TLDR;
"Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin emphasizes the importance of taking complete responsibility for all aspects of a team's performance. This principle fosters continuous improvement, inspires others to take ownership, and ultimately leads to greater success. The book outlines how to implement extreme ownership, balance leadership traits, and make effective decisions, applicable not only in military and business contexts but also in personal relationships.
- Taking responsibility for both successes and failures.
- Inspiring a culture of ownership within a team.
- Balancing seemingly opposite leadership traits for optimal effectiveness.
Intro [0:00]
The core of great leadership, according to Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, is extreme ownership: accepting accountability for all aspects of your team's performance, regardless of fault. This principle applies beyond military or business leadership, extending to family and personal discipline. The authors clarify that extreme ownership doesn't mean being an extreme leader but rather embracing more responsibility than expected. Taking responsibility fosters empathy, reduces division, and promotes teamwork, essential for healthy relationships and conflict resolution.
Extreme Ownership Enables Continuous Improvement [3:38]
To achieve greatness, continuous improvement is essential, and extreme ownership is the best way to facilitate it. By taking responsibility for both your own and your teammates' mistakes, you can see them as problems to solve rather than things to blame someone for. This empowers continuous self and team improvement.
Take Ownership of Others Mistakes [4:31]
A great team is composed of great team members, and as a leader, it's your responsibility to ensure everyone operates at peak performance. Maintain high standards by taking ownership of others' mistakes, asking what you can do to prevent recurrence rather than assigning blame. Blaming others limits your team's potential because it ignores what you could be doing to improve the situation. It's important to address every mistake your team makes, because failing to correct poor performance lowers the team's standards over time.
Even if Extreme Team Ownership is Unrealistic, It's Empowering [6:57]
While some may argue that extreme team ownership is unrealistic, entrepreneur Tom Bilu argues that even if a disaster was truly impossible to avoid, you should still believe you could have done something to prevent it. This belief empowers you, making you more likely to succeed by telling yourself you have total control over your world. If you ever believe there's nothing you could have done, you stop looking for ways to improve yourself and the team.
Take Ownership of Your Mistakes [8:55]
Extreme ownership means taking responsibility for your own failures, which is particularly difficult for leaders whose mistakes have severe consequences. Admitting your mistakes allows you to learn from them and prevent future occurrences. Taking ownership requires conquering your ego by refocusing on the mission and redefining success as the effort you put into the mission, regardless of the outcome.
Conquer Your Ego by Redefining Success [10:21]
Ryan Holiday argues that focusing solely on your team's mission isn't enough to negate ego's negative effects. Instead, redefine success for yourself by feeling proud of the effort you put into the mission, regardless of its outcome. This way, you won't see mistakes as something to feel ashamed of, and you'll feel motivated to learn from them and bounce back from failure more efficiently.
Take Ownership But Don't Take Credit [11:56]
Assume responsibility for your team's failures, but don't take credit for their successes. Attribute every success to your team's good work, even if you personally contributed the most. Taking credit reinforces the idea that success is an individual achievement, while passing credit teaches that success belongs to the entire team, encouraging them to prioritize the mission above their egos.
Extreme Ownership Inspires Ownership in Others [13:33]
Practicing extreme ownership inspires your team to do the same. For the greatest chance of success, every member of your team should be as motivated and egoless as you. Lead by example, and your leadership style will establish your team's culture. Inspiring extreme ownership is more important than practicing it, as it matters most for long-term success.
When Your Team Takes Ownership, They Master Their Individual Roles [16:40]
When everyone on your team takes extreme ownership, they make it their first priority to work as hard as they can in their individual roles. If your team members clearly see how they fit into the broader mission plan, they'll realize that the best way they can take extreme ownership is to fulfill the responsibilities you've assigned to them and will feel motivated to do so. They also won't just sit passively and wait for orders; they'll go above and beyond their individual roles.
In Complex Environments Your Team Needs to Take Extreme Ownership [18:03]
In complex, unpredictable environments, teams that do nothing but follow orders fail. Instead of trying to personally run your entire team and restrict them to their assigned responsibilities, you need to empower them to make their own decisions if you want them to adapt to unforeseen setbacks.
