extreme ownership table of contents extreme ownership table of contents

They killed one of our Iraqi soldiers when we entered the building and wounded a few more. With that in mind, our SEALs had engaged the man with the AK-47, thinking they were under attack. I nodded at my senior enlisted SEAL, who nodded back, and we moved across the street toward the enemy-infested house. I was the leader. As we monitored the radio, we heard the U.S. advisors with one of the Iraqi Army elements in advance of the rest report they were engaged in a fierce firefight and requested the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) for help. In the mayhem, they hadn't reported their exact location, but I knew it would be close to the point where I was standing, close to the building the Marine gunny had just pointed to. For this operation, we had four separate elements of SEALs in various sectors of this violent, war-torn city: two SEAL sniper teams with U.S. Army scout snipers and a contingent of Iraqi soldiers, and another element of SEALs embedded with Iraqi soldiers and their U.S. Army combat advisors assigned to clear an entire sector building by building. My e-mail in-box was full. WebExtreme Ownership is a book about a set of leadership principles learned, honed, and perfected in a time of war by a small group of Navy SEALs. The building is clear, I told him.Roger that, Sir, he replied, looking surprised as he quickly reported it on the radio.Wheres the captain? I asked, wanting to find the U.S. Army company commander.Upstairs, here, he replied motioning toward the building we were in front of.I walked upstairs and found the company commander hunkered down on the roof of a building. "Roger that, Sir," he replied, looking surprised as he quickly reported it on the radio. Marc Andreessen, Macmillan Code of Ethics for Business Partners. Riveting, engaging, and free from the usual clich platitudes, this book is strikingly impactful and will dramatically improve leaders of all types. Amy Brandt Schumacher, entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropistExtreme Ownership provides huge value for leaders at all levels. But there were so many factors, and I couldnt figure it out.Finally, the CO, the CMC, and the investigating officer arrived at our base. They led SEALs in the fight through the hell that was the Battle of Ramadi. For any team organization to win and achieve big results. In the gunnys mind, for us to even approach that place was pretty much suicidal. Finally, I took a deep breath and said, There is only one person to blame for this: me. New technology advancements have taken some time to work through. Locations of friendly forces had not been reported. he asked. We then proceeded to go through the entire operation, piece by piece, identifying everything that happened and what we could do going forward to prevent it from happening again.Looking back, it is clear that, despite what happened, the full ownership I took of the situation actually increased the trust my commanding officer and master chief had in me. Minutes later, over the radio net, one of my SEAL sniper teams called for the "heavy QRF," a section (meaning two) of U.S. M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks that could bring the thunder with their 120mm main guns and machine guns. There was some problem, some piece that I hadn't identified, and it made me feel like the truth wasn't coming out. As we debriefed, it was obvious there were some serious mistakes made by many individuals both during the planning phase and on the battlefield during execution. The VP was extremely smart and incredibly knowledgeable about the business. They just didnt execute.But he hadnt led them, at least not effectively. The CO sat in the front row. Required reading for many of the most successful organizations, it has become an integral part of the official leadership training programs for scores of business teams, military units, and first responders. They all blamed everyone else, and inevitably the team was ineffective and unable to properly execute a plan.Continuing, I told the VP, In those situations, you ended up with a unit that never felt they were to blame for anything. When they did, we, the training cadre, explained how to avoid them.But more important, the commanders in training could learn what I had learned about leadership. An inspiring and page-turning read, the leadership lessons are easy to digest and implement. What the hell?All the good things I had done and the solid reputation I had worked hard to establish in my career as a SEAL were now meaningless. I had to take complete ownership of what went wrong. He felt in many ways that his knowledge exceeded that of many members of the boardand he was probably right. You own everything in your world. The board of directors had approved the plan the previous year and thought it could decrease production costs. Lets get them out of here, replied the chief.An armored personnel carrier (APC)3 had arrived with the heavy QRF and was sitting out front. Now the Abrams tank had its huge main gun trained on the building, preparing to reduce it to rubble and kill everyone inside. the SEAL chief asked with utter disbelief. Now, compare that to the commander who came in and took the blame. That might be a temporary solution for a simple task. Webxtreme Ownership is the overarching concept to the principles of leadership that are introduced throughout the book. Details of U.S. and Iraqi troops wounded or killed came in from different sectors. The enemy insurgent fighters called themselves mujahideen, Arabic for "those engaged in jihad," which we shortened for expediency. Tough as nails and ready for more, he stayed with me, unfazed by what had happened and ready for whatever came next. There is no one to blame but me. The SEALs in the troop, who did not expect me to take the blame, respected the fact that I had taken full responsibility for everything that had happened. If youre looking for practical information to answer all your How?, Do you want to