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

by Jocko Willink

These leaders cast no blame. They made no excuses. Instead of complaining

They leveraged assets, relationships, and resources to get the job done. Their own egos took a back seat to the mission and their troops. These leaders truly led.

Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems. They are better leaders,

Taking ownership for mistakes and failures is hard.

But doing so is key to learning, to developing solutions, and, ultimately, to victory.

We’ve heard from leaders in the medical profession who tell us how explaining the “why” to their team and communicating orders in a “simple, clear, and concise” manner greatly enhanced their team’s performance and saved lives in the operating room.

Pastors and mission groups have relayed to us how Extreme Ownership made their teams more effective, delivering greater impact to the lives of people in need.

Extreme Ownership saved their marriage. Once they stopped pointing fingers and casting blame on their wife or husband, they were able to look inwardly at what they could take ownership of to produce a better outcome. As a result, their relationships were repaired and strengthened.

“Relax. Look around. Make a call.”

Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.

Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win.

For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.

the underlying principle—the mind-set—that provides the foundation for all the rest: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.

I had to take complete ownership of what went wrong. That is what a leader does—even if it means getting fired. If anyone was to be blamed and fired for what happened, let it be me.

These weaker commanders would get a solid explanation about the burden of command and the deep meaning of responsibility: the leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.

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. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.

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. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.

Total responsibility for failure is a difficult thing to accept, and taking ownership when things go wrong requires extraordinary humility and courage. But doing just that is an absolute necessity to learning, growing as a leader, and improving a team’s performance.

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.

I explained that the direct responsibility of a leader included getting people to listen, support, and execute plans. To drive the point home, I told him, “You can’t make people listen to you. You can’t make them execute. That might be a temporary solution for a simple task. But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous—you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.”

The best-performing SEAL units had leaders who accepted responsibility for everything. Every mistake, every failure or shortfall—those leaders would own it.