When Your Team Takes Ownership, Your Job is Easier [20:08]
When your team takes extreme ownership and you trust them to perform well in their individual roles, it frees you to focus your time and attention on big-picture leadership tasks. As a leader, it's your job to make sure every one of your team's tasks aligns with the broader mission.
When Your Team Takes Ownership, They Collaborate Better [21:32]
When your team takes extreme ownership, they prioritize the team's success over their own. Instead of celebrating when a teammate fails, they do everything they can to help that teammate avoid failure in the future. This kind of collaboration is invaluable.
Collaboration Across the Hierarchy [23:59]
Extreme ownership is especially important in regard to collaboration between a leader and their subordinates. Bosses need the necessary information to give effective orders, and subordinates need to understand the rationale behind decisions and commands.
A Clear Mission Inspires Mutual Trust [26:26]
When leaders clarify a selfless mission and purpose to the team, their subordinates recognize the values they share with their leaders and teammates. These shared values form the basis of organizational culture, making everyone feel like they belong to the same community pursuing the same selfless, purposeful, and meaningful mission. In turn, feelings of community enable mutual trust, which directly leads to extreme ownership throughout an organization.
Extreme Ownership in Action [28:11]
Leaders taking extreme ownership must follow four rules for the greatest chance of victory: be transparent with your plans and keep them simple, always focus on the most important task, make decisions before you're certain they're right, and be wary of extremes.
Be Transparent With Your Plans and Keep Them Simple [28:43]
Before team members can take extreme ownership, they need to clearly understand how their tasks contribute to the mission. Ensure your team fully understands any plan you make by being consistently transparent with your plans and keeping them as simple as possible.
Be Transparent With Your Plans [29:12]
Be consistently transparent with your plans by seeking input from lower-level teammates when you're initially devising a plan, conducting a briefing in which you explain it to everyone involved in executing it, and holding a debrief to get everyone on the same page about what worked and what didn't.
Involve the Team But Make the Decisions Yourself [30:09]
Giving your team agency doesn't mean turning it into a democracy. Make it clear that the final decision rests with you. Often, your team members' opinions will shape your decision, but in cases where they can't reach consensus, you'll have to override them and make the choice you believe to be right.
Keep Your Plans Simple [31:23]
Ensure your team understands your plans by keeping them as simple as possible. If your team doesn't quickly grasp the plan, it's probably more complex than it's worth. Simple plans are easier to adapt on the fly, and they force you to focus on the most important aspects of your mission.
Always Focus on the Most Important Task [33:16]
At all times, identify the most important task and focus all your attention on getting it done. If you try to handle multiple problems at once, you risk spreading yourself too thin and failing to solve any of them. If something unexpected arises, you and your team need to be flexible enough to immediately refocus on the new most important task.
Balance Your Life by Focusing on the Most Important Task [34:47]
Prioritizing and focusing on the most important task is valuable not only at work but also as a means for life fulfillment. When you're trying to do too many things at once, you feel overwhelmed and fail to accomplish any of them.
Make Decisions Before You're Certain They're Right [36:55]
You must become comfortable making decisions in uncertain conditions. Inaction is almost always the wrong decision. Make the most logical decision you can with your current knowledge and move on. Making decisions that are painful but necessary will earn your team's respect.
When Overthinking Leads to Worse Decisions [38:15]
The more information you gather, the worse your decisions get. The first factors you consider when making your decision are the ones with the greatest impact on the outcome. If you wait for additional, relatively irrelevant information, you might put too much emphasis on these details and second-guess yourself when you shouldn't.
Be Wary of Extremes [39:37]
Any trait of an effective leader becomes detrimental in excess. When in doubt, question whether you've drifted too far toward an extreme. The way forward may be to employ less of a good thing.
Promote Conflicting Ideals in Range [40:51]
The problem occurs when a tool such as discipline becomes so intrinsic to an organization's culture that they feel as if they can't operate without it. The counterintuitive solution is for leaders to send their team mixed messages to build your organization's culture around conflicting ideals.
