Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2015

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Foreword-Introduction

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3-Appendix

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Humility and the Practice of Extreme Ownership

The book’s title is its main theme, asserting that the most important part of a team is the leader and that the most important part of a leader’s outlook is to assume responsibility for everything that affects the success of a mission: “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” (30).

Every team member is vital, as are planning, equipment, and rehearsal; to be useful, these parts must be coordinated and unified. Without a leader who can manage this challenge, success is uncertain at best. Once a leader adopts Extreme Ownership, though, all the techniques of leadership become powerful, and success becomes vastly more likely.

If something goes wrong during the mission, it might seem reasonable to blame the person or thing that failed. This attitude leaves the mission at the mercy of circumstances. A leader who accepts total responsibility for all aspects of the project will take into account every possible failure scenario and work to minimize those risks. If something goes wrong anyway, that leader has a plan for working around the damage and progressing the mission.

Several techniques help leaders manifest Extreme Ownership. These include staying humble, inspiring self-discipline among team members, keeping the plan simple and explaining it clearly, making sure everyone understands and believes in the goal, delegating authority, executing the plan in an orderly manner, and keeping the momentum when obstacles arise.

The authors stress repeatedly the importance of humility in a leader. Though some leaders act as if the purpose of a team is to glorify them, this “can prevent a leader from conducting an honest, realistic assessment of his or her own performance and the performance of the team” (100). Successful leaders aren’t out to prove how wonderful they are, and their goal isn’t to be a hero or to find excuses if the mission fails. Their entire purpose is the success of the mission and its members; everything they do is dedicated to that goal.

Many of the book’s chapters take the focus off the leader’s own needs and shift it onto what the team needs to succeed. Chapter 2, “No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders,” puts responsibility squarely on the shoulders of leaders and takes away their excuses for failure. Chapter 4, “Check the Ego,” reminds leaders that real pride comes from team success. Chapter 8, “Decentralized Command,” shows how giving responsibility to others makes much better use of team members’ abilities than leaders holding all decisions to themselves.

Humility doesn’t mean timidity. Humble leaders are confident but not cocky, decisive but not arrogant. They can listen to their team’s questions and concerns, and they can delegate without feeling threatened; this greatly improves communication and team effectiveness.

When they assume responsibility for all aspects of a mission, good leaders stress the importance of team members and their needs, and they focus on the team’s overall purpose; these policies guide their teams toward victory. Ironically, by focusing on others, such leaders bring glory to their teams and themselves.

Cooperation on the Battlefield

In battle, a team must work as a harmonized unit. Infighting, ego competitions, protecting one’s turf, and punishing people who speak out or ask questions: All of these traits impede a team and its goals. Instead, a team focuses on cooperation and aims its fighting prowess not at itself but against the outside opponent.

In war and business, battles break out between opposing forces, and good team members have a competitive spirit and a strong desire to win. These traits, though, when aimed inward at other team members, can be destructive. Instead of getting caught up in arguments over who’s right, good leaders listen to both sides and find ways to integrate their concerns. This tends to defuse conflict and restore team cooperation.

Team members usually aren’t trying to sabotage a mission; knowing that, leaders find out what’s causing problems and, instead of choosing winners and losers, solve the problems so that the team as a whole will benefit. If team members fight over who gets credit, leaders re-focus those members’ efforts on the mission’s goals, since team success will generate plenty of credit for everyone.

Chief among the book’s methods for improving a team’s internal cooperation is “Decentralized Command,” described in Chapter 8. This system gives all leaders executive authority at their level of command. As long as junior leaders understand and believe in the mission purpose—the Commander’s Intent—and dedicate themselves to making decisions that support that purpose, their decisions in the field tend to be more effective than decisions handed down by leaders too distant from the fray to understand the situation.

Teams already have enough challenges with outside opponents; infighting only makes matters worse. Thus, a strong culture of cooperation, sustained by the leader’s commitment to solving disputes in ways that support everyone, will keep a team focused on the real mission.

Communication on the Battlefield

A key source of team cooperation is effective communication. Without it, members might not fully understand the mission, and their actions on the ground may undermine the team’s overall purpose. Good leaders make sure that members understand their purpose and how to coordinate with other team members.

The most important thing for a team to know is the general goal of a mission—the Commander’s Intent. This must be explained simply and clearly, and any questions and uncertainties must be addressed so that all team members are coordinated. A good leader devises a team goal that’s easy to grasp and execute. The explanation itself should be concise; more complex details can be handled by junior leaders.

A simple, clear goal can still get badly executed if team members misunderstand it or are unprepared for problems. For this reason, leaders must encourage questions and concerns, making sure those issues are resolved completely. They must know “not just what to do but why they are doing it” (183). If all team members thoroughly understand the mission, its reasons, and their role, they’ll be able to resolve problems that arise.

If leaders take on too much responsibility for the details of an operation, they can get trapped in minutiae and fail to issue commands on time. This can stall communication. To simplify things, leaders should have no more than four to six junior leaders who report to them. These subalterns tend to details while superiors focus on the big picture and issue easily executable commands. Lower-level leaders assume control over smaller matters, and their juniors become responsible for yet smaller details. This is another aspect of “Decentralized Command,” as explained in Chapter 8; it improves both cooperation and communication, making it one of the most powerful techniques in a leader’s arsenal.

Finally, the rules for communicating during an operation should be clear and orderly. Sometimes different team elements use different media—cell phones, landlines, walkie-talkies, or texting instead of email—and these must be closely coordinated to prevent confusion during execution.

Without strong lines of communication, an excellent plan can fall apart; with a thorough-going understanding by all members of their duties and contingency plans, a good plan can succeed.