The Goal of This Post

This post is a synthesis from the book The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, by Admiral William H. McRaven, sharing some of the key insights on the character traits and values to lead with discipline and courage.

I hope you enjoy it!

If You Only Takeaway One Thing

In its simplest form, leadership is “accomplishing a task with the people and resources you have while maintaining the integrity of your institution.” A good leader knows both how to inspire the men and women that work for them and how to manage the people and resources necessary to complete the task.

1. Be a Person of Integrity

• Be fair and honorable in your business dealings.
• Never lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.
• Own your lapses in judgment. Correct the problem and return to being a person of good character.

Having a set of moral principles and being a person of integrity are the most important virtues for any leader.

2. Be trustworthy

• Engage with your employees on a personal level to show them you are a leader of good character.
• Only promise what you can deliver.
• Know that trust is built over time. Don’t rush it.

Your competence can and will be measured in your personal behavior, your professional demeanor, your effectiveness in handling problems, and your consistency.

3. Be confident in yourself

• Be confident. You were given the job because you have talent and experience.
• Be decisive. Be thoughtful, but not paralyzed by indecision.
• Be passionate. Show your employees you care about them and about the mission.

Commanders are expected to make the tough decision. To act with purpose. To be confident and lead from the front. To accept the challenge and steel yourself for the rough waters ahead.

4. Have a little humility

• Be humble in your demeanor and your expectations.
• Accept the fact that you will be asked to do jobs that are beneath your status. Do them to the best of your ability.
• Measure the strength of your employees by their willingness to do the little tasks and do them well.

If you take pride in little jobs, people will think you worthy of the bigger jobs.

5. Demonstrate that you have stamina

• You must bring energy and enthusiasm every single day.
• You are not entitled to anything but more hard work.
• Attack each day as though it were critical to the organization’s success.

You have to recognize that it will require effort, every day. You will only fail as a leader when you think that today is going to be easier than yesterday.

6. Be aggressive in solving problems

• Be aggressive. When you see a problem, do something about it. That’s what is expected of leaders.
• Move to a place where you can best assess the nature of the problem and provide guidance and resources to resolve it as quickly as possible.
• Communicate your intent every step of the way.

When things go bad, that is the time for a leader to be aggressive, to move to where the problem is and address the crisis head-on.

7. Encourage your employees to take the initiative

• Foster a culture of action, allow the rank and file to take the initiative and fix problems that need addressing.
• Accept the fact that this will lead to zealousness and the occasional screwup.
• Praise those who attempt to solve problems on their own, even if the results are not as expected.

Sometimes real leadership is just doing the right thing when no one else is. When you take action of your own accord, it sets the tone for the organization. It tells others that initiative is expected in the company and hopefully rewarded. It gives the employees a sense of empowerment. It gives them a sense of ownership.

8. Be prepared to take risks

• Seek opportunities to take risks. No great leader was ever timid or weak-kneed.
• Mitigate the risk through extensive planning and preparation.
• Learn from your mistakes and be prepared to take the next big risk. Don’t let a single failure define you.

Daring greatly does mean having the boldness to push the envelope, to take advantage of an opportunity where others would recoil at the peril.

9. Do the detailed planning necessary for success

• Have a vision that says what you are going to do. Make it bold and inspiring.
• Have a strategy that tells how you are going to do it. Make it clear and concise.
• Have a plan that shows who is responsible and the details of the implementation. They must all be connected.

A leader must have a vision, develop a strategy, and put a plan in place to bring the vision to reality.

10. Have a Plan B

• Always consider the worst-case scenario and plan accordingly.
• Test the plan to ensure everyone in the organization knows how to react when things go poorly.
• Be prepared.

Review the plan, develop options, test those options against the worst-case scenario, and ensure they have all the personnel, training and equipment necessary to execute those options.

11. Establish standards of conduct and performance

• Establish a winning culture by setting high standards. Your employees want to be challenged.
• Hold people accountable when they fail to meet the standards.
• Acknowledge those who meet or exceed the standard. It will reinforce the winning culture.

The only way to be a great organization is to set high standards and expect people to live up to those standards.

12. Spend time on the “factory floor”

• Share the hardships with your employees. You will gain their respect.
• Share the camaraderie. Let the employees see you having fun.
• Listen to the rank and file. They have solutions to most of the problems you struggle with.

A a leader, if you fail to spend time on the factory floor, you will fail to understand what’s happening in your business.

13. Listen to your employees

• Get out of your office and talk to the employees at the far end of the chain of command.
• Find an opportunity to solve small but seemingly intractable problems.
• Ensure your senior staff know that these “little problems” can have major effects on morale.

Morale is not just about the employees feeling good, it is about the employees feeling valued. It is about the rank and file having the resources they need to do their job. It is about the troops believing that their leader is listening to their concerns.

14. The quality of your work will depend on the quality of your oversight

• Identify the core competencies within your organization.
• Develop a plan to inspect these areas on a regularly scheduled basis.
• Show up during an inspection to ensure the rank and file understand that you, the leader, value the process and their efforts.

Inspections are not just about ensuring compliance; inspections for a level of discipline into the corporate system, and when discipline is applied, the rank and file know they are in an organization that cares about quality, that cares about results, that cares about hard work.

15. Communicate your actions

• Establish a means for communications to flow in both directions.
• Confirm that the values and the goals of the organization are understood down to the lowest-ranking member.
• Never take a significant action without having a plan for informing the rank and file.

You must communicate your actions to the rank and file. If you want everyone in the organization to move as one, you must ensure that even the lowest-level employee understands you intent and follows your directions.

16. Work hard to overcome your shortfalls

• Work hard. Everyone expects it from their leader.
• Work harder. Give the extra effort. It will inspire the rank and file.
• Work your hardest. It will open opportunities that didn’t exist before.

Always put more energy, more force, more power into the solution than seemed necessary. When in doubt, overload.

17. Be accountable for your actions

• Ensure that all your decisions are moral, legal, and ethical.
• Ask yourself if reasonable people would accept what you are doing as good and decent.
• Sooner or later, you will be held to account for your actions. Always do the right thing.

Difficult decisions with serious ramifications require careful thought.

18. Have a partner in your leadership journey

• Find a person you can trust implicitly.
• Be prepared to lean on them in times of great stress.
• Accept both their support and criticism with equal grace.

Every leader needs someone to talk to. Every leader must find someone they can trust.

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A Final Thought

The one thing I know about leadership is that you must keep doing your best every single day and let them see what you’ve got.

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All content credit goes to the author(s). I’ve shared the bits I’ve enjoyed the most and found most useful.
Cheers ’till next time! Saludos!
Alberto