Five Principles of Combat: Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, Decentralized Command
Leadership enables you to not only survive tough situations, but to win and gain victory
This books is about teamwork, not individual ability to lead people
Part 1: Winning the War Within
Extreme Ownership
Take ownership of everything that happens in your team, if you weren’t personally responsible for what transpired
Ex: commander of SEALs had to take take responsibility for blue-on-blue KIA
Taking full ownership actually increases trust people have in you
It’s very easy to blame people for not doing a proper job, but really, you could have done a better job monitoring your subordinates and making sure that they are doing what they are supposed to
It’s easy to blame things on circumstances that we cannot control, but taking ownership regardless allows a leader to learn key principles that will help them improve their team
Don’t take credit from subordinates, honor them
Simply put, stop making excuses. The worst SEAL teams were the ones led by people who consistently made excuses and blamed others for mistakes
The best part of Extreme Ownership is that subordinates will start to use it too as they are inspired by the leaders
No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders
Good example: SEAL training switched the leaders of the worst and best boat crews, worst boat crew bested the best boat crew
Leadership is the single greatest factor in a team’s performance. Leaders have to accept total responsibility of problems and develop solutions
It’s not about what you preach, it’s about what you tolerate. If you tolerate poor performance as a leader, then that’s the status quo. Important to uphold everyone to a high standard
Teams need to be ultrafocused on the mission to force them to work together
Leaders should constantly be looking at how to improve
Ex:// CTO of a major company would do everything to blame others on the failures of his team. CEO had to make a tough call and remove the CTO and replace one who was more of a leader
Believe
Example: SEALs had to work with Iraqi soldiers, which they didn’t like. However, when commander communicated the reason behind the command, they went with it and followed through
If you want to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, the leader has to be a true believer of the mission
If they don’t, then the leader will not take the necessary risks to surmount challenges
A leader must believe that they are part of something greater than themselves and should reflect that in words and actions to inspire their group
One of the most important skills is to separate your personal view of a tactical issue and relate to the broader strategic goals to understand why you should care. Don’t leave a stone unturned as you seek out the why
It is crucial for the troops to understand the mission as well, it makes them perform
Ex:// middle managers didn’t understand why CEO was making a new compensation plan and were getting annoyed. Understood that it was on them to ask for the why
Check the Ego
Example: ego of new task group prevented them from working well with SEALs and other teams so they had to leave to prevent people from getting hurt
Ego creates a cloud that makes it difficult to plan, take good advice, accept criticsm and provide impartial feedback for the team
Team’s cannot be complacent
When dealing with problems, do not try to have a clash of egos. Accept blame and fault and try to figure out how the team can move forward from it
Example: how the supervisor dealt with a superintendent and overstepped his bounds. Made sure to own the situation, move forward and explain the big picture (Hanlon’s Razor)
Part 2: The Laws of Combat
Cover and Move
Example: lack of cover and move as one overwatch group moved out meant that they almost died when enemies launched at them
Cover and Move: fundamental tactic that describes teamwork. Individual teams should advance while having support of other teams
Departments have to break down silos and communicate with each other
You don’t want internal team competition and no blaming individuals or teams
Example: production manager realizes that their subsidiary, while not performing well, needs to work with them to get their end goal
Simplify
Example: MiTT wanted to do a patrol across three army groups, but commander forced to simplify. Realized how difficult it is to do a complex patrol when they could barely do a simple patrol without being attacked
Keeping things simple prevents problems from spiralling into disasters
Everyone in the plan must know their part to play and why they are doing it; if they don’t understand, the plan is too complex. You should aim for the lowest common denominator
Leader should encourage feedback if people don’t understand. You should raise concerns
Example: complex bonus structure meant that factory workers had no idea how to get productive. When the managers simplified, productivity immediately went up
Prioritize and Execute
Example: commander was stuck with platoon in tough situation → IED blocking exit, soldier injured by falling from a building, IED about to blow up, no head count, enemies could easily kill them…managed to solve by simply prioritizing most important and working the way through
It’s very easy to get overwhelmed as issues snowball and compound. SEALs taught to relax, look around, prioritize and execute
Contingency planning helps a lot by staying ahead of the curve
Leaders must be able to disengage with the short term and think about the long-term strategic goals as they prioritize issues
Teams should know when priorities have shifted so that they can respond accordingly
Should also be willing to change priorities if new problems occur
Example: pharma CEO has numerous intiatives to help improve company performance, but that would have resulted in employees who were confused and unable to make meaningful progress. Instead decided to prioritize sales anf focus in
Decentralized Command
Example: how they used Decentralized command to ensure that the commander is not overwhelmed but can actually coordinate troops and companies
Human beings are generally incapable of managing more than 10 people, so teams should be broken down into groups of 4-5 with commanders who understand the mission
This also means that junior leaders should understand what is in their purview of making decisions and should be responsible for bring news of things outside of purview to their boss
Junior leaders should know that they have the full trust and support of their seniors
Cannot allow leaders to take too much or too little (battlefield aloofness), so determining the right amount of control for leaders is imperative
Example: president realizes that frontline employees cannot manage themselves well since they have varying sizes of teams
Sustaining Victory
Plan
Example: SEALs meticulously plan for hostage rescue scenario and were able to account for new intel because they had already made contingencies for it
The first and most important step is establishing mission directives, making it clear what the action is about and what is the end goal
Different courses of action should be explored before settling in on one and gather detailed information to facilitate the development of a thorough plan
Should allow subordinates to help out with plan → leads to innovative solutions, but the senior leaders should always maintain strategic thinking and not get bogged down in details
Should brief the entire team in a simple way and allow for discussion
Develop contingency plans to deal with risk
Always have a post-op debrief: what went right, what went wrong, how do we adapt?
