Jocko Underground: Accept That The People Around You May Not Want To Do Their Best

>Join Jocko Underground< https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe Accept That The People Around You May Not Want To Do Their Best How to have the best relationship with your family members when they do not want to improve themselves. How to influence people to be a better version of themself. If you're struggling with balance and have an addictive personality. The 1-5 system of evaluating your performance on ANYTHING. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 185, sitting here with Echo Charles. You all have sent us some questions from the field and we will provide you with some guidance, some recommendations, some answers, or at a minimum, some possible courses of actions that you can follow. So here we go. Let's get into it.

• 0:18Speaker 01

  Here we go. First question. I'm a high school principal. I spent the last decade working towards being the best version of myself, reading, lifting, training, and eliminating most anything that is not productive to my quest to achieve personal excellence. Where I struggle as a leader is watching others around me be okay with mediocrity. Their lack of desire to improve daily fuels me to be the best, the very best I can be, but frustrates me that I see so much more in them than they see in themselves. Do I continue to keep my foot on the gas in an effort to influence them to see they are just floating through life? Or do I accept that 10% of my staff going to fall short of my expectations

• 1:03Speaker 01

  of them and the true potential they have as educators and leaders in my school? Keep the rad designs coming for the shirt locker D's. Thank you.

• 1:15Jocko Willink?

  And he says that 10% of his staff is about, of his staff is about 10 to 12 people. So, um, welcome to reality. This is, this is a reality right here. There's a, there's a bell curve. There's a bell curve in the world. There's a bell curve in any organization. You've got your top performer, formers, you've got like that top 10% of the top performers. And then you've got the whole big middle area of the bell curve. And that, you know, there's people that are like, do a little bit better and in the middle of the bell curve and people that do a little bit worse in the middle of the bell curve. And then there's the bottom 10%. And that's just the way it is. And everyone thinks like in the

• 1:58Jocko Willink?

  most elite places that, no, in a SEAL platoon, there's a bell curve. In a SEAL team, there's a bell curve. In any organization, there's a bell curve and you've got some front running pipe hitters at the top end that are crushing. You've got the middle people that are doing their job to varying levels. And then you've got some turds.

• 2:18Jocko Willink?

  So what should you do? I mean, first of all, your question is, do I continue to keep my foot on the gas? Yes. In an effort to influence them? Yes. To see their floating through life? Well, who, you know, doesn't matter. That shouldn't affect the way you're getting after it, right? So I think you're good there. Keep getting after it. We know that. Listen, I would invest, you know, invest in the top performers. You know, how much can you help them? How can you help them grow even more? Cause they're getting after it. How can you make the middle performers into top performers? And I wouldn't, you know, I'm not going to abandon the bottom 10%. I just don't write them off and never think about them again. But I recognize that, okay, I'll check in with them every, well, you know,

• 3:03Jocko Willink?

  uh, once a quarter. Once a quarter. You know, maybe, hey, you still, you still good to go? Hey, did you wanna, did you wanna, you know, think about that? You know, running that, uh, thing for the school council or whatever? No, it's just extracurricular duty. Do you get paid for it? Well, no, you don't get paid, but it's going to give you some good experience. I don't want to do it. Okay, cool. You see what I'm saying? But maybe after three years, you go, hey, you want to run that little student council thing? And there's no pay for it, as you know, but other teachers, you know, taking over this other project. So if you want to do it, and maybe in three years they go, yeah, you know, I wouldn't mind doing that. You know, so you don't abandon them, checking with them periodically,

• 3:43Jocko Willink?

  but you also can't like expend a bunch of energy trying to get them to freaking get on board with being like a, a, a better performer. Because they're getting their paycheck. This happens in every industry, every industry. Oh, these people, they just collect a paycheck and they don't really care. Yep, cool. Welcome. That's the way the world is. Also, don't get frustrated about this. Like, you can't get frustrated. It's just, just the way people are. It's the phase of their life. You can ask them earnest questions. You can try and influence them. Listen, you can't go, "Would you want to be a loser?" Nope. They'll be like, "I'm not a freaking loser. Screw you. The principle sucks." You know what I'm saying? You build a relationship with them. That's what this boils down to. Build a relationship with them. Trust, listen, respect, influence,

• 4:26Jocko Willink?

