Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

But what I can tell you is this: when it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.

Laws of Combat that Jocko had taught us: Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command

When a leader’s confidence breaks, those who are supposed to follow him or her see this and begin to question their own belief in the mission.

The leader must explain not just what to do, but why. It is the responsibility of the subordinate leader to reach out and ask if they do not understand.

It takes courage to go to the CEO’s office, knock on her door, and explain that you don’t understand the strategy behind her decisions. You might feel stupid. But you will feel far worse trying to explain to your team a mission or strategy that you don’t understand or believe in yourself

In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission

But I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.

Leaders should never be satisfied. They must always strive to improve, and they must build that mind-set into the team. They must face the facts through a realistic, brutally honest assessment of themselves and their team’s performance

But life can throw any number of circumstances in the way of any business or team, and every team must have junior leaders ready to step up and temporarily take on the roles and responsibilities of their immediate bosses to carry on the team’s mission and get the job done if and when the need arises.

In the book, Hackworth relates the philosophy of his U.S. Army mentors who fought and defeated the Germans and Japanese in World War II: “There are no bad units, only bad officers.” This captures the essence of what Extreme Ownership is all about. This is a difficult and humbling concept for any leader to accept. But it is an essential mind-set to building a high-performance, winning team.