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The 2 Biggest Mistakes New Leaders Always Make, According To Navy SEAL Commanders
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin have built their post-Navy SEAL careers around the art of leadership.
Willink was the head of US Navy SEAL Team 3 Task Unit Bruiser, the most highly decorated U.S. special operations unit of the Iraq War, and Babin was one of the two platoon leaders who reported to him. After their service, Willink and Babin founded Echelon Front in 2010 as a way to bring what they learned in the military to the business world.
Business Insider interviewed Willink and Babin about their new book on the subject, The Dichotomy of Leadership, and they told us that over their work with more than 400 businesses and their leadership conferences, they've found inexperienced leaders are regularly making the same mistakes.
1. They think they have to know everything
"The best possible thing you can do as a new leader is, if there's something that you don't know, raise your hand and say, 'Hey guys, I'm new at this. Do you know a better way to do this?' or, 'Do you know how to do this?' or, 'Can you give me a hand?'"
Willink said he's found that a fear of losing trust is what keeps leaders from asking these simple questions, but that this approach actually increases a team's respect because it shows honesty, and it will avoid problems in the long term because it won't require faking knowledge.
"So don't worry about saying, 'I don't know something,'" Willink said. "It's perfectly fine. You just showed up! No one expects you to know everything. Relax. And ask some questions."
2. They think their problems are unique
Babin said he also regularly finds new leaders become convinced that the problems they're facing are so specific to them that outside help wouldn't help. "And they think their problems are harder than everyone else's problems," he said. "It's very common. I've fallen into that trap, as well."
This tendency is ultimately about shifting responsibility.
"Because as long as you're making excuse for yourself, an excuse for your team, you're never going to actually solve the problems that are causing you to not perform the way you should, and therefore you're going to keep repeating those same mistakes," Babin said. "Step up, find a way to solve those problems, and win."
Read more from Business Insider:
- These are the 7 finest moments in Army history
- The 7 best military commanders of all time, according to Napoleon Bonaparte
- The Marine Corps’ F-35 combat debut was flown in honor of a fallen hero
- The top enlisted adviser to the chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been suspended pending an investigation into 'alleged misconduct'
- Rare photo shows an F-4 recklessly inverted over a Russian Tu-95 during an intercept
'It just happened' — the Iraq War’s first living Medal of Honor recipient recalls his harrowing fight against 5 insurgents
On Nov, 10, 2004, Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia knew that he stood a good chance of dying as he tried to save his squad.
Bellavia survived the intense enemy fire and went on to single-handedly kill five insurgents as he cleared a three-story house in Fallujah during the iconic battle for the city. For his bravery that day, President Trump will present Bellavia with the Medal of Honor on Tuesday, making him the first living Iraq war veteran to receive the award.
In an interview with Task & Purpose, Bellavia recalled that the house where he fought insurgents was dark and filled with putrid water that flowed from broken pipes. The battle itself was an assault on his senses: The stench from the water, the darkness inside the home, and the sounds of footsteps that seemed to envelope him.
A 100-year-old former WWII POW describes how he narrowly escaped the Bataan Death March
With the Imperial Japanese Army hot on his heels, Oscar Leonard says he barely slipped away from getting caught in the grueling Bataan Death March in 1942 by jumping into a choppy bay in the dark of the night, clinging to a log and paddling to the Allied-fortified island of Corregidor.
After many weeks of fighting there and at Mindanao, he was finally captured by the Japanese and spent the next several years languishing under brutal conditions in Filipino and Japanese World War II POW camps.
Now, having just turned 100 years old, the Antioch resident has been recognized for his 42-month ordeal as a prisoner of war, thanks to the efforts of his friends at the Brentwood VFW Post #10789 and Congressman Jerry McNerney.
McNerney, Brentwood VFW Commander Steve Todd and Junior Vice Commander John Bradley helped obtain a POW award after doing research and requesting records to surprise Leonard during a birthday party last month.
Inside Project Metropolis, the Marine Corps' plan to wage war in the cities of tomorrow
Editor's Note: This article by Gina Harkins originally appeared on Military.com, a leading source of news for the military and veteran community.
Hundreds of Marines will join their British counterparts at a massive urban training center this summer that will test the leathernecks' ability to fight a tech-savvy enemy in a crowded city filled with innocent civilians.
The North Carolina-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, will test drones, robots and other high-tech equipment at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center near Butlerville, Indiana, in August.
They'll spend weeks weaving through underground tunnels and simulating fires in a mock packed downtown city center. They'll also face off against their peers, who will be equipped with off-the-shelf drones and other gadgets the enemy is now easily able to bring to the fight.
It's the start of a four-year effort, known as Project Metropolis, that leaders say will transform the way Marines train for urban battles. The effort is being led by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, based in Quantico, Virginia. It comes after service leaders identified a troubling problem following nearly two decades of war in the Middle East: adversaries have been studying their tactics and weaknesses, and now they know how to exploit them.
Trump imposes new sanctions on Iran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei
WASHINGTON/RIYADH (Reuters) - President Donald Trump imposed new U.S. sanctions onIran on Monday following Tehran's downing of an unmanned American drone and said the measures would target Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump told reporters he was signing an executive order for the sanctions amid tensions between the United States and Iran that have grown since May, when Washington ordered all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil.
Trump also said the sanctions would have been imposed regardless of the incident over the drone. He said the supreme leaders was ultimately responsible for what Trump called "the hostile conduct of the regime."
"Sanctions imposed through the executive order ... will deny the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Leader's office, and those closely affiliated with him and the office, access to key financial resources and support," Trump said.
These are the states with the highest (and lowest) enlistment rates over the last 5 years
While it can be difficult to peg down just how star-spangled a state is, one indicator is the rate at which citizens enlist in the military, especially during the United States' longest period of sustained conflict. At least, that's the thinking behind WalletHub's new study, 2019's Most Patriotic States in America.