Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership

Books 12 and 13 of 52 in the Mitch’s Notes Project

Why These Books?

The leadership principles taught by these ex-Navy SEALs are powerful, straightforward, and directly applicable to difficult, resource-constrained environments like startups. These principles will help entrepreneurs to be aggressive, decisive, strategic and above all, to take real ownership of their business.

“The book derives its title from the underlying principle — the mind-set — that provides the foundation for all the rest: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”

Combat leadership requires getting a diverse team of people in various groups to execute highly complex missions in order to achieve strategic goals — something that directly correlates with any company or organization.

The goal of this book is to help leaders overcome that struggle through examples of how to find the right balance in leadership — to moderate the idea of leading from the extremes and focus on maintaining balance — within teams, among peers, and both up and down the chain of command. Every good leader must develop the ability to recognize, understand, and adjust that balance. While it isn’t easy, through knowledge, disciplined practice, and sustained effort, anyone can master finding the equilibrium in the Dichotomy of Leadership. Those who do will dominate their battlefield and lead their teams to victory.

You should buy these BOOKS.

Category: Leadership

The Books Authors: Jacko Willink and Leif Babin

Extreme Ownership

Dichotomy of Leadership

What is in it for you?

We believe in these leadership concepts because we have seen them work time and again, both in combat and in business. Their proper application and understanding ensure effective leaders and high-performing teams that produce extraordinary results.

“These principles empower those teams to dominate their battlefields by enabling leaders to fulfill their purpose: lead and win.”

Where Should You Start?

“Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems.”

“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”

The books are a fun read especially if you like military strategy, but their lessons could be boiled down considerably. For that reason, I recommend you start with this outline and refer back to the books for more detailed discussion and color. As you can see in the table of contents above, The Dichotomy of Leadership picks up where the final chapter of Extreme Ownership leaves off. It was originally a chapter in Extreme Ownership and I have treated that book accordingly.

Extreme Ownership

Part I: Winning the War Within

1. Extreme Ownership

Military Situation

Under their command, a friendly fire incident left one Iraqi solider KIA, with a few more wounded, and a SEAL member wounded. The communication breakdowns were numerous and blame could be shared among various leaders, but Jocko Willink, the SEAL task unit commander took complete ownership.

“Finally, I took a deep breath and said, ‘There is only one person to blame for this: me. I am the commander. I am responsible for the entire operation. As the senior man, I am responsible for every action that takes place on the battlefield. There is no one to blame but me. And I will tell you this right now: I will make sure that nothing like this ever happens to us again.’”

Leadership Principle

On any team, in any organization, 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.

If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.

With Extreme Ownership, junior leaders take charge of their smaller teams and their piece of the mission. Efficiency and effectiveness increase exponentially and a high-performance, winning team is the result.

Business Application

Investors, board members, and CEOs talk about accountability, but we should be talking about ownership. Holding people accountable is often associated with heavy-handed discipline. Ownership incorporates accountability and adds caring leadership to the mix. Holding people accountable is ineffective, inefficient, and damaging to culture. In a culture of ownership your team members will hold themselves accountable because they own their results, and they will know what is expected of them because you lead them!

“But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous — you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.’”

“That might be one of the issues: in your mind you are doing everything right. So when things go wrong, instead of looking at yourself, you blame others. But no one is infallible. With Extreme Ownership, you must remove individual ego and personal agenda. It’s all about the mission. How can you best get your team to most effectively execute the plan in order to accomplish the mission?” I continued. “That is the question you have to ask yourself. That is what Extreme Ownership is all about.”

But it starts here. It starts at the board meeting when you go in, put your ego aside, and take ownership for the company’s failure here. The board members will be impressed with what they see and hear, because most people are unable to do this. They will respect your Extreme Ownership. Take personal responsibility for the failures. You will come out the other side stronger than ever before,” I concluded.

2. No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders

Military Situation

In SEAL training they designed competitions to drive home the point that “It pays to be a winner.” Boat races were conducted with the winning boat sitting out the next race. In one particular class there was a dramatic difference between two boats. One boat dominated.

