chuckle Herr general mattis say that he looks for initiative and aggressiveness
in NCOs I'm not a naturally aggressive leader
do you believe leader should be aggressive by nature when when to be
aggressive or when do you be aggressive does it come off as fake if not if it's
not natural so you know obviously this is something we talk about all the time
is that thief being default aggressive is good for leaders yes that is a true
statement there's a dichotomy obviously because you can be too aggressive and
then things go wrong and things go bad and things don't work and yes there are
some people that are let's say more aggressive by nature and then lest also
let's also remember that being aggressive means a lot more than just
being loud brash and in-your-face right that is the stereotypical thing that we
think of when we think of all that guys really aggressive you think this guy's
in-your-face she's yelling he's you know pushing people over that is not the type
of aggressiveness that you need to be an effective leader you don't need to be a
loudmouth you don't need to be brash you don't need to get in people's faces
what being aggressive means is is taking action that's the kind of aggressiveness
that I'm talking about that's the kind of aggressive that general mattis is
talking about and you know the definition actually wrote this down the
definition of of aggressive or one of the - definitions of being aggressive is
forceful and sometimes overly assertive pursuit of one's aims so first of all
forceful we get right sometimes overly assertive some means sometimes that you
have to go a little bit like harder and here's why that's important because
listen in combat almost nothing will happen the way you
want it to if you don't force it that way right you are coming against a
powerful force the enemy nature time there's all kinds of things that that
are going against you it's a losing battle and if you don't use force of
will then then then you're not gonna get it done you have to be aggressive and
make things happen I remember us so there was a there was we all got
interviewed after we came home from Ramadi and I remember I was listening to
Seth stone get interviewed and it was just they were just trying to you know
capture whatever information moments historical accounts of what had happened
in Ramadi and and Seth said something along the lines of every operation we
did you could feel jaakko beating his head against the wall to make things
happen and I got you know of course I laughed
but from his perspective and it's a good perspective and it's an accurate
perspective none of this nothing just kind of oh that fell into my lap that
just doesn't happen it doesn't happen in combat it just doesn't happen in combat
and so yes this idea that you're gonna be aggressive is is is very important
but if you think to yourself well okay okay look I'm not the type of person
that likes to be a loudmouth likes to shout likes to yell cool good it doesn't
matter you don't need to be that way what it means is is you need to make
things happen that's what it means and it can be this is the good thing about
being aggressive sure there's there's certain parts of your nature that are
aggressive but it can also be trained you can you can start to think with an
aggressive mindset which is I am going to take action I'm gonna overcome
obstacles I'm gonna push through roadblocks I'm not gonna take no for an
answer and those are things that you can train and and and how do you train them
look when you when you hit an obstacle you look at it you you know you shake
your head and you go cool let's go let's figure this out there's so often times
where people they get told no or they hit an obstacle in it's game over for
they're just done they're done training they're over it and your attitude you
have to go okay little little robot cool how am I gonna get through it how many
and I used to put people so to train people to be more aggressive regardless
of what their pretend believe me I had I had guys you know steel officers that
were coming through that or sealed Chiefs that were coming through real
real passive guys quiet guys you know not in type of person that you would
figure oh that guy's oh yeah that guy's aggressive you wouldn't characterize him
as that but I would so what I would do is put them in situations where if they
didn't make aggressive decisions to make things happen they were gonna get
annihilated put them in training scenarios like that okay oh you want to
sit here and you want to wait like you're getting attacked and you want to
sit here and you wonder way you don't make it one don't want to make a
decision cool in in 16 minutes I will have everyone in your task unit dead we
will kill them all the paintball if you end it and so they learn that and
I go what do you think happened you know and they'd say oh we started to get
surrounded and and I go and what did you do well you know we we held position
okay how how long do you hold position for we held it for a while and one of
the enemy do well they started to maneuver and then what you do
well we held position and then what the enemy do well they maneuvered more and
then what you do I held position and we started taking casualties and then the
enemy maneuvered and then they closed the distance and then they took us out
okay what do you think would have been better well perhaps when it first
started before they had us enveloped I could have made a maneuver to get to
another building with some more high ground that sounds like a great idea
next time why don't you be a little bit more aggressive in making things happen
okay put him in the same scenario they get a little bit more aggressive they
realize that it's that it it serves its function and they start to develop the
