Best Jocko Willink Quotes And Advice
John Gretton “Jocko” Willink is an American podcaster, creator, and resigned United States Navy SEAL. He got the Silver Star and Bronze Star for his administration in the Iraq War and was leader of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi. Willink is co-writer of the books Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership (nearby individual resigned SEAL and previous Task Unit Bruiser detachment officer Leif Babin) and is prime supporter of the administration counseling firm Echelon Front, LLC. Willink additionally has a week after week digital recording with companion and Brazilian jiu jitsu professional Echo Charles, called the Jocko Podcast.
Here are some of the Best
“Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.” –
“Relax. Look around. Make a call.” –
“Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” I explained how a leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.” –
“Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. They” –
“NO MORE. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.” –
“You can’t make people listen to you. You can’t make them execute. That might be a temporary solution for a simple task. But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.” –
“Any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.” –
“But, in fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.” –
“We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.” –
“It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” – Jocko Willink
“A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.” –
“Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.” –
“On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.” –
“Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness” –
“The U.S. Navy SEAL Teams were at the forefront of this leadership transformation, emerging from the triumphs and tragedies of war with a crystallized understanding of what it takes to succeed in the most challenging environments that combat presents.” –
“The true test for a good brief,” Jocko continued, “is not whether the senior officers are impressed. It’s whether or not the troops that are going to execute the operation actually understand it. Everything else is bullshit. Does” –
“We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.” –
“There were no more questions. The most important question had been answered: Why? Once I analyzed the mission and understood for myself that critical piece of information, I could then believe in the mission. If I didn’t believe in it, there was no way I could possibly convince the SEALs in my task unit to believe in it.” –
“PRINCIPLE Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.” –
“Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.” – Jocko Willink
“Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.” –
“There are no bad units, only bad officers.”3 This captures the essence of what Extreme Ownership is all about.” –
“Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.” –
“As SEALs, we operate as a team of high-calibre, multitalented individuals who have been through perhaps the toughest military training and most rigorous screening process anywhere. But in the SEAL program, it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.” –
“We wrote this so that the leadership lessons can continue to impact teams beyond the battlefield in all leadership situations—any company, team, or organization in which a group of people strives to achieve a goal and accomplish a mission.” –
“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.” –
“Leadership is simple, but not easy.” –
“The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test.” –
“A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.” –
“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
“Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone” –
“Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.” –
“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.” –
“All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.” –
“You have to BE VIGILANT. You have to be ON GUARD. You have to HOLD THE LINE on the seemingly insignificant little things— things that shouldn’t matter—but that does.” –
“People do not follow robots.” –
“Because emotion and logic will both reach their limitations. And when one fails, you need to rely on the other. When it just doesn’t make any logical sense to go on, that’s when you use your emotion, your anger, your frustration, your fear, to push further, to push you to say one thing: I don’t stop.” –
“Everyone has an ego. Ego drives the most successful people in life—in the SEAL Teams, in the military, in the business world. They want to win, to be the best. That is good. But when ego clouds our judgment and prevents us from seeing the world as it is, then ego becomes destructive.” –
“Humans can withstand almost inconceivable stress—and you can too. So that is your first step: Gain perspective. And to do that you must do something critical in many situations: Detach. Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them. Stress is generally caused by what you can’t control.” –
“The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink
“Another mission. Another task. Another goal. And the enemy is always watching. Waiting. Looking for that moment of weakness. Looking for you to exhale, set your weapon down, and close your eyes, even just for a moment. And that’s when they attack. So don’t be finished.” –
“Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance or doesn’t. And this applies not just to the most senior leader of an overall team, but to the junior leaders of teams within the team.” –
“Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?” –
“More than a decade of continuous war and tough combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan gave birth to a new generation of leaders in the ranks of America’s fighting forces.” –
“Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.” –
“When leaders who epitomize Extreme Ownership drive their teams to achieve a higher standard of performance, they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” –
“The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” –
“For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting.” –
“For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting. They must believe in the plan they are asked to execute, and most importantly, they must believe in and trust the leader they are asked to follow.” –
“Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink
50th of 100 Quotes By
“But we can’t ever think we are too good to fail or that our enemies are not capable, deadly, and eager to exploit our weaknesses. We must never get complacent. This is where controlling the ego is most important.” –
“It is paramount that senior leaders explain to their junior leaders and troops executing the mission of how their role contributes to big-picture success.” –
“A leader must lead but also be ready to follow. Sometimes, another member of the team—perhaps a subordinate or direct report—might be in a better position to develop a plan, make a decision, or lead through a specific situation.” –
“For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.” –
“But without a team—a group of individuals working to accomplish a mission—there can be no leadership. The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” –
“Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command, but up as well,” he said. “We have to own everything in our world.” –
“But what I can tell you is this: when it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” –
“If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing the necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame the boss. First, blame yourself.” –
“That’s it. When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: “Good.” –
“Our freedom to operate and manoeuvre had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.” – Jocko Willink
“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.” –
“So. Let us cry no more. Let us mourn no more. Let us remember—but let us not dwell … Instead: Let us laugh and love and let us embrace and venerate everything that life is and every opportunity it gives us. Let us LIVE—for those WHO live no more. Let us live to honour them.” –
“For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it. * * *” –
“Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.” –
“Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.” –
“In the business world, and in life, there are inherent complexities. It is critical to keep plans and communication simple.” –
“The most impressive thing about this improvement in performance was that it did not come from a major process change or an advance in technology. Instead, it came through a leadership principle that has been around for ages: Simple.” –
“A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed by them.” –
“Identifying weaknesses, good leaders seek to strengthen them and come up with a plan to overcome challenges.” –
“After all, there can be no leadership where there is no team.” – Jocko Willink
“Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.” –
“This negative attitude infected his entire boat crew.” –
“Waiting for the 100 per cent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.” –
“His attitude reflected victimization: life dealt him and his boat crew members a disadvantage, which justified poor performance.” –
“His realistic assessment, acknowledgement of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win.” –
“His realistic assessment, acknowledgement of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win.” –
“Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit.” –
“Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance or doesn’t.” –
“The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. This means leaders must be heavily engaged in training and mentoring their junior leaders to prepare them to step up and assume greater responsibilities.” –
“Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind.” – Jocko Willink
“Calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions;” –
“The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” –
“The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job.” –
“For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it. *” –
“Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.” –
“In the SEAL Teams, the bond of our brotherhood is our strongest weapon. If you take that away from us, we lose our most important quality as a team.” –
“The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.” –
“When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” –
“The most important question had been answered: Why? Once I analyzed the mission and understood for myself that critical piece of information, I could then believe in the mission.” –
“Discipline equals freedom.” – Jocko Willink
100th of 100 Best Jocko Willink Quotes
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