Leadership Lessons from a Retired Navy Seal
The American public has been conditioned to conceptualize military leadership as the forceful drill sergeant screaming in the faces of new recruits. While that behavior may have a time and a place in military training, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Jocko Willink’s lessons during an event we held challenged that type of leadership, both in message and in style. And, they were extremely relevant to real estate. Jocko recently headlined our event, Lucido Global’s Momentum, with proceeds donated to Building Homes for Heroes. Here are some key takeaways for real estate professionals. The count is zero Jocko shared a story about an instructor during a SEAL training evolution. Invariably, when the team made a mistake — regardless of how many previous successful runs — the instructor cued up the microphone: “The count is zero,” signaling the team to start over from the beginning. If you want to truly lead, reset your count to zero every day. Regardless of your title, fame, or even accolades, you must earn your status as a leader every day. As Babe Ruth famously said, “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” Be a humble leader Doing so will require humility. In fact, Jocko said that humility grounded in confidence is the most important trait of an effective leader. Insecure leaders fear being outshined by others. They issue commands by brandishing their title and exerting their organizational authority. They will put themselves ahead of the mission in order to retain their standing. They crave credit and, therefore, foster a culture that stifles initiative. (Often, to further elevate themselves, they ironically complain about how they “have to do everything.”) These individuals may make people do things, but they are certainly not leading them. Conversely, a confident, humble leader will not accept a situation in which leadership is restricted to one individual. They encourage and expects their subordinates to lead, up and down the chain of command. They stand prepared to accept the blame for the team’s shortcomings and ready to give the team the laurels when successful. “Competent leaders require no title to gain the respect of their followers. Leaders who make too much of their title generally have little else to emphasize.” Those words were written in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich in 1937 and remain relevant to this day. Check your ego Ego is a powerful motivator. Indeed, it’s the fuel that drives many of the world’s highest achievers. It strengthens the drive to be outstanding, compete and win. However, while unbridled ego may make you an achiever, it will also leave you with no one willing to be led. If you stand ready to work eight hours every day, you will invest 2,920 hours per year towards the pursuit of your mission. Instead, if you and a partner work merely a standard work week, taking your holidays and vacations, together you will have invested 4,000 hours towards your objective. This simple arithmetic does not account for the improved productivity of those 4,000 hours that arises from collaboration and the ability to specialize. Bottom line: you alone will neither accomplish as much nor do so as quickly as you could with a team prepared to lead together. It’s not about you; it’s about the mission. And the mission must be pursued with confident humility every day. Your count is zero. If not you, then who? Jocko shared a story of the final days of Task Unit Bruiser’s deployment to Ramadi. After six long months of heavy fighting, they were finally headed home. Their gear was loaded onto the C-130 and, with fewer than 24 hours to go before reuniting with their families, they received intel on the location of a longstanding target who had killed countless Iraqi civilians and American forces. Another respected SEAL approached Jocko and expressed that some of the platoon didn’t feel they should attempt the mission. Their concerns were valid: they had taken 12 casualties, recently lost another brother, were ready to see their families and this mission would be dangerous. Jocko contemplated the concerns with his team and ultimately asked them: “If we don’t do it, who will?” What would our world look like if everyone took the perspective of “If I don’t do it, who will?” What would your team look like if, instead, you answered that question with “We will.” This is the core of extreme leadership and what it means to own everything in your world. It does not mean that you, personally, must do everything (that is actually the antithesis of optimal leadership), but it does mean that you and your team figure out a way to delegate personnel and resources to accomplish the mission. What task have you been putting off? What skill have you refused to learn or delegate appropriately? What habit do you continue to perpetuate even though you know you shouldn’t? Do not run from challenges, as the human brain perceives what we run away from as dangerous, whether it’s a dog or a dragon. Instead, start by burning off the deadwood. Start by stopping the actions you know you should stop, such as skipping your prospecting or rationalizing not doing your weekly client calls. Or, maybe, it’s your desire to not only control, but to personally do everything in your business, which slows the rate of advancement of the entire team. Prioritize, execute, then raise your sights. Jocko asked of his team, “If we don’t do this mission, who will?” That question was met with no verbal response;. the platoon geared up, went out, and successfully captured the target. If you want to be in charge of everything, strive to be in charge of nothing. Natural leaders are naturally compelled to take ownership. Their type-A personalities prevent them from relaxing aboard a rudderless ship. Invariably, these individuals have found themselves in situations in which others have dropped the ball, seeming to validate the old adage, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Yet, how effective would Task Unit Bruiser have been in Ramadi if Jocko had done everything himself, from reconnaissance and mission planning, to gear prep, IED clearing, communications, overwatch, and clear and control? Leadership does not mean doing everything yourself. It means doing the tasks in your defined purview and taking on additional responsibilities as long as it does not impair your critical responsibilities to the team. This invariably requires delegating responsibilities to the appropriate team members and empowering those members with the authority and accountability to lead. As a leader, you are responsible for the team and every aspect of the mission. You cannot perform that duty if all of your focus is consumed by one aspect of the mission. So if you are a “control freak,” you need to recognize that your desire to control everything is precisely the source of your anxiety and underperformance. Leadership can’t be boiled down to one litmus test. It requires real-time, critical thinking and a keen sense of judgment to maneuver the infinite dichotomies that will seek to pull you in opposing directions. Learn to lead so that your team can do what you could not alone. If you want to be in charge of everything, be in charge of nothing. Robert Lucido Jr. is chief strategy officer of Lucido Global and with the Bob Lucido Team of Keller Williams Lucido Agency. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of RealTrends’ editorial department and its owners. View the article on Real Trends here!
Real estate pros, are you ready to take ‘extreme ownership’ of your business?