They won or nearly won every single race. They pushed themselves hard every time, working in unison and operating as a team. Boat Crew II had a strong leader, and each of the individual boat crew members seemed highly motivated and performed well. They compensated for each other’s weaknesses, helped each other, and took pride in winning, which had its rewards.

Another boat fought internally, performed poorly and was punished with more work and pain.

The difference between the two boats was the leader. They swapped out the boat crew leaders. They ran the drill again. “The same team in the same circumstances only under new leadership, went from the worst boat crew in the class to the best.”

How is it possible that switching a single individual — only the leader — had completely turned around the performance of an entire group? The answer: leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance — or doesn’t. And this applies not just to the most senior leader of an overall team, but to the junior leaders of teams within the team.

Leadership Principle

With a culture of Extreme Ownership within the team, every member of the team could contribute to this effort and ensure the highest levels of performance.

When leaders who epitomize Extreme Ownership drive their teams to achieve a higher standard of performance, they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable — if there are no consequences — that poor performance becomes the new standard. Therefore, leaders must enforce standards.

Business Application

Leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. It is the single most important factor in entrepreneurship. The CEO’s ability to lead is the first gating question in our investment process. The overall leaders belief, attitude, drive, and standards will either engender ownership within the ranks and lead to success, or not.

“There are no negative repercussions to Extreme Ownership,” I said. “There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders that lead successful, high-performance teams exhibit Extreme Ownership. Anything else is simply ineffective. Anything else is bad leadership.”

3. Believe

Military Situation

The SEALs trained hundreds of hours together as a team. They knew each other and were comfortable working with one another. However, in Iraq they were asked to work every op alongside Iraqis. The authors initially pushed back on this notion until they understood why. Why did it need to be that way? The missions would need to be approved, and to be approved they needed Iraqis. If Iraqis couldn’t defend their country that job would fall permanently on the SEALs, etc. In order to convince their team, they need to believe it themselves.

Leadership Principle

“In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission. Even when others doubt and question the amount of risk, asking, “Is it worth it?” the leader must believe in the greater cause. If a leader does not believe, he or she will not take the risks required to overcome the inevitable challenges necessary to win.”

In many cases, the leader must align his thoughts and vision to that of the mission. Once a leader believes in the mission, that belief shines through to those below and above in the chain of command. Actions and words reflect belief with a clear confidence and self-assuredness that is not possible when belief is in doubt.

Every leader must be able to detach from the immediate tactical mission and understand how it fits into strategic goals. When leaders receive an order that they themselves question and do not understand, they must ask the question: why?

Business Application

The conviction and belief necessary to start and join a startup is no trivial matter. That conviction and belief has to permeate every level of the organization as the business scales. Without understanding why, the sacrifice, stress, and pressure of starting and scaling an enterprise will result in under-performance or death of the organization. Without belief in the why, the organization will be misaligned, distracted, and stagnant. With the conviction and belief in the purpose of the mission you will create owners at every level of your enterprise.

“Your midlevel managers don’t understand those points — they don’t understand why — and so they don’t believe in the strategy. If they don’t believe, neither will your sales force. If this plan rolls out and those executing it don’t believe in it, your plan is far more likely to fail.” “So what can I do to make them believe?” asked the CEO. “It’s easy,” I explained. “Just tell them why.”

4. Check the Ego

Military Situation

SEALs were asked to work alongside other branches and Iraqis. Other SEAL units would dress or act “special” to demonstrate superiority. The Authors had none of that in their unit.

“I quickly realized what was going on. As good as this platoon commander was, his ego was being threatened. In an environment like Ramadi, trying to figure things out for yourself could easily get you killed. This was no place for ego. ‘No. Don’t even think about that. Listen: the enemy is outside the wire.’”

Leadership Principle

“Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.”

Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team. Ego can prevent a leader from conducting an honest, realistic assessment of his or her own performance and the performance of the team.

