This enlightening discussion takes you on a journey of understanding your inherent virtues, the significance of genuine concern for others, and the profound influence of your actions. Jacko Willink illuminates the complex concept that while our words can be precise, our actions can still be misguided, emphasizing the power of self-awareness in shaping our interactions with others. He encourages you to be cognizant of your intentions and align your actions accordingly - a transformative lesson for every leader.
This enlightening discussion takes you on a journey of understanding your inherent virtues, the significance of genuine concern for others, and the profound influence of your actions. Jacko Willink illuminates the complex concept that while our words can be precise, our actions can still be misguided, emphasizing the power of self-awareness in shaping our interactions with others. He encourages you to be cognizant of your intentions and align your actions accordingly - a transformative lesson for every leader.
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Speaker 1:
This is Unleashing Leadership, and I'm your host, travis Moss, and we are going to do a YouTube video today and we've picked a post by Jacko Willink. Jacko is an author, a business consultant, ex-military speaker, inspiration to very, very many people. If you haven't heard his material or read his material, there's a link on our website to watch this YouTube video we're going to talk about. You should definitely add him to maybe your daily or weekly listening, and then we also have his material on our book list. So if you go to our website you can get our book list. It takes you over to Amazon so you can get it in paperback. You can get it in audible kindle hover. You want to consume this literature, and he's written books Extreme Ownership, the Economy of Leadership, leadership Strategies and Tactics Very, very inspirational overall, and the YouTube video that we're going to pick on today is from his underground podcast and it is.
Speaker 1:
This Is how your Lack of Self-Awareness is Messing you Up, and what I took away from that overall is this is all about intent, and we mentioned in our Perseverance episode a few back that intent was coming, and so Perseverance and Intent, I think, go together and we'll tie them together at the very end here Watching this episode. Listening to this episode, jacko, as I'm talking about, I had three main takeaways. The first is about self-awareness. And back to our values and virtues. Remember, our virtues are represented by our actions and our values are represented by our words. So I want you to say out loud what you think your personal values are. I'm going to give you a quick moment to do that, all right. So you've got your personal values out there. What was the last time, or when was the last time that you did something that reinforced each of those values you just stated? When was the last time that you did something that was in contradiction of one of your values? And be honest with yourself Something you do in favor or violation of your values is observed by somebody else, somebody who may not even know you.
Speaker 1:
They may not know what your values actually even are, but they are subconsciously watching you and they're keeping track, because you have a body of work that's your portfolio, that's what you have created, and they're drawing conclusions as to what they think you actually value, what they think your virtues are, and you cannot hide or fake who you are over any length of time, especially not in front of any one person or any group of people. They're going to figure you out. The unspoken things are going to become common knowledge at some point. The second thing is intent. Jacko says to pretend you're writing your intent on your forehead before you walk into a meeting. And in this section we're going to pretend we're walking into a business meeting. If your intent is about you or favoring you over all the others in the discussion, it's going to shine through. They're going to see it. You are not clever enough to hide it. There are people just as clever as you out there.
Speaker 1:
Here are my ideas on intent. Number one always be genuinely concerned with how whatever you are doing impacts others. And that is number one for a reason, because that is the number one thing that you need to do when you're trying to work with others. Just be genuinely concerned about the ones that you're trying to work with. And if you have selfish intent this is number two If you have selfish intent, change it to a personal concern and address it separately by using our what, if and how might we skills. So you're walking into a meeting and, as Jaco says, your intent is to get a razor or promotion.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you're walking into a meeting with a team. Your intent is to further the mission. That's your goal. You may have a concern about yourself. My advice is you take that concern and you take it separate when you walk into the meeting and the meeting is about the mission. You serve the mission, which means you're concerned about everybody else involved. You then take your concern and you have a separate meeting with that and you let your people know whoever you're going to be having the meeting with.
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I'd like to have a meeting because I have a concern about this and you use your what, if and how might we skills to get through that. How might I earn a permission? How might I get higher compensation? What if I wasn't on this team? What if I'm not feeling appreciated? You can use those skills to separate them right. And that gets us into number three never lie about your intent, because you will be found out. And when you are found out for lying about intent, that's called manipulation and nobody will trust you again. You're not going to be able to hang with that group anymore or it's going to take you a lot of work, lot of perseverance to fix it.
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And number four don't be afraid to be straightforward with your intent, and this doesn't mean you give away your strategy or leverage, but it does mean you have a chance to earn trust and respect and you can help others better prepare to engage with you. So, for instance, if you're walking into a meeting, my goal in this meeting is to help progress this mission as far as possible. My goal in this meeting is I'd like a raise or a promotion, or both. Be honest about it, be straightforward, don't hide it. Don't walk into the meeting and say you know, my goal in this meeting is to move the mission forward. When you're really just trying to get a raise or a promotion, or you're looking for attention or you're looking to show somebody up or prove to somebody else's ideas are dumb, put your intent right out there.
Speaker 1:
The third takeaway what you are saying could be right, but what you are doing may still be wrong, and I believe that that's right out of the podcast. You need to be self-aware, understand how your actions influence others. You have a body of work. Your portfolio and whatever you have done or not done to this day is a part of that, and your intent needs to match up with your actions If you are in a situation where there is conflict between you and your past or current actions. Right, we're thinking of your, what you've done in the past and what you're trying to do in the future, where you are not true to your virtues. This is where you need to be as straightforward as possible and you have to be humble. In the past, I've always tried to do X. However, I learned after a lot of mistakes. I think it's better to address this issue by doing Y. My intent is to do it. Whatever you're talking about. My intent is to do it better this time. Give people a chance to give you an opportunity to earn some trust here. So, whatever situation you're in, if there is conflict between what you've done and what you're doing, you need to be aware of it, and the way that you can give yourself an opportunity to be successful is by being straightforward and saying I've screwed this up in the past. This is what I want to do in the future, or what I'm going to try to do now. This is what I hope the outcome would be. I'd like to work with you on this In my final takeaway.
Speaker 1:
You are who you are. Would you have or haven't done? No one can change these things. That's your portfolio. You've already got it. But, like any portfolio, our newer work a lot of times is a lot better than our older work. So if you don't like who you've been or for you would just like to be better, you individually have the power to change this. This is where the perseverance comes in. You can put in the work, you can put in the time, and it may be hard and it may take long, but you can improve that portfolio. You individually can persevere.