Example: regional manager with plan helped improve performance on front lines
Leading Up and Down the Chain of Command
Example: troops don’t fully realize why they are partaking in certain operations or taking on so much risk. Those who are negative usually don’t understand the big picture or how the tactics form the strategy
Since people are solely focused on their jobs, it becomes hard to understand why we are doing certain things. It is up to the commander to make sure that strategic priorities are laid out clearly
Requires commanders to step out of the office and talk to the front-line
Example: commanding officers wanted to understand the details of certain operations. Commanders decided to ‘lead up the chain’ by providing more detailed reports, invited COs to help in operations etc.
Use Hanlon’s law when it comes to dealing with superiors. They don’t know the ground situation and it is our responsibility to provide them with that information. They are not trying to be annoying, they just need to understand the situation better
Extreme ownership applies to dealing with superiors as well. If they aren’t performing to your standard, you should improve and communicate.
Leading up the chain requires savviness and communication chops. Fundmentally, you need to understand that the most important part is to support your boss
Execute your boss’s plan as if it was your own
Example: field manager changed tactics with corporate once he understood the concepts of leading up the chain, inviting corporate to a field visit.
Decisiveness Amid Uncertainty
Example: Chris Kyle almost shot at friendlies but took action to not shoot despite ground commander pleading. Almost did because of confusing maps
Leaders have to be willing to make tough calls in the face of incomplete information and change them in the face of changing situations. There is no 100% correct solution
Being indecisive creates chaos in the team and can really create bad moves
Example: Company decides to fire two senior devs amid bickering despite lack of perfect information on who is saying the truth. Recognizes that infighting cannot exist in an organization and is a cancer
Discipline Equals Freedom - The Dichotomy of Leadership
Example: having an extremely organized and disciplined process for collecting evidence in houses allowed team to have more time doing more important things while also improving the quality of evidence
Discipline is incredibly important → makes you a better person and more able to handle the challenges of the day
The more discipline a team has, the more freedom they have to exercise Decentralized Leadership or take action on things
However, there is a fine line: too much discipline means that some teams cannot make good decisions because they need a process for everything
Dichotomies:
A leader must lead but also be willing to follow if someone knows better
A leader should be aggresive but not overbearing: encourage feedback
A leader must be calm but not robotic: showing too much emotion will take away respect, but you don’t want to be a robot to your peers
A leader must be confident but never cocky: cockiness allows complacency
A leader must be brave but not foolhard: must be willing to accept risk, but don’t be reckless
A leader must have a competitive spirit but also gracious losers: push the team to perform at the highest levels, but should always place mission success over personal success
A leader must be attentive to details but not obessessed: should not be bogged down in minutia of problem
A leader should be strong but also have endurance (mental and physical): should be able to perform at highest level but also pace to prevent team from burning out
Leaders should be humble but not passive, quiet but not silent: should be able to control ego and listen to others, own mistakes, but should also speak up
Leaders should be close with subordinates but not too close: should understand motivations but should not allow one member to become more important than others
A leader should exercise Extreme Ownership but also employ Decentralized Command
A leaer has nothing to prove but everything to prove: you have no need to gloat about your position but you should show that you are worthy, but that requires time and effort since it necessitates the earning of respect
Example: CEO of company hesitated shutting down division because friend leased it. In other words, he put the friend over the company mission (a hard dichotomy). Made tough decision to cut losses and shut it down