Business Application

We all have an ego. And we all have to get over it if we work in teams. Entrepreneurship is about convincing larger and larger teams that your mission is worthy. In that messy enterprise there will be multiple times, no matter your role, that you will be wrong or that pulling rank in order to be right is counter productive to your overall mission. Ego gets in the way of your mission, so which is more important to you.

“I’m confident it will,” I replied. “If you approached it as he did something wrong, and he needs to fix something, and he is at fault, it becomes a clash of egos and you two will be at odds. That’s human nature. But, if you put your own ego in check, meaning you take the blame, that will allow him to actually see the problem without his vision clouded by ego. Then you both can make sure that your team’s standard operating procedures — when to communicate, what is and isn’t within his decision-making authority — are clearly understood.”

“Remember, it’s not about you,” I continued. “It’s not about the drilling superintendent. It’s about the mission and how best to accomplish it. With that attitude exemplified in you and your key leaders, your team will dominate.”

Part II: Laws of Combat

5. Cover and Move

Military Situation

Two teams were caught in a gunfight. The first SEAL team leader made the decision to move out as it was the least bad option. They packed up and got out of the situation. They didn’t however coordinate with the other SEAL team. They didn’t work together even though they were trying to accomplish the same mission.

Leadership Principle

Cover and Move: it is the most fundamental tactic, perhaps the only tactic. Put simply, Cover and Move means teamwork. All elements within the greater team are crucial and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting one another for that singular purpose. Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them. If they forsake this principle and operate independently or work against each other, the results can be catastrophic to the overall team’s performance. It falls on leaders to continually keep perspective on the strategic mission and remind the team that they are part of the greater team and the strategic mission is paramount.

Business Application

Organizations, especially resource strapped startups, have a tendency to fight over resources. Who gets the next head, who is getting allocated budget, and ultimately who is getting attribution for the company’s wins. Cover and move is about covering and supporting your team — not just your division or immediate team, but the entire team that has been drawn together to complete the mission.

“Besides,” he added with indifference, “they aren’t my problem. I’ve got my own team to worry about.”…“You are both owned by the same corporation, so you both have the same mission. And that is what this is about — the overall mission, the overall team. Not just your team, but the whole team; the entire corporation — all departments within your company, all subsidiary companies under the corporation, outside contractors, the whole enterprise. You must work together and support each other as one team.”

6. Simple

Military Situation

A new Marine Corps commander came to Ramadi for the first time. He mocked up a complex mission plan that the battle-hardened authors counseled he should scrap. He eventually agreed to a shorter, simpler route. Shortly into their revised mission a massive fight broke out. Simple, clear, concise communications saved lives.

Leadership Principle

Combat, like anything in life, has inherent layers of complexities. Simplifying as much as possible is crucial to success. When plans and orders are too complicated, people may not understand them. And when things go wrong, and they inevitably do go wrong, complexity compounds issues that can spiral out of control into total disaster.

“Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands.”

Business Application

In business we have a tendency to over-complicate things. It is hard to believe, but, so do investors. We mistake complexity for unique strategy. Clear, concise communication is crucial not so the leader can understand, but so every member of the team does. And when every member understands they can make rapid adjustments in real time to outflank the competition and win.

“That is an extremely complex plan, too complex. I think you really need to simplify,” I said. “Well, it is a complex environment. Perhaps if we drew it out for you, you would understand it,” the chief engineer responded. “It doesn’t matter if I understand it,” I responded. “What matters is that they understand it — your production team. And not in some theoretical way. They need to understand it to a point that they don’t need to be thinking about it to understand it. It needs to be on the top of their minds all the time.”

When something goes wrong — and it eventually does — complex plans add to confusion, which can compound into disaster. Almost no mission ever goes according to plan. There are simply too many variables to deal with. This is where simplicity is key.

“If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing. If the plan is too complex, the team can’t make rapid adjustments to it, because there is no baseline understanding of it.”

7. Prioritize and Execute

Military Situation

The SEAL unit was under fire and pinned down inside a building with an IED threatening their exit. They went to the roof to escape the situation only to have a SEAL team member fall through what they thought was the roof and injure himself two floors down. It was an overwhelming situation and one where the leaders could do any number of things, but get overwhelmed.