build a budget that actually works for you? Poignant, powerful, practical. The QRF Humvees had put over 150 rounds from a .50-caliber heavy machine gun into it and many more smaller caliber rounds from their rifles and light machines. Im not out there in the field with them. I asked the U.S. Army company commander we were with to follow the tanks in, and he complied.Our Humvee rolled to a stop just behind one of the Abrams tanks, its huge main gun pointed directly at a building and ready to engage. You have to own it.The VP was not yet convinced.If one of your manufacturing managers came to you and said, My team is failing, what would your response be? Introduction: Extreme Ownership is the practice of owning everything in your world, to an extreme degree. Ive always been in leadership positions.That might be one of the issues: in your mind you are doing everything right. They looked more rattled than any human beings I had ever seen. As the senior man, I am responsible for every action that takes place on the battlefield. We knew how hard the training missions were because we had designed them.In virtually every case, the SEAL troops and platoons that didnt perform well had leaders who blamed everyone and everything elsetheir troops, their subordinate leaders, or the scenario. This article is a summary of the 12 core principles from the book Extreme Ownership by Jacko Willink and Leif Babin. You will come out the other side stronger than ever before, I concluded.At the board meeting, the VP did just that. The squads split up on a night patrol in the jungle, lost their bearings, and when they bumped into each other again in the darkness, they mistook each other for enemy and opened up with gunfire. I had a gut feeling that something was wrong. It is all on the leader.As individuals, we often attribute the success of others to luck or circumstances and make excuses for our own failures and the failures of our team. It was also a reality. The foundation of good leadership starts within, and a leader needs the right attitude to implement the strategies in Part II. The Iraqi Army had adjusted their plan but had not told us. 2 To successfully execute your mission, understand its importance. All they did was make excuses and ultimately never made the adjustments necessary to fix problems. The entire place was crawling with muj (pronounced "mooj"), as American forces called them. We shot one of them and they attackedhard-core. I asked, needing to know his status and that of his men. I opened an e-mail from my commanding officer (CO) that went straight to the point. In total, about three hundred U.S. and Iraqi troops friendly forces were operating in this dangerous and hotly contested neighborhood of eastern Ramadi known as the Ma'laab District. The book Extreme Ownership argues that to be a successful leader, one must take complete responsibility for their team. When we completed the last mission of the day, I went to the battalion tactical operations center where I had my field computer set up to receive e-mail from higher headquarters. A must read for every leader. Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and chairman, Fox Television StationsLeif and Jocko are the real deal. In his New York Times best-selling book, Extreme Ownership How US Navy Seals Lead and Win, retired Navy Seal turned author, speaker, podcaster, and leadership consultant, Jocko Willink, recounts an ill-fated operation he led in Iraq in 2006 that resulted in a disastrous friendly forces firefight, and the decision he made in the In the mayhem, they hadnt reported their exact location, but I knew it would be close to the point where I was standing, close to the building the Marine gunny had just pointed to. If one of my machine gunners engaged targets outside his field of fire, then I had not ensured he understood where his field of fire was. And this is a lesson for you: if you reengage on this task, if you do a stern self-assessment of how you lead and what you can do better, the outcome will be different. Having fought in Ramadi for an extended period of time, they understood something we SEALs did not: blue-on-blue was a risk that had to be mitigated as much as possible in an urban environment, but that risk could not be eliminated. The U.S. Marine ANGLICO team had come very close to directing airstrikes on the house our SEALs were holed up in. When SEAL leaders were placed in worst-case-scenario training situations, it was almost always the leaders attitudes that determined whether their SEAL units would ultimately succeed or fail. That is what a leader doeseven if it means getting fired. That is what a leader does even if it means getting fired. I blamed me.I continued: As the commander, everything that happened on the battlefield was my responsibility. he shouted with excitement. In the early morning darkness, our SEAL sniper element had seen the silhouette of a man armed with an AK-47 creep into their compound. They see Extreme Ownership in their leaders, and, as a result, they emulate Extreme Ownership throughout the chain of command down to the most junior personnel. You Save 20%. This is the SEAL Leadership book we have been waiting for. Each time his plant managers and other key leaders were presented with the rollout plan, they pushed back with concerns: the employees wouldnt make enough money; they would leave for jobs with higher base salaries that didnt require minimum standards; recruiters would capitalize on the change and pull skilled workers away. But doing just that is an absolute necessity to learning, growing as a leader, and improving a teams performance.Extreme Ownership requires leaders to look at an organizations problems through the objective lens of reality, without emotional attachments to agendas or plans. If anyone was to be blamed and fired for what happened, let it be me.A few minutes later, I walked into the platoon space where everyone was gathered to debrief. I felt sick. My mind was racing. But they quickly got it together, boarded the APC, and left for the nearby