Forward [42:35]
Willink and Babin found combat to be a more intense version of regular life, but the principles of decision-making and leadership that they developed in combat still hold true in business and day-to-day life. They found one primary trait among all successful leaders: extreme team ownership. Leaders are responsible for the direction and success of their teams, and practicing extreme ownership entails taking responsibility for every aspect of their team and the task they're working to accomplish.
Introduction the Many Facets of Leadership [44:40]
This chapter introduces the concept of extreme ownership and several leadership principles and strategies. Each of the principles will get a more in-depth explanation in later chapters.
There is No I in Leader [45:00]
Leadership is inextricably tied to the team's performance. There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective, and the only way to measure a leader's effectiveness is based on whether her team succeeds or fails. You must make decisions quickly and definitively and accept their consequences, good or bad. You need to believe in your mission or plan and have no doubt about why you and your team are working to achieve it.
Battle Story Stay Calm Execute and Carry On [47:10]
Babin remembers the words of his boss, Lieutenant Commander Willink: relax, look around, make a call. He implements one of the laws of combat: prioritize and execute. By strategically prioritizing, Babin actually accomplishes everything more efficiently. As he does after every mission, Babin assesses what can be done better next time.
The Books Organization [52:07]
"Extreme Ownership" is divided into three sections. Part one discusses the foundation and mindset that leaders need in order to succeed. Part two explains the four rules leaders should implement to help their teams work efficiently and achieve their goals. Part three explores how leaders can successfully navigate the difficult situations that inevitably come with the role.
Leaders Take Responsibility and Give Credit [53:53]
The first four chapters discuss the mindset a leader must have to lead her team successfully. An effective leader takes responsibility for her team's shortcomings, establishes and maintains high standards, understands and clearly communicates the purpose of each goal, and checks her ego. This chapter focuses on how leaders can practice extreme ownership by taking accountability for everything that happens under their direction.
Battle Story Taking Blame for a Battlefield Mistake [57:58]
As the mission's commander, Willink takes the blame, even pardoning seals to suggest that the failure was their fault in one way or another, and vows never to let such a mistake happen again. As a result of Willink's humility and extreme ownership of the situation, his bosses actually gain more trust and respect for him.
Business Application a Manager Must Step Up [1:02:00]
The VP has to confront the fact that despite all the legitimate barriers, he is ultimately responsible for the plan's failure. He needs to lead his team to understand the plan, which will help them to support and successfully execute it. Good leaders own their failures and constantly seek ways to improve.
Exercise Admitting Failure [1:05:58]
Accepting fault and admitting failure is one of the hardest things to do as a leader. Use this exercise to practice recognizing and admitting your own shortcomings in order to improve for the future.
Insist on High Standards [1:07:38]
A leader is responsible for maintaining and enforcing high standards of performance as her team works toward its goals. The leader must not only dictate high standards but refuse to tolerate anything less, because if poor performance is accepted without consequence, that becomes the new standard. A leader should always be looking for ways to improve and inspire her team to adopt the same mindset.
Battle Story The Leader Sets the Tone [1:10:11]
The experiment suggests that the leader is the biggest predictor of any team's success. Boat crew 4's original leader has a victim mindset. When boat crew 2's leader takes over the failing boat crew 4, he recognizes and accepts that the team is performing poorly without submitting to any excuses as to why they are failing.
Business Application the Whole Team Must Take Extreme Ownership [1:13:56]
The CEO ultimately replaces the tortured genius with a new CTO who embraces extreme ownership, and the company gets back on track to growing and profiting.
Leaders Must Believe in the Why [1:15:43]
As a leader, you have to believe in a plan and its goal before you can inspire your team to work toward it. If you don't believe in the plan, adapt it to something you can stand by. It takes extreme ownership to ask your boss for clarification on a plan or its why.
Battle Story Finding the Why [1:18:02]
Now understanding the why of the order, Willink can effectively carry it out and explain it to his troops so that they understand and believe in its purpose. Because Willink came to understand and strongly believe in the importance of his boss's directive, he implemented it so thoroughly and effectively that his team benefited from the support they got from the higher-ups.