I had to remain calm, step back from my immediate emotional reaction, and determine the greatest priority for the team. Then, rapidly direct the team to attack that priority. Once the wheels were in motion and the full resources of the team were engaged in that highest priority effort, I could then determine the next priority, focus the team’s effort there, and then move on to the next priority. I could not allow myself to be overwhelmed. I had to relax, look around, and make a call.

Leadership Principle

Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously. The team will likely fail at each of those tasks. Instead, leaders must determine the highest priority task and execute. When overwhelmed, fall back upon this principle: Prioritize and Execute.

When confronted with the enormity of operational plans and the intricate microterrain within those plans, it becomes easy to get lost in the details, to become sidetracked or lose focus on the bigger effort. It is crucial, particularly for leaders at the top of the organization, to “pull themselves off the firing line,” step back, and maintain the strategic picture. This is essential to help correctly prioritize for the team. With this perspective, it becomes far easier to determine the highest priority effort and focus all energies toward its execution. Then senior leaders must help subordinate team leaders within their team prioritize their efforts.

• evaluate the highest priority problem.
• lay out in simple, clear, and concise terms the highest priority effort for your team.
• develop and determine a solution, seek input from key leaders and from the team where possible.
• direct the execution of that solution, focusing all efforts and resources toward this priority task.
• move on to the next highest priority problem. Repeat.
• when priorities shift within the team, pass situational awareness both up and down the chain.
• don’t let the focus on one priority cause target fixation. Maintain the ability to see other problems developing and rapidly shift as needed.

Business Application

I love startups for many reasons, not the least of which is the intellectual challenge of solving problem after problem. The problems have to be solved in the right sequence or you run out of cash. Startups are a sequencing problem where a million “priorities” clamor for your attention, but you must choose the actual priorities if you are going to make progress.

“Of all of the initiatives which your highest priority?” “That’s easy,” the CEO quickly answered. “The activity management of our sales force is the highest priority. We have to make sure our sales people are engaged in the right activities. If they aren’t getting in front of customers and selling our products, we will no longer be in business,” said the CEO.

“With all that you have planned, do you think your team is clear that this is your highest priority?” I asked. “Probably not,” the CEO admitted.

“On the battlefield, if the guys on the front line face-to-face with the enemy aren’t doing their jobs, nothing else matters. Defeat is inevitable,” I replied. “With all your other efforts — all your other focuses — how much actual attention is being given to ensuring your frontline salespeople are doing the best job possible? How much of a difference would it make if you and the entire company gave them one hundred percent of your attention for the next few weeks or months?”

8. Decentralized Command

Military Situation

During training SEAL leaders tried to direct every maneuver, control every position, and personally attempted to manage up to 35 men personally. They quickly understood that it did not work.

“Instead, my leaders learned they must rely on their subordinate leaders to take charge of their smaller teams within the team and allow them to execute based on a good understanding of the broader mission (known as Commander’s Intent), and standard operating procedures. That was effective Decentralized Command. “

So, we divided into small teams of four to six SEALs, a manageable size for a leader to control. Each platoon commander didn’t worry about controlling all sixteen SEAL operators assigned, only three: his squad leaders and his platoon chief. Each platoon chief and leading petty officer only had to control their fire team leaders, who each controlled four SEAL shooters. And I only had to control two people — my two platoon commanders.

Leadership Principle

Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise. No one senior leader can be expected to manage dozens of individuals, much less hundreds. Teams must be broken down into manageable elements of four to five operators, with a clearly designated leader. Those leaders must understand the overall mission, and the ultimate goal of that mission — the Commander’s Intent. Junior leaders must be empowered to make decisions on key tasks necessary to accomplish that mission in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Teams within teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission, with leaders who have clearly delineated responsibilities. Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it. If frontline leaders do not understand why, they must ask their boss to clarify the why.

