BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP EXTREME OWNERSHIP How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Book Breakdown 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 best leaders don’t just take responsibility for their job. They take “extreme ownership” of everything that impacts their mission. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute. There are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance—or doesn’t. Accept total responsibility, own problems, and develop solutions. When it comes to standards, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective. Good leadership is contagious. Good leaders instill a culture of extreme ownership, of winning and how to win, in every individual. For Navy Seals, it’s all about the team. There is no leadership without team and the sum is always greater than the parts. The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.
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BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP
EXTREME OWNERSHIPHow U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Winby Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Book Breakdown
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 best leaders don’t just take responsibility for their job. They take “extreme ownership” of everything that impacts their mission. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.
There are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance—or doesn’t. Accept total responsibility, own problems, and develop solutions.
When it comes to standards, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.
There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective.
Good leadership is contagious. Good leaders instill a culture of extreme ownership, of winning and how to win, in every individual.
For Navy Seals, it’s all about the team. There is no leadership without team and the sum is always greater than the parts. The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.
BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP
BELIEVE
In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission. A resolute belief in the emission is critical for any team or organization to win and achieve big results. The leader must align thoughts and vision to the mission.
Not knowing the why prohibits you from believing in the mission. If team members don’t understand, they must be allowed to ask why.
EGO
No one is infallible. With extreme ownership, you must remove individual ego and personal agenda. It’s all about the mission.
The planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s not about anyone else. It’s about the mission and how best to accomplish it. With that attitude exemplified in you and your key leaders, your team will dominate.
COVER AND MOVE
This is the most fundamental tactic; perhaps the only tactic. Simply put, it’s teamwork.
All elements within the greater team are crucial and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting one another for that singular purpose.
SIMPLE
Combat, like anything in life, has inherent layers of complexities. Simplifying as much as possible is crucial to success.
BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP
When plans and orders are too complicated, people may not understand them. And when things go wrong, complexity compounds issues that can spiral out of control.
As a leader, it doesn’t matter how well you feel you have presented the information or communicated an order, plan, tactic, or strategy. If your team doesn’t get it, you have not kept things simple and you have failed. You must brief them to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands.
When something goes wrong—and it eventually does—complex plans add to confusion, which can compound into disaster.
PRIORITIZE AND EXECUTE
Pass situational awareness both up and down the chain of command when priorities shift.
Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously. “Relax, look around, make a call.”
“Decisively engaged” describes a battle in which a unit locked in a tough combat situation cannot maneuver or extricate themselves. In other words, they cannot retreat. They must win.
DECENTRALIZED COMMAND
Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than 6 to 10 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 of 4-5 operators with a clearly designated leader. These leaders must understand the overall mission and the ultimate goal of that mission, the “commander’s intent.”
Too many pastors and church staff don’t operate from a sense of extreme ownership, either blaming other people on the team or spiritualizing poor results. Churches could be far more effective if all leaders embraced this principle.
Fight to understand intent. People need to understand the true purpose of a sermon, a program, a ministry, a project, and even a task. If you’re in leadership, make sure you communicate the ultimate goal, not just the immediate details. If you’re delegated a task or a responsibility, make sure you understand (and communicate) back original intent.
In ministry, we often rush quickly into ideas without building proper plans. Just like the Navy SEALs, we need standard templates that help us think through resources, people, timing, risks, purpose, timelines, milestones, and goals.
Simple works better. During COVID-19, when most churches could not meet in person, the majority of the churches we serve reported an increase in ministry effectiveness. This is partly because ministry models and communication were forced into simplicity.
MINISTRY INSIGHTS
BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP
Junior leaders must fully understand what is within their decision-making authority, the left and right limits of their responsibility. Additionally, they must communicate with senior leaders to recommend decisions outside their authority and pass critical information up the chain so that senior leaders can make informed, strategic decisions.
PLAN
Planning begins with mission analysis. Leaders must identify clear directives for that team. The mission must be carefully refined and simplified so that it is explicitly clear and specifically focused to achieve the greater strategic vision for which that mission is a part. The plan should describe the “end state.”
If people are unclear about the plan or too intimidated to ask questions, effectiveness will radically decrease.
Plans should have built-in contingencies. Plans should surface and discuss the risks.
The true test of a good plan is not whether senior officers are impressed, but whether or not the “troops” that are going to execute the operation actually understand it.
The most important part of a plan is to explain intent. When everyone understands the purpose, they can theoretically act without further guidance.
LEADING UP AND DOWN THE CHAIN OF COMMAND
Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command; it also flows up. Sometimes you need to lead those above you to help them.
If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame your boss. First blame yourself. Examine what you can do to better convey critical information for decisions to be
BOOK BREAKDOWN: EXTREME OWNERSHIP
made and support allocated. It requires tactful engagement with the immediate boss.
One of the most important jobs of any leader is to support your own boss, your immediate leadership. You can’t rely on authority, you must use influence, experience, knowledge, communication, and professionalism.
Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you’re going to do.
DECISIVENESS AMID UNCERTAINTY
It is critical for leaders to act decisively amid uncertainty, to make the best decisions they can based on only the immediate information available.
As a leader, your default setting should be aggressive, proactive rather than reactive.
A good leader must put aside their ego and personal agendas to ensure the team has the greatest chance of accomplishing its strategic goals.
A true leader is not intimidated when others step up and take charge. Leaders who lack confidence in themselves fear being out shined by someone else.
Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.
Discipline = freedom.
Discipline is not only the most important quality for an individual, but also for a team.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.
Does our team have the value of “extreme ownership”? What would it look like for you to collectively adopt this position?
2.
Who could help us develop a standard planning document so we could do a better on writing down and communicating plans before we launch into ideas?
3.
What parts of our church are too complicated, where everyone involved might not understand the purpose, goals, or plans?
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