Momentum 2022 to feature keynote from Jocko Willink For real estate professionals looking to further grow their businesses in 2022, there is a new conference with the goal of empowering agents, brokers and industry leaders. Featuring keynote speaker Jocko Willink, attendees will learn what it takes to have extreme ownership of their businesses at Momentum 2022 in Orlando on February 19. At Momentum, you will dive deep into the “laws of combat” with Willink, the man who literally wrote the book on SEAL leadership. Willink will teach you the mindset and principles that enable Navy SEALs to achieve extraordinary feats on the battlefield and in life. Hosted by Lucido Global, Momentum will take place from 9 a.m. to noon and is open to the public with a 50% discount available to the first 200 Realtors of any brokerage that use the code REALTOR50. Lucido Global is proud to be supporting Building Homes for Heroes with proceeds from Momentum. Willink is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander, co-author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win,” and host of the top-rated Jocko Podcast. As commander of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser during the battle of Ramadi, Willink orchestrated SEAL operations that helped bring stability to the violent, war-torn city. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War. Willink returned from Iraq to serve as Officer-in-Charge of training for all West Coast SEAL Teams. There, he spearheaded the development of leadership training and personally instructed and mentored the next generation of SEAL leaders who have continued to perform with great success on the battlefield. Willink is the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and numerous other personal and unit awards. Willink will speak for an hour, then engage directly with the audience for approximately 25 minutes, and close with final “marching orders.” Following Willink’s concluding remarks, two additional events will follow: VIP Book Signing: Willink will sign copies of Extreme Ownership during a private reception for audience members who purchase the premier package for $42.99. Proceeds will be donated to Building Homes for Heroes. Momentum Mastermind: A mastermind session moderated by Bob Lucido, No. 1 Keller Williams agent and CEO of Lucido Global, and Tristan Ahumada, CEO of Lab Coat Agents, on real-world application of Willink’s lessons in the real estate industry. Don’t miss your chance to develop your battle plan for 2022 and engage with like-minded, motivated individuals and leaders. Ticket prices and other information can be found at FindYourBigMo.com. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact RobertLucido@LucidoGlobal.com. Source
4 Real Estate Agent Strategies to Own 2022
Change takes commitment and tenacity. For thousands of years, the tradition of New Year’s resolutions have carried on. Human beings have sought meaning through the act of voluntarily committing themselves to sacrifice in pursuit of a higher good. However, unlike for the previous four millennia, the modern form of this tradition has been secularized and thereby stripped of its sense of obligation to a higher authority. Thus, it should come as no surprise to hear that, without this external measure of accountability, only 8% of people today are successful in fulfilling their annual resolutions. After the countdown ends and the sparklers die out, what does it say when the vast majority start off a new year by quitting their very first commitment? By giving up, you condition your mind to tolerate failure and to become increasingly reluctant to attempt a challenge of equal magnitude again. According to a study from Leipzig University, “[Serotonin] is released specifically after social defeat to maintain depressed aggressive behavior in losers for a progressively longer period with successive defeats, resulting in long term behavioral depression, analogous to the chronic-defeat stress syndrome.” Similar results have been found in countless studies across multiple species (perhaps most famously explained by Dr. Jordan Peterson in his exposition on lobsters). In severe cases, one’s hippocampus will physically shrink as the amygdala expands, making one even more susceptible to fear and emotion. Thus, in a twist of irony, a whimsical commitment made in the hope of self-improvement, repeated enough, risks the opposite effect: conditioning oneself mentally and physically to settle for a less meaningful life. Furthermore, in quitting, one also deprives himself of the secondary and tertiary opportunities that would have manifested in the pursuit of that goal. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to look for it,” and that success is typically uncovered in the form of experience gained, relationships fostered, and opportunities seized while pursuing a prior goal. What could you accomplish with accountability? What could you and your real estate team become if instead 92% of you fulfilled your annual resolutions? Furthermore, what could your team accomplish if each member woke up each day with the mission of bettering oneself, bettering the team, and bettering their community? Consistent dedication towards that daily pursuit would yield success, and then still greater success built upon it. Compounded success raises esteem, emboldens your ambition, and builds momentum. Momentum is that ambiguous force that you can’t pinpoint, but that you can feel. It’s that force that makes you feel the tide of the game turn before it actually happens. It can be the force that helps you capture more market share and break into the luxury market. It can help you grow a team locally or scale locations nationwide. So get started and find your “big mo.” Here’s how: Voluntarily commit & sacrifice When a commitment is genuine, it’s made irrespective of the calendar year, not because of it. It’s manifested when you passionately aim for a higher good and are prepared to sacrifice for it, not because you read it on a blog called “50 Possible New Year’s Resolutions.” A commitment is not true unless you are also prepared to make the necessary sacrifice. Sacrifice is not optional in life, but the option to do so on your terms is. Do not stop until you see it through In the words of Will Rogers, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Take immediate action and then take consistent action towards your end goal. Set intermediate milestones to routinely assess your progress and make strategic adjustments. In the words of Winston Churchill, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Define a “pull” goal Discipline can push you in the proper direction for a while, but to achieve lasting and significant progress you need something pulling you in that direction. A meaning that pulls you will sustain you when discipline falters. According to Stockholm University, participants who set approach-oriented New Year’s resolutions were 25% more successful than those who set avoidance-oriented resolutions. So focus on what you are committed to doing rather than not doing in 2022. Surround yourself with people who do not accept settling for less Go to an event that will reinforce your commitment in February, a time when many quit (ie: gym attendance). Remember, change comes with commitment. Commit, find an accountability partner and surround yourself with like-minded people. Make 2022 a great year! View the full article: https://www.realtrends.com/4-real-estate-agent-strategies-to-own-2022/
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