Business Application Asking the Moss for an Explanation [1:21:37]
The CEO finally learns that her managers don't understand the plan, and she understands that if the managers don't understand or believe in the plan, then the salespeople won't either. The CEO approaches the managers and asks them to share their concerns about the plan. The managers ultimately acknowledged that under the guidelines of extreme ownership, they were at fault for not asking the CEO to explain the plan sooner.
Exercise Uncovering the Y [1:23:58]
This exercise can help you make sense of an order or plan your boss recently handed down that you disagreed with or didn't understand.
Keep Your Ego in Check [1:25:32]
Too much ego, whether the leaders or a team members, inhibits a team's or company's ability to succeed. You must be humble and open-minded to practice extreme ownership, and that requires you to check your ego. The team and its mission must always come first.
Battle Story Ego Gets in the Way of a Team's Success [1:28:33]
Although the unit's skill and equipment could have been a big help to the US Army soldiers in seals at the camp, the troops' egos make them more of a risk than an asset.
Business Application Don't Act on Ego and Emotion [1:32:01]
Gary must check his ego in order to have a productive conversation with the superintendent. Gary must also practice extreme ownership and take responsibility for not adequately explaining the bigger picture to the superintendent.
Teams Must Support Each Other [1:34:21]
With the appropriate mindset, one that involves taking extreme ownership, setting high standards, emphasizing the why of each goal, and checking your ego, a leader can implement key strategies to help her team achieve its goals.
Chapter 5 Explores the Cover and Move Strategy [1:35:02]
The principle of cover and move is teamwork. The entire team must work together, supporting and protecting each other for everyone's safety and success. Leaders need to keep the bigger picture in mind to use cover and move most effectively.
Battle Story Always Consider How Different Teams Can Help Each Other [1:37:12]
If Babin had used the same cover and move technique on a bigger scale involving more teams than his, it would have provided both teams better safety and coverage.
Business Application Help Others Help You [1:40:44]
The manager needs to find a way to work together with the subsidiary company to accomplish their joint goal so that each team is helping and supporting each other. The production manager looks at the bigger picture to see how each team contributes to the same overall mission.
Exercise Working With Another Team [1:42:28]
When another department is creating a hurdle for your own team's success, sometimes the best course of action is to figure out how to help them get their work done so they can do what you need from them.
Keep It Simple [1:44:12]
If you keep plans simple, you control what you can while minimizing confusion when something inevitably goes off course. Simplifying a plan also requires you to narrow your focus to the most critical priorities, which helps reinforce the overarching goal for both you and your team.
Battle Story Simplify for Safety [1:45:44]
Willink suggests that the MIT leaders simplify the plan, at least for the team's first few operations.
Business Application Simple Equals Effective [1:48:40]
The elaborate system created to maximize efficiency is not accomplishing that goal, so it's a failed plan. The chief engineer and plant manager simplified the bonus system to capture the main priorities of production: the demand for various products and the quality at which they're being produced.
Prioritize Issues and Address One at a Time [1:50:44]
In these situations, a leader has to be able to calmly take stock of the situation, decide what needs to happen first, and carry it out. This law of combat is called prioritize and execute. Leaders must be able to keep their eyes on the big picture in order to effectively prioritize.
Battle Story Keep a Clear Head to Prioritize Problems [1:53:23]
Babin successfully implemented prioritize and execute with the help of his team and led them all out to safety.
Business Application You Make More Progress Attacking Things in Succession Than All at Once [1:57:10]
Willink advises the CEO to determine the highest priority item and put the entire company's efforts on that one goal until it is reached or there is significant momentum, then decide on the next priority and do the same, and continue on this course until every initiative has been implemented.
Checklist Steps to Successfully Prioritize and Execute [1:59:18]
It's critical for a leader to clearly and decisively prioritize and execute when faced with curveballs and hurdles, but it can be difficult in the midst of a stressful, high-stake situation. Use these steps to effectively prioritize and execute in any situation.
Leaders Need to Delegate [2:01:07]
Decentralized command is a form of delegating that allows leaders to stay focused on their unique job, leading the overall team in pursuit of the larger goal by allowing each Junior leader and team member under them to carry out her own unique job. Senior leaders need to have an understanding of the larger goal and the plan to reach it.
