Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

by Jocko Willink

in the SEAL program, it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.

we served with under both the U.S. Army 2nd Brigade, 28th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and the U.S. Army 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division—the Ready First Brigade Combat Team.

Lieutenant Commander Jocko Willink—

The principles and concepts described in this book, when properly understood and implemented, enable any leader to become effective and dominate his or her battlefield.

our mistakes provided the greatest lessons, humbled us, and enabled us to grow and become better.

The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.

Blue-on-blue—friendly fire, fratricide—

X-Ray Platoon from SEAL Team One in Vietnam.

CO had appointed an investigating officer to determine the facts of what happened and who was responsible.

We analyzed what had happened and implemented the lessons learned.

On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world.

If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that underperformer.

Extreme Ownership requires leaders to look at an organization’s problems through the objective lens of reality,

Such a leader, however, does not take credit for his or her team’s successes but bestows that honor upon his subordinate leaders and team members.

you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.”

there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team.

this applies not just to the most senior leader of an overall team, but to the junior leaders of teams within the team.

A team could only deliver exceptional performance if a leader ensured the team worked together toward a focused goal and enforced high standards of performance, working to continuously improve.

Despite being blind, Ryan successfully reached the 14,410-foot summit of Mount Rainier and personally bagged a trophy bull elk (using a rifle fitted with a specially designed scope with a camera for a spotter).

when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.

if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if there are no consequences—that poor performance becomes the new standard.

a Tortured Genius, in this sense, accepts zero responsibility for mistakes, makes excuses, and blames everyone else for their failings (and those of their team). In their mind, the rest of the world just can’t see or appreciate the genius in what they are doing.

to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.

In any organization, goals must always be in alignment. If goals aren’t aligned at some level, this issue must be addressed and rectified.

Junior leaders must ask questions and also provide feedback up the chain so that senior leaders can fully understand the ramifications of how strategic plans affect execution on the ground.

If you don’t understand or believe in the decisions coming down from your leadership, it is up to you to ask questions until you understand how and why those decisions are being made.

These violent jihadis used torture, rape, and murder as weapons to ruthlessly terrorize, intimidate, and rule over the civilian populace who lived in abject fear. The American public and much of the Western World lived in willful naïveté of the barbaric, unspeakable tactics these jihadis employed. It was subhuman savagery.

Similar to Arabs and Europeans

leading petty officer (LPO)—one of my most trusted leaders.

“I was so focused on our own squad’s dilemma, I didn’t think to coordinate with the other team,

Teamwork\synergy

Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.

U.S. Marine Corps Small Unit Riverine Craft (SURC) boats

U.S. Marine Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) with which they often worked closely, a small Army sniper team,

let’s just keep it simple to start, and we can expand as we get more experience.”

OPORD (operations order, the pre-mission brief that explains the details of the operation to the members of the team).

simple, clear, concise information—

If there is not a strong enough correlation between the behavior and the reward or the punishment, then behavior will never be modified.

It was a harebrained idea, but under the circumstances, an option that had to be seriously considered.

Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise. No one senior leader can be expected to manage dozens of individuals, much less hundreds. Teams must be broken down into manageable elements

Giving the frontline troops ownership of even a small piece of the plan gives them buy-in,

By maintaining a perspective above the microterrain of the plan, the senior leader can better ensure compliance with strategic objectives.

Father of the U.S. Navy, John Paul Jones, said: “Those who will not risk cannot win.”

after each combat operation, conduct what we called a “post-operational debrief.”

What went right? What went wrong? How can we adapt our tactics to make us even more effective and increase our advantage over the enemy?

A leader’s checklist for planning should include the following:

Analyze the mission.

Identify personnel, assets, resources, and time available.

Decentralize the planning process.

Determine a specific course of action.

Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action. • Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation. • Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible. • Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders.