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

My ego took no offense to my subordinate leaders on the frontlines calling the shots.

With my leaders running their teams and handling the tactical decisions, it made my job much easier by enabling me to focus on the bigger picture.

Teams must be broken down into manageable elements of four to five operators, with a clearly designated leader.

Junior leaders must be empowered to make decisions on key tasks necessary to accomplish that mission in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Teams within teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission, with leaders who have clearly delineated responsibilities.

Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it.

junior leaders must fully understand what is within their decision-making authority—the “left and right limits” of their responsibility.

they must communicate with senior leaders to recommend decisions outside their authority and pass critical information up the chain so the senior leadership can make informed strategic decisions.

Junior leaders must be proactive rather than reactive.

They must have implicit trust that their senior leaders will back their decisions. Without this trust, junior leaders cannot confidently execute, which means they cannot exercise effective Decentralized Command.

There are leaders who try to take on too much themselves.

Sometimes, the officer gets so far forward that he gets sucked into every room clearance, meaning he is continually entering rooms and engaging targets. When that happens, he gets focused on the minutia of what’s going on in the immediate room and loses situational awareness of what is happening with the rest of the team and can no longer provide effective command and control. Other times, the officer gets stuck in the back of the train, on cleanup duty. When that happens, he is too far in the rear to know what is happening up front and can’t direct his assault force.

Leaders must be free to move to where they are most needed, which changes throughout the course of an operation.

“Proper Decentralized Command requires simple, clear, concise orders that can be understood easily by everyone in the chain of command.

Situations will sometimes require that the boss walk away from a problem and let junior leaders solve it, even if the boss knows he might solve it more efficiently.

It is more important that the junior leaders are allowed to make decisions—and backed up even if they don’t make them correctly.

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.

Different courses of action must be explored on how best to accomplish the mission—with the manpower, resources, and supporting assets available.

It is critical to utilize all assets and lean on the expertise of those in the best position to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Giving the frontline troops ownership of even a small piece of the plan gives them buy-in, helps them understand the reasons behind the plan, and better enables them to believe in the mission, which translates to far more effective implementation and execution on the ground.