Extreme Ownership - by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Date finished 30 Jul 2020

I really like the concept of Extreme Ownership; a leader owns everything in their world, “there is no-one else to blame”. It’s written by two ex U.S. Navy SEAL officers who served in Iraq. Each leadership principle is given along with examples from their time in combat, as well as what they’ve seen whilst consulting in industry. All the principles in the book are important, however some of the chapters are better than others; in terms of the combat story, principle and business story pattern each follows. In particular “no bad teams, only bad leaders” was standout for me. It’s definitely something I’ll use and recommend to others. To borrow a line from the book, what’s in there is simple, but it isn’t easy. A must read for leaders of any rank.

The big idea. What, so what, now what?

• Extreme ownership is owning everything in your world. This means there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. To be a great leader, you must understand the mission and communicate it effectively; empower your people to make decisions and at the same time ensure they’re clear on boundaries and direction (it’s your responsibility); be confident to inspire confidence, but not cocky; be decisive, using your experience and the information at hand in uncertainty; make sure priority is clear, and that there’s a clear plan to execute along with contingencies.
• There is no-one else to blame. You need to own everything, lead from the front and figure out a way to win.
• Set the example, own it.

My notes

• Leadership and teamwork concepts…are simple but not easy. They require dedication and discipline over time to master and become effective leaders.
• “Simple, not easy” - a phrase often used to describe jiu-jitsu, can also describe Scrum and Kettlebell Simple & Sinister #quote #simplicity

• Extreme Ownership: Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no-one else to blame

  • set asside ego
  • attack weaknesses
  • consistently work to build a better and more effective team
  • not take credit for his team’s successes but bestows the honour upon his subordinate leaders and team members
  • expects the same example from junior leaders
    • People see Extreme ownership in their leaders, and as a result emulate extreme ownership throughout the chain of command down to the most junior personnel.
  • accept responsibility for failures #responsibility #failure
    • Good SEAL leaders took ownership of failures, sought guidance on how to improve, figured out a way to overcome challenges. The best checked their egos, accepted blame, sought constructive criticism, took detailed notes for improvement.
    • Bad leaders blaming others - the attitude is picked up by subordinates who follow suit.
  • The direct responsibility of a leader includes getting people to listen, support, and execute plans.
  • Take ownership of them
  • Develop a plan to win
  • The leader takes full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.
  • If the individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor the underperformer. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others that can get the job done. It is all on the leader.

• No bad teams, only bad leaders

  • Hackworth, in About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior: American mentors who fought in WWII stated “There are no bad units, only bad officers”.
  • a difficult concept accept.
  • crucial to fully understand and implement to enable them to most effectively lead a high performing team.
  • Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance, or doesn’t.
    • On the SEAL boat crew, team 2 were killing it. Team 6 were failing. Swapping the leaders, team 6 turned it around and took the lead. Team 2 came second (extreme ownership is contagious).
  • Lead from the front, from the most difficult position.
    • “I figured out that I had to put myself in the most difficult position at the front of the boat to lead”.p49.
  • Focus on something immediate. Then the next.
    • ”..more effective to focus their efforts not on the days to come or the far-distant finish line they couldn’t yet see, but instead on a physical goal immediately in front of them - the bead marker, landmark, or road sign..”
  • It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate
    • If substandard performance is accepted, and no-one held accountable - poor performance becomes the new standard.
    • Leaders must enforce standards.
  • A leader must pull together different elements within the team to support one another, with all focused on how to best accomplish the mission
  • Every team must have junior leaders ready to step up
    • ready to temporarily take on the roles and responsibilities of their immediate bosses.
  • Leaders should never be satisfied
    • always strive to improve and build that mind-set into the team.
  • Bad leaders make excuses. Good leaders figure out a way to get it done and win.
    • CTO wouldn’t accept responsibility. All excuses.
    • “Tortured Genius” - accepts zero responsibility for mistakes, makes excuses, blames everyone else for failings. In their mind the rest of the world can’t see or appreciate the genius in what they are doing. An individual with this mind-set can have a catastrophic effect on a team’s performance.