  and care. And if you do that, and you ask earnest questions, earnest questions, "Where do you think you're going to be in 10 years?" That's not an earnest question. It's like, "Hey, you, you, you, you love teaching in the classroom so much that that's kind of what you want to do for your whole career?" And they might say, "Yeah, actually it is." And you go, "Okay, cool." And they might say, "Well, I think so." And then three weeks later, or three months later, they go, "You know, you asked me if I always wanted to be in the classroom. I was thinking about it. And I do, but I think I want to do it, you know, I think I want to eventually get into becoming a college professor." "Oh, so you gotta go take some more classes." Or, "You know, all of

• 5:05Jocko Willink?

  a sudden you got, you know." So, do that. And do your best to help the people out, but don't over invest in them. That's kind of what I got, you know? This is life. This is the way people are. You're gonna find them no matter where you are. Don't let them hold you back. But, and don't let them uninspire you to keep getting after and keep setting an awesome example. And build relationships with them. Build relationships with them. That's what we're doing across the board.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  It seems like you do a good job of, in these situations, because I see, you know, you can kind of see it, not, you know, I think I do anyway. But you do, it comes off to me that you do a good job of not judging people who are like, not perform, you know, not getting after it as hard as maybe the next guy, whatever.

• 5:55Jocko Willink?

  Don't, bro, because people are interested in different things.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:59Jocko Willink?

  You know what I mean? Like, you know, what's the one man trash, another man's treasure?

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 6:04Jocko Willink?

  Well, one man's triumph is another person's like, "We don't give a shit."

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:09Jocko Willink?

  You know what I mean? Like, have you ever told someone like, "I'm a jujitsu black belt?" They're like,

• 6:17Speaker 01

  No, I don't think I've ever said that.

• 6:18Jocko Willink?

  Like, what is that? Like, in their mind, they're literally thinking karate.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:21Jocko Willink?

  They're thinking Rex Kondo. They're like, "Whatever, dude."

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, my eight-year-old son has a black belt, too.

• 6:25Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. My, my nine-year-old just got his black belt. You guys are the same now."

• 6:32Jocko Willink?

  But like it's true that with everything, right?

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 6:34Jocko Willink?

  Like, uh, well, you know, I spent 20 years in the military. Oh, cool. Whatever, you know?

• 6:43Jocko Willink?

  Oh, I, I wrote some books. Oh, I wrote a New York Times bestseller.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 6:48Jocko Willink?

  Bro, I don't care.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:49Jocko Willink?

  So when someone is not interested in stuff that I'm interested in, it doesn't like I, I, I 100% expect that. And I don't think that anything that I've done is like, ooh, look what I did.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, and you can't help but, because I've been in a situation where, actually pretty recently.

• 7:07Jocko Willink?

  Dude, I barely, I have a black belt, I wrote books. You know what I mean? Like, I don't really care.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  But I've been in a situation on the other side of things where I'm like, bro, it's not that serious, bro. And you can tell like this person's really into what's going on, like, and I'm, and it's just right on the front of my mind as if this is my feeling was like, bro, life is way bigger than this thing, you know, kind of a thing. And the thing is, that can be true for anything, even if you're at work, literally at work. What you do for a quote unquote, living. There's more to life than this job. And a lot of people are in a position and just their opinion of life, their, their approach to life. There's more to life than just freaking like making sure you got this report.

• 7:50Jocko Willink?

  Okay, so actually I'm gonna like, I'm, I'm the opposite of you there. Cause I'm kinda like, dude, that's awesome. Like, good job.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Good job.

• 8:00Jocko Willink?

  When someone's really into what they're doing, whatever it is, I'm kinda stoked for them.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and again, I'm not saying that part isn't the part I'm talking about. I'm just saying if someone's too into it and having this expectation, expectation onto you that you should be into it the same way I am. It's, you'll have a big disconnect there. It's not, you know, it's not constructive, you know? So don't be that person in a judgmental way. See what I'm saying? Hey, be fired up. Hell yeah, all day. And, you know, but don't be like, hey, you should be in my lane too. And if you're not, like, I'm angry.

• 8:32Jocko Willink?

  We got beef.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  And we got beef, you know, see what I'm saying? Yeah.

• 8:35Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, there's all kinds of, you know, that's. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen.

• 8:47Jocko Willink?

  Go to jockounderground.com and subscribe and we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control and we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen

• 9:32Jocko Willink?

  this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you. It's jockounderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.