Business Application

This principle is the payoff for developing a culture of ownership. Your entire team knows why they are on this mission, how to cover and support one another while fighting the real enemy, how to keep communications simple, how to prioritize and execute, and now they can independently lead their own teams in a coordinated movement that supports the overall mission.

From a leadership perspective, I explained to the president, there is truly nothing more important than an understanding of the dynamics of Decentralized Command. This is proper command and control in a nutshell. It is one of the most complex strategies to pull off correctly. As a leader, it takes strength to let go. It takes faith and trust in subordinate, frontline leaders and their abilities. Most of all, it requires trust up and down the chain of command: trust that subordinates will do the right thing; trust that superiors will support subordinates if they are acting in accordance with the mission statement and Commander’s Intent.

Part III: Sustaining Victory

9. Plan

Military Situation

In a hostage rescue situation the SEALs had made a plan. Shortly before the mission they received new intel that there were IEDs in the yard and machine gun nests in the building. They followed the plan, secured the target. They reenacted that situation years later in training. Many of them thought they should have aborted the mission. But a good plan would already account for those types of contingencies.

“On what capture/kill direct-action raid can you be certain there are no IEDs buried in the yard or bunkered machine gun positions in the house?” To assume otherwise was a failure of leadership. That was what mission planning was all about: never taking anything for granted, preparing for likely contingencies, and maximizing the chance of mission success while minimizing the risk to the troops executing the operation.

Leadership Principle

What’s the mission? Planning begins with mission analysis. The mission must be carefully refined and simplified so that it is explicitly clear and specifically focused to achieve the greater strategic vision for which that mission is a part.

The mission must explain the overall purpose and desired result, or “end state,” of the operation. The frontline troops tasked with executing the mission must understand the deeper purpose behind the mission. While a simple statement, the Commander’s Intent is actually the most important part of the brief. When understood by everyone involved in the execution of the plan, it guides each decision and action on the ground.

Once the detailed plan has been developed, it must then be briefed to the entire team and all participants and supporting elements. Leaders must carefully prioritize the information to be presented in as simple, clear, and concise a format as possible so that participants do not experience information overload. The planning process and briefing must be a forum that encourages discussion, questions, and clarification from even the most junior personnel. If frontline troops are unclear about the plan and yet are too intimidated to ask questions, the team’s ability to effectively execute the plan radically decreases. Thus, leaders must ask questions of their troops, encourage interaction, and ensure their teams understand the plan.

A leader’s checklist for planning should include the following:

• Analyze the mission. Understand higher headquarters’ mission, Commander’s Intent, and endstate (the goal). Identify and state your own Commander’s Intent and endstate for the specific mission.
• Identify personnel, assets, resources, and time available.
• Decentralize the planning process. Empower key leaders within the team to analyze possible courses of action.
• Determine a specific course of action. Lean toward selecting the simplest course of action. Focus efforts on the best course of action.
• Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action.
• Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation.
• Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible.
• Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders. Stand back and be the tactical genius.
• Continually check and question the plan against emerging information to ensure it still fits the situation.
• Brief the plan to all participants and supporting assets. Emphasize Commander’s Intent. Ask questions and engage in discussion and interaction with the team to ensure they understand.
• Conduct post-operational debrief after execution. Analyze lessons learned and implement them in future planning.

Business Application

The quarterly and annual planning process in most startups is either non-existent or a top-down mandate that is quickly forgotten because it is too complex, non-specific, too high-level, or incomplete because it lacks the teams perspective. Planning is good. Making your team a part of that process is better. Ensuring that your entire team knows, internalizes, and takes ownership of their part of the plan is best.

“‘As a leader, if you are down in the weeds planning the details with your guys,’ said Jocko, ‘you will have the same perspective as them, which adds little value. But if you let them plan the details, it allows them to own their piece of the plan. And it allows you to stand back and see everything with a different perspective, which adds tremendous value.”

