One of my favorite authors who talks about leadership is Jocko Willink. I have read and listened to several of his thoughts on leadership, but one message that has always stood out to me is his speech called “GOOD.” It is a very simple message, but I believe it says a lot about leadership and how we respond when things do not go according to plan.

Willink is a retired Navy SEAL officer who has taken lessons learned from military leadership and applied them to business and everyday life. One of the things I like about his approach is that he does not make leadership overly complicated. His philosophy focuses on discipline, responsibility, humility and controlling how we respond to difficult situations.

In his “GOOD” speech, Willink talks about what he would say when members of his team came to him with a problem. A mission was canceled. Something they wanted did not happen. They did not get the equipment they needed. Their plans changed.

His response was simple: “Good.”

At first, that response can almost sound dismissive. There is obviously nothing good about failure, disappointment or unexpected problems. But that is not really the point he is making. Willink is talking about our attitude toward adversity. Once something has happened and we cannot change it, we have a choice about what happens next.

That is where I believe his message becomes a lesson about leadership.

We are all going to have plans that fail. We are going to lose opportunities. Someone is going to tell us no. Employees are going to make mistakes. Projects will not always work the way we expected. As leaders, we can spend our time complaining about those situations, blaming someone or wishing things had turned out differently. Or we can look at the situation and ask, “What can we do with this?”

Didn't get the opportunity? Good. There may be another one.

Made a mistake? Good. Learn from it.

Something did not work? Good. Figure out why and make it better next time.

To me, that does not mean pretending that every bad situation is good. Some situations are genuinely difficult, and good leadership requires acknowledging that. The lesson is that we cannot always control what happens, but we can control our response to it.

I think this is especially important for leaders because people watch how their leaders react when something goes wrong. Leadership is fairly easy when everything is going according to plan. The real test often comes when the plan falls apart. If the leader immediately becomes negative, angry or starts blaming people, that attitude can spread throughout the organization. On the other hand, a leader who stays calm and starts looking for the next solution gives the team confidence to keep moving forward.

This message also connects with Willink's principle of Extreme Ownership. Instead of spending our energy determining who deserves the blame, we should first ask what we can learn and what we can control.

That is why “GOOD” has stuck with me. It is more than a motivational speech. It is a reminder about perspective.

Leadership does not mean that everything will go your way. In fact, leadership almost guarantees that you will eventually face problems you did not create and circumstances you cannot control. What you can control is what you do next.

Sometimes the best response to a setback is simply: Good. Now, what are we going to do about it?