Jocko Podcast #3 – With Echo Charles | “The Last Hundred Yards” Book, Jiu Jitsu, Bosses, Failure

Q and A starts about 1:09

In regards to Jiu Jitsu, Gi or no Gi? https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=4199 
Both. I want my training to be different and surprising. I also do Jiu Jitsu with MMA gloves on to mix it up.

If you train with the Gi your defence has to be better because there is more friction. With no Gi your offence has to be better, its slippery and there are no handles to grab.
With life, in order to improve you have got to challenge yourself.  You have to put yourself in hard scenarios and try and get through them. Whether that’s in the weight room, a run, a swim, whatever that physical challenge, is you want to make it as difficult as possible.

How do you deal with micro managers? https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=4644
The best way to get out from under the thumb of a micro manager is to try and gain their trust. You want to be ahead of them.

When I joined the SEAL Teams I hated being told what to do. And you get told what to do a LOT. So to get around this I was proactive and did everything before someone could tell me what to do. Eventually the people who were micro managing me and telling what to do left me alone, because it was already done.
Micro managing comes from a small lack of trust. Its not your fault, it probably came from somewhere else in the past. But its your job to build their trust which will ensure they will stop micro managing you and move on to someone else who needs to be micro managed.

How do you deal with people close to you that aren’t like you? https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=5223  
I am inferring from the way this is asked that the person asked is frustrated by people not living up to their expectations. This might sound bad, but I keep relatively low expectations of humans. Meaning, when I meet someone I don’t expect to get a lot out of them. I expect to be let down. That’s my baseline. Then I am pleasantly surprised when people are supportive, reliable, and not crazy.

I think setting the right level of expectation is important for keeping yourself from going crazy and trying to change people.

If people around me aren’t motivated, I am not blaming them. I am taking responsibility for trying to get them motivated. If they are dragging me down, whose fault is that? Its mine for letting them drag me down.

As a leader its my job to try and get the best out of people. Your whole team won’t be studs, some of them will be weak. But its your job to get the best of them you can. Use their strengths to your advantage.

That’s how I deal with people who are close to me that are not the same as me.

What are the top 3 to 10 business problems you are asked to solve? https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=5640 
Regularly when we get called into help businesses it is due to either lack of execution, or a desire to improve execution. This is the same thing we dealt with when working with the SEAL Teams, you get teams that are not executing correctly. In business that execution problem could be: production, sales, manufacturing, etc…

Why is there a problem executing? The general problems we see here are:

• People don’t understand the plan or the vision. Now how is this vision or plan being communicated? Is the CEO communicating the vision in the way a frontline worker can understand it and take it on?
• Is the strategy simple and understandable through the chain of command?
• Is there micro managing going? This can cause a lack of execution.
• Is there ego interfering? That can cause problems. Is the ego driving process instead of the best method driving process?

How do you handle a boss that doesn’t know as much as you and they don’t understand what you do? But they are bossy. https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=5834 
This is actually a normal situation. Bosses often don’t know as much as the frontline troops. I was the boss of 35 SEALs when I was a Task Unit Commander and I didn’t know as much as they knew. I didn’t know as much about sniping as the sniper, I didn’t know as much about using the radios as the radio man. But I was secure in that fact and I recognised that that wasn’t my job. I was secure in my job as a leader so I was able to let them do their job.

When you are dealing with someone who is bossy, they are trying to impose upon on you how to do things. The root of that is likely that they are insecure about their authority or their leadership.

So how do you deal with it? Your job in this situation is to make the boss secure in their position. That means nodding your head and giving them credit when they might not even deserve it. Massaging their ego a little bit. The hardest part of this is checking your own ego. At the moment you want to prove to them that you know more then they do, but that will ruin your relationship. It will hurt their ego and make them want to impose even more will on you.

Don’t try and prove you know more than they do. Show them support and be helpful. In the long run this helps them feel secure and build their trust in you.

Can you apply Extreme Ownership at mid level management versus the  “C” suite level? https://youtu.be/XdntJrOJ4rs?t=6116 
Yes you absolutely can. Extreme Ownership applies through the entire chain of command. Every person on the team needs to be a leader.  The principles of Leadership don’t know no matter where you are in the chain of command.

Extreme Ownership applies everywhere in life. In your job and in your personal life with family.

How do you deal with setbacks, failures, delays, defeats and other disasters?

The video below best covers this answer-