's the opposite. A disciplined procedure substantially improves your freedom to operate, to maneuver. An individual excels when he or she exercises Self-discipline. So the tighter you can make your systems, the cleaner you can make your time blocks, the more structure you could bring into your world, the more freedom you create so as to eliminate all of the noise or by eliminating all of the noise that potentially occurs. So discipline equals freedom. So The 3 biggest lessons for me as taught by Jocko, right? The first thing, extreme ownership. The next thing, the concept of good. And the last thing, last one, last one, maybe being the most important, discipline equals freedom. Of those 3 concepts, which one or 2 or 3 maybe do you think is most applicable in your world? Which one do you need to learn a little bit more about, or should you be applying a little bit more in your world? That's what I'd love to see you focus on today. On that note, thanks for joining me here at the No Days Off Podcast. Really appreciate you listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]