{"id":2589,"date":"2019-10-30T19:18:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T23:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:11:17","slug":"no-bad-teams-only-bad-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/no-bad-teams-only-bad-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders (From Jocko Willink)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While many leadership books and training courses focus on developing individual habits and traits, leadership is inextricably tied to the team\u2019s<\/em> performance. There are only two types of leaders \u2014 effective and ineffective \u2014 and the only way to measure a leader\u2019s effectiveness is based on whether her team succeeds or fails<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the person at the top of the chain of command, everything ultimately reflects back on you. You must make decisions quickly and definitively, and accept their consequences, good or bad. As a leader, you determine the team’s performance. This gives rise to the phrase, “no bad teams, only bad leaders<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform\u2019s guide to team-building<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A leader is responsible for maintaining and enforcing high standards of performance as her team works toward its goals. The leader must not only dictate high standards, but refuse to tolerate anything less, because if poor performance is accepted without consequence, that becomes the new standard<\/strong>. If a team or team member completes a task that is not up to par, the leader needs to insist that task be re-done until it meets the standard. 
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Initial consequences for poor performance don\u2019t need to be extreme. But if the problem is consistent and unaffected by efforts to correct it, then a leader needs to take more serious action. If a particular team member consistently performs poorly \u2014 despite the leader\u2019s efforts to mentor and help her improve \u2014 and is holding the team back from its potential success, the leader must remove her from the team as a means to maintain high standards. Allowing her to stay means implicitly accepting her substandard performance, which indicates to the rest of the team that this is acceptable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A leader should always be looking for ways to improve, and inspire her team to adopt the same mindset. As a leader, you can consistently raise the bar by objectively assessing your team\u2019s and your own performance.<\/strong> You need to practice Extreme Ownership in order to take stock in this way, with brutal honesty and humility. When your recognize areas of weakness, develop a plan to improve them; similarly, you should recognize how individual team members can best contribute to the goal, and help everyone work together in a way that maximizes each person\u2019s strengths to best achieve that goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective leader keeps her teams consistently focused on the next immediate, actionable goal, while she has the big-picture goal in mind<\/strong>. The larger goal can be daunting or too abstract for team members to grasp, so the leader must push and direct her team toward each individual goal along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an effective leader establishes a culture of Extreme Ownership throughout her team, the team can continue to perform well even in the leader\u2019s temporary absence.<\/strong> Each junior leader \u2014 operating with the same mindset of Extreme Ownership \u2014 should be prepared and confident to step up in her leader\u2019s absence to continue the team\u2019s progress toward achieving its goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is why there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. The leader makes the critical difference in the performance of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battle Story: The Leader Sets the Tone<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Hell Week in SEAL training, and the students are being pushed to their limits; they are physically and mentally exhausted. 
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The trainees are split into seven-person teams called boat crews that work together to carry the 200-plus pound inflatable rubber boats through obstacle courses, across the beach, and into the Pacific Ocean to paddle in seemingly endless races. For the races, each group\u2019s designated boat crew leader receives orders from the training instructors, relays the instructions to the rest of his crew, and leads his team in a race against the other boat crews to be the first to correctly carry out the mission. The winning crew gets to sit out the following race, earning a few minutes of precious rest, while the crew in last place has to endure extra exercises as punishment.
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The boat crew leaders have several responsibilities resting on their shoulders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n