Extreme Ownership: How US Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Published 2015
Extreme Ownership is a book on how leadership principles developed in the US Military can be applied to corporate life or even, claim the authors, personal situations. Willink and Babin were long-serving officers in a US Navy Seal Unit and have based most of the instruction they give in this book on their campaign in Iraq.
What is the book about?
As you might expect, the book is heavy on military references, terminology and situations. The whole thesis of the book is around “Extreme Ownership” meaning that the leader of the unit (or organisation) is ultimately responsible for every aspect of the success or failure of the team. “No excuses” is a constant refrain throughout the book, and the authors explain that while it is not expected that leaders do everything themselves – that’s not what extreme ownership means – it is expected that they are accountable for every aspect of the plan.
It can be our tendency as leaders to blame others if our communications or instructions are not understood. It’s their fault they don’t understand, right? Wrong! If the recipient doesn’t understand the message, it’s the fault of the sender for not conveying the message in a clear and appropriate manner. If another unit or department fails to carry out their part of the plan, that’s their fault, right? Wrong! It’s the leaders fault for not making sure the other team was fully briefed, clear on the plan and had acknowledged their role in it. The first chapter of the book explores this concept and the subsequent chapters delve into other aspects of leadership, as seen through the eyes of a Navy Seal. Chapter titles like, “No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders”, “ Check the Ego” and “Decisiveness and Uncertainty” give a clear indication of what you are going to find within their pages.
Each chapter has three sections; a military story that demonstrates the leadership dimension under discussion, a principles section and finally a section on how the principle applies to the business world. For the first couple of chapters, I found the military stories entertaining but, to be honest, they grew a bit tiresome as the book went on. There are only so many times you can read phrases like, “these men were the most elite soldiers ever in the history of the world”, or “he was the finest officer ever to have worn a uniform” etc. No doubt, these men were at the top of their game, in one of the most niche military units in the world, but I feel like the credibility has been established in the initial two or three chapters, so there I son need to keep repeating this.
Given that the readers of the book are more likely to be seeking guidance on leading in a business context, rather than assembling elite units of killing machines, I do think the balance of the aforementioned sections in each chapter could have been skewed a bit more towards the former. The military story exemplifying the desired behaviour usually takes up more than 50% of each chapter, with the principles and application to business sections being far shorter. The speed by which the businesses adopt the Extreme Ownership principles and turn their businesses around seems a little too easy. I would have liked a bit more time spent on this area. Of course, some condensing and summarising of these real-world scenarios is needed to keep the narrative compelling.
What are the key takeaways of the book?
Overall though, the key messages of the book did resonate with me, and I can see their application to how we lead in the corporate world. It’s easy in organisations to forget that we all ultimately have the same goal – to make our business successful. Politics and in-fighting are for sure a massive obstacle to getting this done. If certain deliverables are not under your direct control, how do you enable or help the owners of those outcomes be successful? Perhaps the answer does lie in some Navy Seal-like discipline, structure and leadership principles. Just don’t ask me to shoot anyone!