Battle Story a Leader Can Successfully Lead if He Isn't Consumed in Smaller Details [2:04:39]
The fact that his Junior leaders were making the Tactical decisions and informing him of the changes freed up Willink to keep his focus on the overall mission.
Business Application Leaders Are Most Effective When Their Teams Are Not Too Small or Too Big [2:08:53]
Willink explains the principles of decentralized command, and the president decides to adjust his management structure to put each leader in charge of only five to six people, possibly by inserting some Junior management positions into larger branches.
Plan for Success [2:10:45]
A leader has to be able to develop a clear and well-thought-out plan. There are several steps to developing an effective plan: the mission, the course of action, minimize risks, the briefing, the debrief, and standardizing the planning process.
Battle Story Hope for the Best Plan for the Worst [2:15:37]
The new intelligence doesn't force Babin to change his plan because his planning is so thorough that he is already prepared for that possibility.
Business Application a Good Plan Empowers Employees [2:18:08]
The VP uses the workbook to develop a standardized planning process and presents it to his key leaders. The leaders perform a planning exercise, developing and revising plans using the SOP.
Checklist How to Make a Plan [2:22:41]
A successful initiative starts with a well-thought-out plan. Follow these steps to develop an effective plan for your team or business.
Lead Your Team and Your Boss [2:24:36]
A leader needs to coordinate the efforts of her team as well as her senior leaders in order to accomplish any goal. This is called leading up and down the chain of command and requires careful balance of your role as both a leader and a subordinate, effective communication, and extreme ownership.
Battle Story Leaders Interpret Information to Their Teams and Their Bosses [2:28:52]
As a leader, he should have kept a better sense of the big picture and in turn imparted that to his team.
Leading Up the Chain of Command [2:31:03]
Instead of blaming the officer for his lack of understanding, Babin and Willink can make a point of providing all the information he'll need to approve their missions and allow them to move forward. They need to lead up the chain of command.
Business Application Don't Resent Your Superiors Help Them Help You [2:33:20]
The field manager takes the advice to heart. He finds out what kind of information the corporate Executives specifically need, goes above and beyond to provide them with that information, and even hosts them for a field visit to see his team in action.
Exercise Help Your Boss Give You What You Need [2:35:12]
Although sometimes it feels like your boss is creating hurdles for you to do your job, extreme ownership requires you to analyze what you can do to break down that barrier.
An Imperfect Decision is Better Than None [2:36:52]
Part of a leader's responsibility is to lead her team courageously and decisively no matter what stress and confusion is happening around her. Leaders can't afford to waste time with too much deliberation, waiting on further research, or hoping to reach the absolute right solution.
Battle Story When You Don't Have All the Facts Rely on Logic and Not Emotion [2:38:30]
With only limited information available, unable to positively identify the Target and knowing that friendly forces are nearby, Babin has to make the best decision he can based on logic and not emotion.
Business Application Sometimes Your Only Choice is the Lesser of Two Evils [2:42:01]
Willink suggests Darla fire both Eduardo and Nigel. Darla and Jim agree with Babin and Willink's reasoning, discuss the plan with her lead developer, who wholeheartedly agrees, and immediately suggests candidates from each team who could step into the senior engineer position.
Leadership Requires Careful Balance [2:46:13]
As they navigate challenging situations, leaders must constantly keep a careful balance of seemingly opposite forces. When a leader struggles or is ineffective, it is typically a sign that she has veered too far to either side of one of these dichotomies.
Exercise Discipline to Create Freedom [2:53:34]
It seems counterintuitive that exercising discipline in turn gives you freedom, but as with all of the dichotomies described above, this requires balance.
Battle Story Creating Order Out of Chaos [2:55:35]
With everyone assigned a task under the new discipline system, all the work can be done simultaneously, and the team can accomplish the task much more efficiently.
Business Application No One is More Important Than the Team [2:59:13]
Having the discipline to make the hard decision to shut down the electrical division gave Andy the freedom to put his energy and resources into more profitable departments.
