For 18 months , your team has served in Iraq , under fire constantly , and in that time has become the most decorated SEAL Team Unit of the war . The last few weeks have been brutal , two of your team members have been killed .
But the end is at last in sight . Your bags are packed and tomorrow , it ’ s your turn to finally go home .
Then there ’ s a knock on the door ... It ’ s a platoon commander letting you know that a high-value target responsible for countless Iraqi civilian and American deaths is having a meeting that night . This is your one and probably last chance to put him out of operation .
It ' ll be extremely dangerous . You could lose your life or those of men who are scheduled to leave in just a few hours .
It ’ s a decision you don ’ t want to make , but the buck must stop somewhere .
Jocko Willink , retired U . S . Navy SEAL officer and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller “ Extreme Ownership : How U . S . Navy SEALs Lead and Win ,” shared this story and more at a recent Technology Marketing Toolkit Producers Club meeting in Nashville .
Jocko spoke on the core principles of combat leadership , lessons learned on the battlefield over his 20 years as a SEAL team member and commander of SEAL Team Three , Task Unit Bruiser — the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War .
Receiving the Silver Star , the Bronze Star , and numerous other personal and unit awards , Jocko returned from Iraq to serve as an officer in charge of training for all West Coast SEAL teams , leading the development of leadership training . He personally instructed and mentored the next generation of SEAL leaders who have continued to perform with great success on the battlefield .
The lessons Jocko shared not only apply to your MSP business , but to your life as well .
Nothing Matters More Than Leadership
Jocko took over the advanced SEAL training where they learned to shoot , move , and communicate … where they learned to maneuver elements on the battlefield . And , most importantly , where they learned to lead .
Their very first training exercise involved a simulated mission using paintball weapons . It didn ’ t go well . “ It was an unmitigated disaster . And as I ' m standing there watching these guys get shot up , I realized the reason that they are failing is because the leaders do not know how to lead .”
Then came the worst thing about this realization : He was the one who owned the responsibility of teaching them how to lead .
As the old saying goes , “ the fish rots from the head .” If you don ’ t model effective leadership as well as instill it in your team , the entire operation can go down the drain . And even though you don ’ t face dangers from bombs or bullets , IT does involve significant challenges ( and threats ) including :
• The ever-accelerating pace of technological change
• Complexity of integrating systems , processes , and applications
• Legacy systems that require constant monitoring , patches , and upgrades
• Unrelenting cybersecurity threats , amplified by a distributed , remote workforce
Tackling these and all the other issues associated with effective business leadership requires a thoughtful , systematic approach , much like the one Jocko realized he needed to create for his young SEAL leaders .
He called it the Four Laws of Combat — and not only did they change how he approached teaching leadership in regard to his SEALs , but they can also change how you lead in your MSP business .
No . 1
Move And Cover
The First Law of Combat is move and cover . It ' s a straightforward concept . “ Let ’ s say there are some bad guys in a building we want to take out . I ' m going to start shooting . Then , while I ' m shooting , my buddy moves to a better position . He starts shooting , so I can get up and move to a better position . Cover . Move . Cover . Move . We work together as a team until we take the bad guys out and take that building .”
The principle of move and cover is simple and effective , but it requires working as a team .
Inside the great book by Microsoft engineer Jim McCarthy , “ Dynamics of Software Development ,” he lists a number of rules to ensure projects run smoothly . Rule No . 31 — “ Beware of a guy in a room ” — highlights the very real risk many MSPs face when managing a team of high-performing engineers .
The stereotype of the high IQ , low people-skills developer has some basis in truth . On the plus side , this means the “ guy in a room ” is extremely motivated and able to solve problems . But the downside to this is a tendency to “ go dark ” and unresponsive . In fact , they sometimes literally have to be dragged kicking and screaming into an environment where collaboration is simply not optional .
The challenges we face today require the best minds working together to solve them . Indeed , the complicated nature of systems and software projects require you to deconstruct problems into many different parts before giving team members shared responsibilities , each having the other ’ s back as they work through the list of tasks .
This highlights the importance of cross-training in certain applications , such as Exchange Server , so if someone is called in to handle a specific client emergency , you have a backup in place to cover those responsibilities .
You need every member of the team working together to “ move and cover ” to make your services and your business better and better .
No . 2
Keep Things Simple
We all overcomplicate things , especially when it comes to planning .
Jocko would give his young SEAL officers an exercise where they had to craft a plan to assault a specific target .
“ They ’ d disappear for five hours and come back with the most convoluted , complex thing you ' ve ever seen in your life .”
The best plan , the most brilliant plan , is the one so simple and so clear that every person on the team understands what that plan is .
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