I was given a copy of the book Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink in order to facilitate this review. This post contains affiliate links which means that if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will make a small portion of the sale at no additional cost to you. All opinions are my own.
I started this year by making a resolution to read at least one book each month. This may not seem like a hard resolution to some but for me, it was exactly the commitment I needed to ensure that I would take the time required to read twelve books this year. I rarely seem to have time in my schedule to sit quietly and just read but I love to read, so I needed to make it a priority. Somehow I always managed to put it off until later which, unfortunately always turned into never.
That’s why I set a goal to read more in 2019 and made a reading resolution that I am happy to say I was able to keep. This past year has been full of lessons and a lot of quiet time to myself. I started this year off by reading David Goggin’s book Can’t Hurt Me, which has changed the way I see my past and taught me how to turn it into a positive future.
I have taken the opportunity to reread a couple of favorites from the past and explored different genres that I may not have read normally. At times, I learned that I was wrong about everything I thought that I knew and gained a new understanding from a different perspective. While reading Keri Rawson’s book A Serial Killer’s Daughter the daughter of BTK, I learned about the victims that so often go unseen, the family of a serial killer. Every book offered its own lesson and one of the lessons was to never give up and learn to laugh when things get hard, that was something I learned from reading the book Living With a Seal by Jesse Itzler.
December’s reading resolution pick, Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink continues this trend of life-changing lessons right from the introduction. Page 3 of this book made me get out of my comfy place on the couch, snuggled up with a furry dog and a blanket. Risking that hard to get into position in order to grab a highlighter so I could mark the words that I had just read because I knew that I didn’t want to forget them and would refer back to them later.
Jocko always inspires me so I should have been more prepared, knowing there would be lots of highlighting going on in this book. He did not disappoint. In case you are not familiar, Jocko Willink is a retired Navy SEAL officer, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALS Lead and Win. During his career, Jocko was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and numerous other personal and unit awards. In 2010, Jocko retired from the Navy and launched Echelon Front, a premier leadership consulting firm that teaches combat leadership principles to help others build their own high performance, winning teams.
This guy knows his stuff.
Leadership Strategy and Tactics is an inspiring read that will have you implementing what you learn from this field manual, in many different areas of life. I have found a lot of lessons within these pages by building on both my strengths and weaknesses. Gaining confidence in my ability to read people which is a natural ability of mine and then using it to my advantage as a leader.
Where I fall short, I am learning how to set up my team to counterbalance my weaknesses. When implementing what I have learned from this field manual as a parent, my team is the entire family, each member plays a role. I need to learn how to delegate responsibilities to the entire team, keeping both their strengths and weaknesses in mind as well. That is an essential part of being a leader, learning how to utilize the people on your team to cover any weaknesses. That makes your team unstoppable and anyone can use these same tools to overcome their own shortcomings.
Jocko does mention that there is one type of person who could never become a good leader: a person who lacks humility. This makes perfect sense because if a person is not willing to admit or acknowledge that they have any weakness then there is no room for improvement in their mind. They will not have a strong team because they are not actively seeking out someone to offset their shortcomings. Jocko delivers this and many more lessons in his book Leadership Strategy and Tactics which will be on sale starting January 14, 2020.
Jocko Willink’s book, Leadership Strategy and Tactics explains how to be the best leader you can be in all areas of your life. Enter to win a copy below and start your 2020 off the right way.
Tony Platz
Wednesday 15th of January 2020
This sounds interesting.