Book Review | Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, follows two SEAL teams through the Battle of Ramadi, Iraq in 2006 and at the time, through some of the heaviest urban fighting American forced had seen since the Vietnam war. The book was born out of their leadership training that they ran after coming home and is based on one idea: that leaders own every outcome, including the failures.

Each chapter pairs a combat story with a leadership principle that can be carried and used in the corporate world. Using their own Laws of Combat (cover and move, simple, prioritise and execute, and decentralised command) both Willink and Babin share gripping stories from the frontline which touch on their mistakes more so than successes.

Now, the book is somewhat lengthy and can be repetitive, but they are blunt with the fact that when a team fails, the leader has to take ownership. So for any one looking for principles on leadership that doesn’t mind a few in-depth war stories, then this book is for you.

Favourite quotes from the book:

• On any team, in any organisation, 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. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them and develop a plan to win.
• Leadership is the most important thing on any battlefield; it is the single greatest factor in whether a team succeeds or fails. A leader must find a way to become effective and drive high performance within his or her team in order to win.
• As a leader, it doesn’t matter how well you feel you have presented the information or communicated an order, plan, tactic, or strategy. If your team doesn’t get it, you have not kept things simple and you have failed. You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands.

‍Link to Book

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