attitude they start to understand what a lack of aggression will get you because
that's an important thing to know right it's not just a carrot it's the stick
cool if I do if I do this aggressive thing it'll be rewarding if I don't do
something aggressive we're gonna get annihilated so here's the other thing
that you got to be ready for so if you're if you're a person that you lean
towards being passive you've got to start to lean towards being aggressive
and here's the thing that you got to remember you're gonna make mistakes
because when you're aggressive you're taking more risk and often you're taking
more risk now when you if you've played out the whole matrix of being passive
birth versus being aggressive I will tell you
being aggressive is the one that ends up on top are there but there are scenarios
where your aggressiveness ends up costing you a little bit that absolutely
happens it happens in business it happens in life it happens on the
battlefield but overall being aggressive is what this is why this is why that
this is where the idea of you this is where the idea of aggressive has to be
your default mode this is exactly why aggression has to be your default mode
your default mode is aggressive if your default mode is aggressive and it's not
the right answer you just used to use the other answer right
your default mode is aggressive that's why I originally said to these young
seal officers your default mode has to be aggressive so if you're not sure if
you should stay as you go go to the default which is going to be aggressive
because nine times out of ten seven times out of ten eight times out of ten
that's gonna be a better move than sitting on your ass and doing nothing
that's what's gonna get you killed so your default mode is to go now do you
always go with your default mode no no you don't always go with it to the
default mode but occasionally you go oh you know what I'm not gonna go to the
default mode you put it you pull the setting out and even go into the other
mode customize it customize a little bit for that particular situation but your
default mode is I'm gonna be aggressive and that's the the odds you want the
odds you want to stack the odds in your favor hmm what is it Jason Jason Gardner
says puts it kind of a cool like good way to just really wrap your head around
like being it default mode something along the lines of like it's easier it's
better to like have to pull someone back totally then have to push him forward
yes it's a million times easier to have to pull the reins in on someone on an
element on a team on a leader on a person it's it's a million times easier
to go I I hey hey come on back going too hard it then going hey you need to get
out there yeah because by the way I mean if you think about this from like an
actual event unfolding if an event unfolds and you're the person that's on
point and you don't react to it properly that that event needs to make it through
you to me before I can now assess what I
think you should do and then tell you to go do it and then kick you in the ass
there you go do it I don't want that we already lost yeah I want I want you to
go hey oh we just got this event started unfolding I'm on it and you look back at
me hey Jocko I'm solving this problem right now
Oh what's the problem right I don't even know what the problem is yet you already
solving it that's what I want and if I happen to occasionally have to pull the
reins on you I'm more than happy to pull the reins on you what so yes that's a
universal it's easier to lead someone that you have to pull the reins on then
you have to push we'd rather pull back then push forward and that that idea of
being aggressive is as part of that so I want all my I want on all my subordinate
leaders to be aggressive and as a leader I know that my supporters are going to
make mistakes while they're learning to be aggressive and even when they're
being aggressive and I'm therefore considered fully trained and fully ready
they're still gonna make mistakes I'm still gonna make mistakes being
aggressive I'm gonna make mistakes but we're gonna play the odds and the odds
are the odds are you be aggressive I'm trying to think of a good blackjack you
know be you ever play blackjack before either yeah so I mean like there's you
know dealers showing uh whatever do you do is showing twenty and you're showing
a fourteen you got to hit it like that that's the odds the odds are you got to
hit it mm-hmm dealer's showing a fourteen and you're showing a fourteen
you gotta let the you gotta you gotta hold let the dealer let the dealer take
the hit do they call it I forget what do they call it showing
twenty cuz you know one is down one is up yeah right do they call that showing
twenty have a tanner yeah yeah because you don't know what the other card is
you just assumed I'd you assume that it's a so you showing okay yeah and I
haven't played blackjack in a while I can't I can't believe I'm like
struggling with my thought process around blackjack around the numbers it
was more of a terminology yeah but you play the odds
yeah and there's a rules when you're playing the odds in blackjack there's
rules of yeah what you hit and what you don't and you stick with the rules the
odds are gonna be in your side yeah yeah more than if you don't if you just
sit back and that's and so we're playing the odds
we're playing the odds with leadership yeah and the odds are you default mode
it's not that you never come out of default mode the odds are you be
aggressive so back to this question here listen to
another couple things in this question when to be aggressive look the default
mode is be aggressive and sometimes you look at it you'll know now's not the
time does it come off as fake or not natural hey it's not being aggressive
