Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The lessons from the book are simple and listed below, however the book is more interesting than these notes because of the stories on which these principles were discovered.Extreme Ownership – fundamentally is about

Extreme Ownership requires leaders to look at an organisation’s problems through the objective lens of reality, without emotional attachment to agendas or plans. It mandates that a leader sets ego aside, accepts responsibility for failure, attack weaknesses and consistently works to build a better and more effective team. Such a leader does not take credit for the team’s success but bestows that honor upon its members. When a leader sets such an example and expects this from junior leaders within the team, the mindset develops into the team’s culture at every level. With Extreme Ownership, junior leaders take charge of their smaller teams and their piece of the mission. Efficiency and effectiveness increases exponentially and high-performance, winning teams are the result.

• Extreme Ownership – By leading and taking responsibility
• No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders – Bad leaders blame others and don’t succeed
• Believe in your mission – Truly understand why the mission is important
• Check the Ego – Ego stifles planning, advice, criticism… the worst ego is yours
• Cover and Move – The company wins, not the team. Support and work with others
• Simple – Keep things simple so everyone can understand, if its complex its forgotten
• Prioritise and Execute – If you try to take on everything you’ll fail at everything
• Decentralised Command – Grow leaders with teams of around four to six people
• Plan – Get the lowest levels to plan then brief at high level encouraging interaction
• Leading Up and Down the Chain of Command – Provide more visibility up & down
• Decisiveness amid Uncertainty – You will never have all the info but decide now
• Discipline Equals Freedom – Leadership is a balance, being disciplined gives space