• Believe: You must understand the mission, how things fit together, or ask why until you do

  • Actions and words reflect belief.
  • Detach from the immediate tactical mission and understand how it fits into strategic goals.
  • It is he responsibility of the subordinate leader to reach out and ask if they do not understand.
    • People don’t ask often because they’re scared to look stupid.
      • but look even more stupid trying to explain a mission or strategy you don’t understand or believe in.
    • Up to you to ask questions until you understand how and why those decisions are being made.

• Check the Ego #criticism

  • Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism.
  • Everyone has an ego.
  • Be confident, not cocky. Never get complacent.
    • Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team. #ego
      • Put your ego in check by taking the blame, accepting responsibility. Will take others off their guard.

• Cover and move: #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.
    • not compete with one another, blame will develop
    • Explain what you need from others and why. #teamwork
    • Ask them what you can do to help them get you what you need.
  • Make them part of the team.
  • Departments and groups must
    • break down silos
    • depend on each other
    • understand who depends on them
  • Leaders: continually keep perspective on the strategic mission and remind the team that they are part of the greater team and the strategic mission is paramount

• Keep things simple

  • Plans and orders must be communicated in a way that is simple, clear, and concise. You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator understands.
    • Combat has inherent layers of complexities. Simplifying is critical to success.
    • When something goes wrong, and it eventually does - complex plans add to confusion, which can compound into disaster. No mission ever goes according to plan, there are simply too many variables to deal with. This is where simplicity is key. If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing.
    • Example: Simplification of worker bonuses plan in a factory. Before, hugely complex, no-one understood it to drive their behaviour. After, simple and they could actually work to it.

• Prioritise and execute

  • In complex situations a leader must remain calm and make the best decisions possible. To do this you must prioritise and execute.
  • Through careful contingency planning a leader can anticipate challenges that could arise during execution and map out an effective response to those challenges before they happen.
    • If the team has been briefed and understands what actions to take through such likely contingencies, the team can rapidly execute when those problems arise, even without specific direction.
  • To implement prioritise and execute, a leader must:
    • evaluate the highest priority item.
    • lay out in simple, clear, and concise terms the highest priority effort for your team.
    • develop and determine a solution, seek input from key leaders and from the team where possible.
    • direct the execution of that solution, focusing all efforts and resources toward this priority task.
    • move on to the next highest priority problem. Repeat.
    • when priorities shift within the team, pass situational awareness both up and down the chain.
    • don’t let the focus on one priority cause target fixation. Maintain the ability to see the other problems developing and rapidly shift as needed.

• Decentralised command

  • Humans aren’t capable of managing more than 6 to 10 people.
  • Break teams down into 4/5 operators with a clearly designated leader.
  • The leader must:
    • understand the overall mission - the Commander’s Intent
      • WHAT IT IS AND WHY THEY ARE DOING IT
        • if they don’t understand, they must ask their boss to clarify why.
        • purpose of the mission, how it ties to strategic goals
    • be empowered to make decisions on key tasks to accomplish the mission
      • must understand what is within their decision making authority
    • communicate with sr leaders to recommend decisions outside their authority and pass critical information up the chain.
    • Tell higher authority what they plan to do, rather than ask what to do
    • Sr leaders must constantly communicate, push information down - situational awareness
  • “Battlefield aloofness” - leaders who are far removed from the frontline become ineffective - appearance of control but no idea of what their teams are doing and can’t effectively direct them.
  • Understanding proper positioning as a leader is a key component of decentralised command
  • Simplicity is important - decentralised command required simple, clear and concise orders
    • give clear guidance and set distinct boundaries.