10. Leading Up and Down the Chain of Command

Military Situation

SEAL leaders work in a two sided reporting structure. They have their superiors that they report strategic objectives to and they have subordinates that carry out the tactical, dangerous missions. A good leader manages and communicates strategic and tactical objectives up and down the reporting structure. Without managing up the chain of command they don’t get mission approval. Without managing down the chain of command they don’t communicate strategic vision and get buy-in from the operators.

Leadership Principle

Managing up: Leading up the chain of command requires tactful engagement with the immediate boss (or in military terms, higher headquarters) to obtain the decisions and support necessary to enable your team to accomplish its mission and ultimately win. To do this, a leader must push situational awareness up the chain of command.

Managing down: Any good leader is immersed in the planning and execution of tasks, projects, and operations to move the team toward a strategic goal. Such leaders possess insight into the bigger picture and why specific tasks need to be accomplished. This information does not automatically translate to subordinate leaders and the frontline troops. Junior members of the team — the tactical level operators — are rightly focused on their specific jobs. They must be in order to accomplish the tactical mission. They do not need the full knowledge and insight of their senior leaders, nor do the senior leaders need the intricate understanding of the tactical level operators’ jobs. Still, it is critical that each have an understanding of the other’s role. And it is paramount that senior leaders explain to their junior leaders and troops executing the mission how their role contributes to big picture success.

The major factors to be aware of when leading up and down the chain of command are these:

• Take responsibility for leading everyone in your world, subordinates and superiors alike.
• If someone isn’t doing what you want or need them to do, look in the mirror first and determine what you can do to better enable this.
• Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.

Business Application

Venture-baked CEOs must lead their board and their company. A board can be a strategic unlock for CEOs that know how to lead one. If you can communicate that you have a plan, are working the plan, revising the plan as necessary, and mitigating risks along the way you will find that your board will get behind you. Most of the reporting function can be accomplished in pre-meeting materials and a brief discussion during the meeting. More importantly, your meetings will become more outward facing with a focus on the mission.

“I realized that if my chain of command had questions about my plans or needed additional information or more detailed paperwork, it was not their fault,” I said. “It was my fault. I knew we were making the right decisions and being careful to mitigate every risk we could control. I knew our combat operations were critical to achieving strategic victory in Ramadi. So if my boss wasn’t comfortable with what I was doing, it was only because I had not clearly communicated it to him.”

11. Decisiveness Amid Uncertainty

Military Situation

Chris Kyle was providing overwatch for marines. He saw a dark figure with what looked like a scoped weapon. He could not positively ID. The Marine commander demanded he take the shot. He insisted multiple times, but the author and Chris Kyle did not take the shot. Then they realized their mistake, they were looking 1 block farther than they should and had targeted U.S. troops.

Chris Kyle

Leadership Principle

“In combat as in life, the outcome is never certain, the picture never clear. There are no guarantees of success. But in order to succeed, leaders must be comfortable under pressure, and act on logic, not emotion. This is a critical component to victory. It is critical for leaders to act decisively amid uncertainty; to make the best decisions they can based on only the immediate information available.”

Business Application

Startups face life or death business decisions early and often. With capital at risk, missions in flux, and competitors actively working to outmaneuver opponents, professional careers and paychecks are at stake. Outcomes are never certain; success never guaranteed. CEOs must be comfortable in the chaos and act decisively amid such uncertainty.

“As a leader, you want to be seen — you need to be seen — as decisive, and willing to make tough choices. The outcome may be uncertain, but you have enough understanding and information to make a decision,” I said. “This is one of those moments,” said Jocko. “The people on the front lines, they understand these dynamics. They know what is going on. They will respect this, and their loyalty to you and your company will increase.”

The Dichotomy of Leadership

Therefore, balance in leadership is crucial to victory. It must be monitored at all times and it must be modulated to specific situations as they arise. Every good leader must develop the ability to recognize, understand, and adjust that balance. While it isn’t easy, through knowledge, disciplined practice, and sustained effort, anyone can master finding the equilibrium in the Dichotomy of Leadership. Those who do will dominate their battlefield and lead their teams to victory.