from this perspective isn't how you're acting it's the decisions that you're
making it's the decision I was working with a
client yesterday and we were talking about data I think it was a client call
it was another yeah it was about data and it was actually the very similar
question hey um I'm not very aggressive and I'm more of a data guy and I like
numbers and that's how I roll and yet I'm not getting recognized and I was
like cool get aggressive with your data put your data together and present it up
the chain of command not to say hey look at me but to say hey here's what's going
on here's what I'm doing you're being aggressive with your data you're showing
them what's happening cuz the guy wasn't getting the recognition that he needed
right any what so that meant his senior leadership didn't know what he was doing
which meant he's not getting the resources that he needs to do his job
and instead of being like hey this is what I need cuz he's not an aggressive
guy he's sitting back and just getting resources stripped away from him I said
cool you're a data guy record the data of what you're doing
present it and the dad let the data speak get default aggressive with your
data did I miss anything here yeah so it's not natural yeah I mean I mean if
you all of a sudden start to try and act yeah you know this this new way yeah
it's it's it's probably not gonna go good now can you do you sometimes have
to learn like okay you know what I gotta stand up and say something I gotta put
word out right yeah you know and I watched many guys in my career go
through the transition of being a little bit less aggressive and they realize you
know what I'm in charge of this thing I gotta go put the word out and and that's
perfectly fine yeah you know those kind of for like about a superficial
personality traits that are aggressive some people say oh well that's
that aggressive yes you know where there's more depth to it
we're like because again like you know you can think of like a I don't know
some fictional or maybe not in fact not fictional like maybe Japanese
business tycoon who doesn't say nothing really no but you know he's making
aggressive moves like that's an aggressive guy kind of it goes deep and
then you know a guy who you are you're saying like he yells and screams and has
a loud voice or whatever it's kind of okay if that's your personality that's
gonna land for sure but it's more about the decisions you make even say it's
gonna land what do you mean because that might just make a bunch of people Hank
right right some type ends on what you're yelling and screaming - sure what
you're saying is there could be someone that's loud at scream but they're but
they're they're using that to cover the fact that they're actually not making
any move essentially you see yeah so the yelling and screaming has very little do
with aggressive movement on the battlefield yeah he's what I'm saying oh
I'm saying there's more depth to it but the point actually is is that um you
should have just taken that point cuz that was a good point you know taking
that one wrong but I want to continue this was a probably less chlorophyll but
nonetheless if you if because he's concerned about faking it or coming off
with his fing we're know if you're focused on those like a superficial
elements of your personality being aggressive that's the part they're gonna
smell is fake if you're trying to change that part of sure you know like whoa
this probably used to have this tea in seventh grade is I don't know I think
it's like a music teacher know something super aggressive mutant alter he was
like a nice dude like really nice there's not too many stereotypical hyper
aggressive music teachers no man he wasn't I had I had an assistant platoon
commander and aggressive great guy and he you know I didn't I you know as I got
to know him you know and I was like so would you study in college and he's like
percussion yeah dang it were you talking about
I was like what concussion why he's like percussion drumming user draw
he started drumming in college which is just kind of deep in percussion yeah I
didn't know you could major in percussion I mean I guess but anyways
history of percussion yeah properties of percussion my point is had
he become a music teacher humidity cuz use the rest of the system
for tune commander yeah had if I had to pull the reins on him we'll be out there
getting after it this guy was not aggressive at all he
was like a nice guy trying to please everyone you know short term and long
term kind of thing which didn't really work with me I'm pretty sure was seventh
grade so he was like I remember guys we just run circles around him you know
like people wouldn't listen at all so he had trouble controlling the class we'll
say that and then I wanted one time he tried to switch his personality yeah one
time he dropped the book you know how like sometimes when you drop a book yes
sometimes when he hits correctly it's like boom it's like oh fuck so one time
Brad he tried to do that and it didn't make the sound and like no one it was
like what the fuck is this guy doing he's like looking everybody with his
eyes all big nonetheless I think that was like I think he got aggressive one
day and people like shut up and we're like hey this guy's like you know how on
someone's never aggressive then they start yelling you're like everyone kind
of be quiet yeah angas yelling so I think he might have got a small little
payoff one day and then from then on he started to try to be like aggressive
everyone could smell it on like Brad that's not even your thing so he's gotta
be working against them yeah everyone was kind of laughing at I'm not now he's
like a weirdo yep so no no no no need to do that we throw on the music book on
the table big textbook is on the floor too yeah it
didn't work for ch