• Plan

  • “Mission planning was all about: never taking anything for granted, preparing for likely contingencies, and maximising the chance of a mission success while minimising the risk to the troops executing the operation.
  • Iraqi kid hostage rescue example given. IEDs and bunkered machine guns intel comes in last minute. No need to replan as already accounted for and mitigated this situation. Good planning.
  • Planning processes should be standardised so that other departments, and supporting assets outside the company, can understand and use the same format and terminology. This will ensure the highest level of performance and give the team the greatest chance to accomplish the mission and win.
    • Must be repeatable and guide users with a checklist of all the important things they need to think about.
  • Analyse the mission
    • Understand the overall mission, Commander’s intent, and endstate (the goal)
    • Identify and state your own commander’s intent, and endstate for the specific mission.
    • Do this for the lowest common denominator - the most junior people must be able to understand it
    • A broad and ambiguous mission results in lack of focus, ineffective execution, and mission creep. #scope creep
    • The mission must explain the overall purpose and desired results, or “end state” of the operation
  • Identify personnel, assets, resources and timeline available
  • Decentralise the planning process
    • Empower key leaders within the team to analyse possible courses of action.
  • Determine a specific course of action
    • Lean towards the simplest course
    • Focus efforts on the best course of action
  • Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action
  • Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation
  • Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible
  • Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders
    • stand back and be the tactical genious
    • standing back gives you another view, which allows you to spot issues, and makes you look like a tactical genius
  • Continually check and question the plan against emerging information to ensure it still fits the situation
  • Brief the plan to all participants and supporting assets
    • Emphasize Commander’s Intent
    • Ask questions and engage in discussion and interaction with team to ensure they understand.
    • “it was critical that we all understood the plan, how and when to communicate and what to do if and when things went wrong”.
  • Conduct post-operatonal debrief after execution
    • Analyse lessons learned and implement them in future planning

• Leading up and down the chain

  • Leading down the chain
    • Leaders must routinely communicate with their team members to help them understand their role in the mission and how it impacts the company’s strategic goals
    • Stepping out of the office, fact to face conversations, observing workers in action, understand their challenges, read them into the Commander’s Intent
    • If they aren’t doing what you need them to do, you must figure out a way to better communicate it to them in terms that are simple, clear, concise, so that they understand.
  • Leading up the chain
    • A leader must push situational awareness up the chain of command.
    • Takes more savvy and skill than leading down the chain, no positional authority
      • use influence, experience, knowledge, communication, and maintain the highest professionalism.
    • One of the most important jobs of any leader is to support your own boss.
      • Leadership must always present a united front to the troops
        • public display of discontent or disagreement undermines the authority of leaders at all levels
        • if you don’t understand - you must ask questions up the chain
      • Once the debate over a particular course of action is over and the boss has made a decision, even if that decision is one you argued against, you must execute the plan as if it were your own.
      • If your leader isn’t giving you the support you need, don’t blame them, instead reexamine what you can do to better clarify, educate, influence, or convince that person to give you what you need in order to win.
    • Take responsibility for leading everyone in your world, superiors and subordinates alike.
    • If someone isn’t doing what you need them to do, look in the mirror first and determine what you can do to better enable this.
    • Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.

• Decisiveness amid uncertainty

  • Critical for leaders. Make the best decisions based on the immediate information available.
    • example of sniper mission in Iraq. Shadow in building, unsure if it’s an enemy. Army commanded wants them to take the shot. Despite pressure - based on the info, uncertainty and possible outcomes the Seal Commander decides not to take the shot. It was the right call as friendlies in the building.
  • No 100% right solution. Picture is never complete. Leaders must be comfortable with this and be able to make decisions promptly, then be ready to adjust those decisions quickly bases on evolving situations and new information.
  • Intelligence gathering and research are important, but must be employed with realistic expectations and not impede swift decision making that’s often the difference between victory and defeat.
  • Waiting for 100% certainty leads to
    • delay
    • indecision
    • inability to execute
  • Leaders must make an educated guess based on previous experience, knowledge of how the enemy operates, likely outcomes, whatever intel is available at the immediate moment.
  • A leader’s default setting should be aggressive, proactive rather than reactive.
    • critical to the success of any team - instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.

• Discipline Equals Freedom

  • Discipline gives you freedom. Getting up early gives you more time, you get an advantage, you have freedom. Executing with discipline means we do better, save time, have efficiency, giving freedom.
  • The dichotomy of leadership
    • A good leader must be:
      • confident but not cocky
      • courageous but not foolhardy
      • competitive but a gracious loser
      • strong but have endurance
      • a leader and a follower
      • humble but not passive
      • aggressive but not overbearing
      • calm but not robotic; logical but not devoid of emotions
      • quiet but not silent
      • close with the troops but not so close that one becomes more important than another or more important than the good of the team; not so close that they forget who is in charge.
      • able to execute Extreme Ownership while exercising Decentralised Command
      • A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove. The team understands they are in charge, nothing to prove. But the leader has to develop trust and confidence in judgement, so everything to prove.