Jaakko there's an army cliche that I'm
sure you've heard of or you've heard that goes everyone's leadership style is
different I've heard it used many times as a cover-up for a failed mission or
with someone who just isn't getting it done what's your opinion on this for all
the advice that you give there seems to be a continuous method to your madness
and some basic principles for being a good leader does everyone have a
different leadership style or is there an optimal optimal method with
personality that's just amazing how well this jujitsu comparison - this is this
is this is just an incredible translation and if you know the way
broad broadly you see them all things because what this question is is exactly
the same as the question above and and the fact of the matter is if you know
jujitsu Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you know the fundamental principles of
it you can do these tweaks him if you don't know the fundamental principles of
it you're just gonna get destroyed yeah now okay if you're a catch wrestler that
those have the same sort of fundamental things going on you know what I mean if
you know samba so if you know judo so I'm saying if you understand I don't
know what to call him but if you understand like the fundamental
principles of submission grappling of any kind if you know what those are then
you can make some tweaks to them you can make some some adjustments to them to
bait based on your style and your body type and your personality and your
strengths and weaknesses yes it is the same thing with leadership so people are
gonna have different styles they're gonna have different styles of
leadership some people are super charismatic right and that person could
take advantage their charisma some people like connect with other people
really easily some people don't you're gonna have just different little nuances
to your personality and your brain that are going to that you're gonna make
little adaptations in your leadership style that's okay where it gets not okay
is if you leave the fundamental principles that's where you have a pro
there was a there's an example that I thought of when I read this question
there was a guy that was coming through my training when I was running the the
advanced training for the seals and he was making an actually Leif's told story
you remember left he's told the story I think it's in the book too
I don't remember but it's it's podcast book we've talked about in a bunch we
talk about it when we took go talk to clients
Lafe tells the story about how he was trying to give commands over the radio
and no one's doing anything because it's ineffective to give commands in a radio
you know when there's a lot of machine-gun firing all the stuff going
on so I said hey life used verbal commands and he kind of like looked at
me like I was crazy and I said him and just give it a try he did it it worked a
couple years later I'm running training and there's a guy that's given a bunch
of commands on the radio and I go to I go hey man use verbal commands anything
he said what do you mean and I'm like yellow and everyone so they know what it
is you want them to do mmm they can't hear you on the radio there's
a lot of stuff going on and he goes I don't lead that way that's what he said
to me I don't lead that way and you know they just got destroyed because you know
his I don't know if he thought like hey look I'm not gonna yeah I wasn't tell
him to yell at his people mmm I was telling him like yelled of verbal
commands and he wouldn't do it and they just got annihilated all the time and he
ended up not doing well as a leader because he was breaking the fundamental
principles of combat leadership like simple clear concise commands that
everyone understands it if they don't understand it was faulted it's yours and
if you're talking on the radio given these complex orders people aren't gonna
understand what to do but if you give them the the the standard operating
procedure maneuver command peel right that's gonna get passed but everyone's
gonna do it so he strayed away from the fundamental principles it's like it's
like saying well you know with me if I give you if I use a pressure point on
your neck then I'll win it's like no actually that's not gonna be effective
you know you did the pressure point thing is a fantasy mm-hmm
oh no it's real oh okay it is real you know what and there's a there's certain
parts of your body that hurt a little bit more when you press into them I
understand that that doesn't change you from getting choked it doesn't change
you from getting double leg takedown you try and hit some other pressure point
while they're doing a double leg takedown on you you're not gonna make it
no it's not gonna happen so you you you have and I've told this story too about
the guy that wasn't very loud and I told him like hey you gotta get louder and
eventually he got the guys that were loud in his platoon to start giving the
verbal commands because he wasn't loud enough to do it and that was an
effective way still using the same principle just using a little bit of a
different technique that's fine so yes different leaders are gonna lead
differently but the principles are gonna remain the same that the principles of
ownership cover moves simple prioritize and execute decentralized command and
balancing the dichotomies and then there's plenty of them in leadership the
good leaders out there they will follow those principles and they'll make little
tweaks to them based on their personality and that's fine but a tweak