U.S. forward operating base except the SEAL chief. But no one is infallible. That's when I had arrived on the scene. I was in charge and I was responsible. We'd achieve more if we chased the dream instead of, New York Times bestselling author Simon Sinek is an unshakable optimist and he wants to share that optimism. So how am I supposed to execute it? Pushing open the heavy armored door of my vehicle, I stepped out onto the street. Willink and Babin returned home from deployment and instituted SEAL leadership training to pass on their harsh lessons of self-discipline, mental toughness and self-defense learned in combat to help forge the next generation of SEAL leaders. They blamed the SEAL training instructor staff; they blamed inadequate equipment or the experience level of their men. Table of Contents Preface Introduction Section I: Winning the War Within Chapter 1: Extreme Ownership Chapter 2: No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders Chapter 3: Believe Chapter 4: Check the Ego Section II: Laws of Combat Chapter 5: Cover and Move Chapter 6: Simple Chapter 7: Prioritize and Execute Chapter 8: Decentralized Command To drive the point home, I told him, You cant make people listen to you. As we debriefed, it was obvious there were some serious mistakes made by many individuals both during the planning phase and on the battlefield during execution. And the board wanted to find out why. No doubt, as an outstanding leader himself, he felt somewhat responsible. WebTo check out some of my other Book Notes, Click Here. Detailing the resilient mindset and total focus principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult combat missions, Extreme Ownership demonstrates how to apply them to any team or organization, in any leadership environment. Despite the many successful combat operations I had led, I was now the commander of a unit that had committed the SEAL mortal sin.A day passed as I waited for the arrival of the investigating officer, our CO, and command master chief (CMC), the senior enlisted SEAL at the command. Everything. So, yes, there are a host of other reasons.Those all may be factors. They surmised it would also inhibit their ability to handle rush-order deliveries. It starts with the leader. That sniper team had abandoned the location they had originally planned to use and were in the process of relocating to a new building when all the shooting started. But something didn't add up. He looked at me as if I were completely crazy. As directed, I put together a brief, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with timelines and depictions of the movements of friendly units on a map of the area. 3 Treat your allies as a support network, not as competition. Search metadata Search text contents Search TV news captions Search radio transcripts Search archived web sites Advanced Search. I'm honored to have served with them. Extreme Ownership provides huge value for leaders at all levels. The QRF Humvees had put over 150 rounds from a .50-caliber heavy machine gun into it and many more smaller caliber rounds from their rifles and light machines. Who was at fault? Blue-on-blue friendly fire, fratricide the worst thing that could happen. "It was a blue-on-blue," I said to him. Thats the key difference. I told him that bluntly.Im saying exactly what you told me to say, the VP retorted. The specific location of the sniper team in question had not been passed on to other units. They were going to drop their gear, grab some food at the chow hall, and then we would bring everyone together to debrief the event. Poor performance and mission failure were the result.The best-performing SEAL units had leaders who accepted responsibility for everything. Timelines were pushed without clarification. How can you best get your team to most effectively execute the plan in order to accomplish the mission? I continued. I should have passed our position sooner.Wrong, I responded. "Everyone OK?" I looked through my notes again, trying to place the blame. Would you blame their team? I asked.No, the VP admitted.I explained that as the officer in charge of training for the West Coast SEAL Teams, we put SEAL units through highly demanding scenarios to get them ready for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win. While some commanders took full responsibility for blue-on-blue, others blamed their subordinates for simulated fratricide incidents in training. If a supporting unit didnt do what we needed it to do, then I hadnt given clear instructions. And that is exactly what you need to tell the board.Tell the board that? It outlined the critical failures that had turned the mission into a nightmare and cost the life of one Iraqi soldier, wounded several more, and, but for a true miracle, could have cost several of our SEALs their lives.But something was missing. During the debrief after a training mission, those good SEAL leaders took ownership of failures, sought guidance on how to improve, and figured out a way to overcome challenges on the next iteration. Current price is $23.99, Original price is $29.99. 4 Remain effective under pressure by setting clear priorities and acting upon them. It read: "SHUT DOWN. Are you serious? the VP asked in disbelief. Following them were reports of enemy fighters killed. Let's get them out of here," replied the chief. Yes, they sound like excuses. It is just impossible. They exhibited Extreme Ownership, and as a result, their SEAL platoons and task units dominated.When a bad SEAL leader walked into a debrief and blamed everyone else, that attitude was picked up by subordinates and team members, who then followed suit. Chapter 7: Prioritize and Execute. This includes taking ownership of failures when they occur and then developing a plan to win. You have to lead them.I did lead them, the VP protested. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. The operation continued. I hadnt been controlling the rogue element of Iraqis that entered the compound. Marc Andreessen. The list went on and on.Within Task Unit Bruisermy own SEAL troopsimilar mistakes had been made. What really didn't add up was that these Iraqi soldiers and their U.S. advisors shouldn't have arrived here for another couple of hours. I remembered what the gunny had just told me: one of their Iraqi soldiers had been shot when he entered the compound. Whoever they were, they had put up one hell of a fight. Beyond the literal fog of war impeding our vision, the figurative fog of war, often attributed to Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz,1 had descended upon us, and it was thick with confusion, inaccurate information, broken communications, and mayhem. Good leaders encourage communication and take time to explain, so every team member understands. That was the last X-Ray Platoon in the SEAL Teams. 00 $4.86 $4.86. The building he pointed to was riddled with bullet holes. No doubt, as an outstanding leader himself, he felt somewhat responsible. The list goes on. When a leader sets such an example and expects this from junior leaders within the team, the mindset develops into the teams culture at every level. The silence was deafening. Henceforth, the name was banished. A leader must be. I am the commander. I cant make them listen to me. The VPs statements gradually became less emphatic. It mandates that a leader set ego aside, accept responsibility for failures, attack weaknesses, and consistently work to build a better and more effective team. They knew it was a dynamic situation caused by a multitude of factors, but I owned them all.The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine conventional commanders took the debrief points as lessons learned and moved on. You know who gets all the blame for this? The entire group sat there in silence, including the CO, the CMC, and the investigating officer. This was urban combat, the most complex and difficult of all warfare, and it was simply impossible to conduct operations without some risk of blue-on-blue. Sent to the most violent battlefield in Iraq, Jocko Willink and Leif Babins SEAL task unit faced a seemingly impossible mission: help U.S. forces secure, New York Times-bestselling author Jocko Willink delivers a second powerful and empowering Way of the Warrior Kid book about finding your inner strength and being the best you can be, even in the face, Fifth grade was the worst year of Marcs life. Despite the tremendous blow to my reputation and to my ego, it was the right thing to dothe only thing to do. Then I assembled the list of everything that everyone had done wrong. But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerousyou cant make people do those things. It provides a powerful SEAL framework for action to lead teams in high-stakes environments. Who was to blame?I was brought on by the company to help provide leadership guidance and executive coaching to the companys vice president of manufacturing (VP). It means you are responsible for not just those tasks which you directly control, but for all those that affect whether or not your mission is successful. Preface Introduction Section I: Winning the War Within Chapter 1: Extreme Ownership Chapter 2: No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders Chapter 3: Believe Extreme Ownership provides huge value for leaders at all levels. Friendly fire was completely unacceptable in the SEAL Teams. Despite the many successful combat operations I had led, I was now the commander of a unit that had committed the SEAL mortal sin. One of my men was wounded. No matter what, I could never blame other people when a mission went wrong.The VP contemplated this. Its all about the mission. This particular QRF consisted of four U.S. Army armored Humvees, each mounted with an M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun, and a dozen or so U.S. They were looking for someone to blame, and most likely someone to "relieve" the military euphemism for someone to fire. THE INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Extreme Ownership comes a new and revolutionary approach to help leaders recognize and attain the leadership balance crucial to victory. Tough as nails and ready for more, he stayed with me, unfazed by what had happened and ready for whatever came next.I made my way back over to the Marine ANGLICO gunny. That was the last X-Ray Platoon in the SEAL Teams. So when things go wrong, instead of looking at yourself, you blame others. Plans were altered but notifications werent sent. The myriad of radio networks (or nets) used by the U.S. ground and air units exploded with chatter and incoming reports. WebThe Leader. The SEAL that had been woundedfragged in the face by a .50-caliber roundwas there, his face bandaged up.I stood before the group. This book made me a better leader and enabled my entire team step up our game! Jared Hamilton, founder and CEO, DrivingSales"One of the best books on leadership I've ever read and a tremendous war story book as well." I reviewed my brief again and again trying to figure out the missing piece, the single point of failure that had led to the incident. Web table of contents [ hide] video summaries of extreme ownership. But that didnt change the fact that he was the leader of a team that was failing its mission. Extreme Ownership is how great leaders take responsibility for every aspect of their team and its mission. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win. You are to blame. There must be a resolute belief. Combat, the most intense and dynamic environment imaginable, teaches the toughest leadership lessons, with absolutely everything at stake. What really didnt add up was that these Iraqi soldiers and their U.S. advisors shouldnt have arrived here for another couple of hours. But it starts here. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective. Blue-on-bluefriendly fire, fratricidethe worst thing that could happen. An Iraqi soldier was dead and others were wounded. There were real bad guys out there, and even as we spoke, sporadic gunfire could be heard all around as other elements engaged insurgents in the vicinity.