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

The best teams anywhere, like the SEAL Teams, are constantly looking to improve, add capability, and push the standards higher.

His attitude reflected victimization: life dealt him and his boat crew members a disadvantage, which justified poor performance.

the leader and each member of Boat Crew Six focused not on the mission but on themselves, their own exhaustion, misery, and individual pain and suffering.

Boat Crew Six had become comfortable with substandard performance.

Working under poor leadership and an unending cycle of blame, the team constantly failed. No one took ownership, assumed responsibility, or adopted a winning attitude.”

faced the facts: he recognized and accepted that Boat Crew Six’s performance was terrible, that they were losing and had to get better. He didn’t blame anyone, nor did he make excuses to justify poor performance. He didn’t wait for others to solve his boat crew’s problems.

“whether or not your team succeeds or fails is all on you. Extreme Ownership is a concept to help you make the right decisions as a key leader so that you can win.”

“If you aren’t winning,” I responded, “then you aren’t making the right decisions.”

CTO exhibited the opposite of Extreme Ownership. He took no meaningful action to improve his performance or push his team to improve.

An individual with a Tortured Genius mind-set can have catastrophic impact on a team’s performance.

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.

“Tortured Genius.” By this, he did not mean the artist or musician who suffers from mental health issues, but in the context of ownership.

when it comes to performance standards, It's not what you preach, it's what you tolerate

The most important question had been answered: Why? Once I analyzed the mission and understood for myself that critical piece of information, I could then believe in the mission. If I didn’t believe in it, there was no way I could possibly convince the SEALs in my task unit to believe in it. If I expressed doubts or openly questioned the wisdom of this plan in front of the troops, their derision toward the mission would increase exponentially. They would never believe in it. As a result, they would never commit to it, and it would fail. But once I understood and believed, I then passed that understanding and belief on, clearly and succinctly, to my troops so that they believed in it themselves. When they understood why, they would commit to the mission, persevere through the inevitable challenges in store, and accomplish the task set before us. Most of the operators accepted my explanation. Not every member of Task Unit Bruiser was convinced immediately. We had to reinforce the importance of combat-advising Iraqi soldiers continuously. Through the course of the deployment, our SEALs conducted every major operation with Iraqi soldiers. Often the Iraqi soldiers

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

Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.

If they cannot determine a satisfactory answer themselves, they must ask questions up the chain of command until they understand why.

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.

“OK, but why do you think they are implementing this plan? Do you think they want to push your best salespeople out the door? Do they want those salespeople to go to your competitors? Do you think they actually want the company to lose money and fail?”

“So the CEO, is she unreasonable? Would she actually fire someone for asking the question?” The group of managers mumbled, “No.” “What is it then?” I asked. Finally, one of the more senior managers spoke up with a serious answer: “I’d feel pretty stupid asking. Our CEO is smart and has a lot of experience. She gets this business.”