Introduction and Context

I listened to audiobook on Audible as of 2019-05-23 . Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink has an odd title but what an excellent book. It’s written by a former Navy Seal and uses real combat examples to illustrate the business lessons in the book.

Key Concept

The key concept is that if Extreme Ownership. This means being personally accountable for everything and anything in a positive and proactive way. It’s a change in mindset from that of a victim to that of a leader. For me this was a very meaningful shift to not blaming others, and instead to focus on what I can do to fix or improve a situation. Ultimately you cannot control other people, but you can control your own thoughts and actions.

Other Takeaways

Extreme ownership is about taking blame for everything solely yourself. One way you might do this is by making a list of what you can do to fix or improve a situation. It’s got to a fundamental shift in not blaming others, not getting hung up on what others didn’t do.

Believe in the mission. This is the only way to convince others to do what you want. To believe you must first know **why **it is important. To convince others, you must explain the why to them so that they believe. If they understand why, they will believe. This all sounds rather trite but having that shared belief that doing something is the right thing to do is what defines good leadership. And the way to having that shared belief is to have that shared understanding of why it’s important. If you’re a parent you may relate to the antithesis of this concept when it’s said to a child “because I said so”! This imparts no understanding of why, no belief in the desired outcome, and ultimately is a poor example of leadership!

There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

Once you understand why and believe in the mission, the next step is to fully focus on the mission - focus on winning. Consider how to be a winning team focused on a single goal. It’s about breaking the mindset that so-and-so in another department isn’t pulling their weight - this is blame - instead you are a single team and must work together - with common understanding.

To be a good leader you must explain not just what to do, and more importantly why to do it.

Prioritise and execute - effectively a form of triage. Only do the single most important thing. This concept is about focusing on the single most important thing to move you towards your goal. Note that this isn’t about priorities, plural, but the single priority to focus on and execute.

Be **proactive not reactive **- don’t wait and let the situation dictate your behaviour - you must dictate the situation.

Overall

In summary I’d give this 5/5 - it’s an excellent book and well worth the read for the lessons it contains, but also because the stories that go with the lessons really drive the message home in a far more impactful way than similar book.

It’s given me meaningful benefits in how I think and ultimately has been hugely empowering for me - there’s only one person who is in control of my life, and that’s me. That realisation is liberating.