doesn't require an excuse and also effective or ineffective like if you
make a change if you do something a certain way and it's not effective then
whatever you change this isn't working it's not working so use the fundamental
principles make little app two adaptations it's okay but if a leader is
ineffective and they're failing guess what their little adaptations like hey I
could make up a new move right for jujitsu and I and I call it the the the
whiz-bang sure and I say hey I made up this cool move it's called the whiz-bang
and let me show it to you and so I show it to you you're like well I don't know
if that'll work or not and I like no it'll definitely work the cool thing
about jujitsu is when I try it we find out if it works now something doesn't
work immediately right but let's say I keep drilling it on you and drilling it
on you and I can never get you in the Wiz Bank okay and then I go in a
tournament and I try the whiz-bang and I get smashed and defeated and then I I go
through the consolation bracket I try the whiz-bang and it gets smashed and
defeated then I go in the next tournament I tried the whiz-bang and get
smashed and defeated then I get in the consolation bracket I
try the whiz-bang and get smashed and defeated and I do this for six months
and the whiz-bang never works effective or ineffective its ineffective its
ineffective if you're in a leadership position or someone's in a leadership
position and they're failing and they're failing to execute the mission over and
over and over again they're little tweak their little leadership thing that they
think is good to go it's not mm-hmm it's not good to go and it probably in fact
I'll tell you it violates one of the fundamental principles of combat
leadership hmm if you can identify which one of those things it's violating you
can get them to clean it up and fix it so there you go
whiz-bang don't try it don't yeah a whiz-bang I don't know though I mean
these jujitsu moves you know how like guys will like busts out moves man I
don't know it's a it's this endless thing we ask you to know new moves come
out yeah and then you won't hit a move a hundred percent of the time and you
definitely won't hit it when you first start doing it it's gonna be hard
how many arm locks do you think you put on someone before you made someone tap
mm-hmm in the beginning you probably did fifty arm locks before you got someone
to tap yeah probably more yeah yeah maybe even more mm-hmm
so that doesn't mean with after the first fourteen I know it's ineffective
I'm not gonna do it yeah the that the big differences the big differences an
arm lock is a proven known entity coverin move is a proven known entity
simple is a proven known entity prioritize and execute is a proven known
entity yeah extreme ownership is a proven known and decentralized command
is a proven it's like in our markets I could choke that's why when some people
say to me oh well my boss doesn't like extreme ownership you know I I know
what's happening like it's there the boss's ego is offended because there's
some other some somebody telling them a different way to lead no it's like what
do you believe in I don't believe in extreme ownership oh I blame and I
believe in placing the blame on other people that's how I lead that's complete
really completely ridiculous everybody knows that's ridiculous it's completely
ridiculous cover and move I don't believe in karma move oh so you just
like your other team members to go and take care of
themselves and you take care of yourself how does that work don't work it doesn't
work keep the oh I don't like to keep things
simple no I like to make things so complicated that people don't understand
what I'm talking about does that make any sense whatsoever no
it doesn't yeah prioritize and execute no don't do that what I what I'm gonna
do is spread myself so thin that I don't have the assets or resources to actually
accomplish anything that's what I'm gonna do because that makes sense
because I don't believe in extreme ownership or those fundamental laws of
combat leadership that's where you're at decentralized command I don't believe in
that so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make every single decision myself from
the headquarters position when you guys want to make a decision out there on the
battlefield or out there in the on the manufacturing floor I want you to run
every single definitive decision up through me because that's gonna be
effective so if you violate one of these principles you're gonna have problems as
a leader if you tweak these principles that's fine if you look at decentralized
command and you're like you know what I know that the normal kind of span of
control is five people I can handle more than that I can handle nine and you step
it up that's that's tweak that's okay right that's fine if you probably when
you prioritize and execute hey oh the way I prioritize and execute and this is
the truth the way I prioritize and execute isn't I look at my number one
problem and I only focus on that one I assign somebody to my number one problem
and I say hey bill go handle that room over there it's a problem and then I
look at Mike and say hey Mike get the rest of this hallway cleared so I'm
actually handling two things but I give build a priority priority so that's a
tweak I'm using assets that's fine so sometimes yes you've got to make
these little adjustments everyone's got a different leadership style but you
don't violate the principles of leadership