Leadership Principles

1. The Ultimate Dichotomy — a leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risks and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops. Failing to balance those two opposing goals would result in his failure to do either.
2. Own it All, But Empower Others — True Extreme Ownership meant that all responsibility rested with me, as the leader. It didn’t mean that I, as the leader, personally did everything myself. I had to find the right balance between taking all ownership myself and allowing my team to take ownership. But once again, the key is balance, maintaining an equilibrium where the troops have the guidance to execute but at the same time the freedom to make decisions and lead.
3. Resolute, but Not Overbearing — There is a time to stand firm and enforce rules and there is a time to give ground and allow the rules to bend. Finding that balance is critical for leaders to get maximum effectiveness from their team. Some have used the term “leadership capital” as a means to understand the careful analysis required for a leader to balance this dichotomy. Leadership capital is the recognition that there is a finite amount of power that any leader possesses. It can be expended foolishly, by leaders who harp on matters that are trivial and strategically unimportant. Such capital is acquired slowly over time through building trust and confidence with the team by demonstrating that the leader has the long-term good of the team and the mission in mind.
4. When to Mentor, When to Fire — Most underperformers don’t need to be fired, they need to be led. But once every effort has been made to help an underperformer improve and all efforts have failed, a leader has to make the tough call to let that person go. This is the duty and responsibility of every leader. The dichotomy in this situation is balancing between taking care of individuals by keeping them around even if they lack the skill set to do the job properly and protecting the team by removing people from positions where they negatively impact the team and the mission. A leader must be loyal to his individual team members and take care of them, but at the same time he must be loyal to the team itself and ensure that every member of the team has a net positive impact and doesn’t detract from mission execution.
5. Train Hard, but Train Smart —Training must be hard. Training must simulate realistic challenges and apply pressure to decision-makers. There is no growth in the comfort zone. If training doesn’t push the team beyond the limits of what is easy, the team, and particularly leaders within the team, will never develop the capacity to take on greater challenges. But training is designed to make the team better, to enable its members to function in realistic conditions they might face. It can’t be so difficult that it crushes the team, demoralizes it, or overwhelms participants to the point where they fail to learn. As in everything, leaders must find the balance in training and focus on three critical aspects: realism, fundamentals, and repetition. “We don’t have the budget to train” isn’t a valid excuse. “We don’t have time to train” isn’t a valid excuse.
6. Aggressive, Not Reckless — An aggressive mind-set should be the default setting of any leader. Default: Aggressive. This means that the best leaders, the best teams, don’t wait to act. Instead, understanding the strategic vision (or commander’s intent), they aggressively execute to overcome obstacles, capitalize on immediate opportunities, accomplish the mission, and win. To be overly aggressive, without critical thinking, is to be reckless. That can lead the team into disaster and put the greater mission in peril. To disregard prudent counsel when someone with experience urges caution, to dismiss significant threats, or to fail to plan for likely contingencies is foolhardy. It is bad leadership.
7. Disciplined, Not Rigid — Disciplined standard operating procedures, repeatable processes, and consistent methodologies are helpful in any organization. The more discipline a team exercises, the more freedom that team will have to maneuver by implementing small adjustments to existing plans. Disciplined procedures must be balanced with the ability to apply common sense to an issue, with the power to break with SOPs when necessary, with the freedom to think about alternative solutions, apply new ideas, and make adjustments to processes based on the reality of what is actually happening.
8. Hold People Accountable, but Don’t Hold Their Hands — Accountability is an important tool that leaders must utilize. However, it should not be the primary tool. It must be balanced with other leadership tools, such as making sure people understand the why, empowering subordinates, and trusting they will do the right thing without direct oversight because they fully understand the importance of doing so. Make sure its members have ownership of their tasks and the ability to make adjustments as needed. Make sure they know how their task supports the overall strategic success of the mission. Make sure they know how important their specific task is to the team and what the consequences are for failure. Instead, balance accountability with educating the team and empowering its members to maintain standards even without direct oversight from the top. This is the hallmark of the highest-performing teams that dominate.
9. A Leader and a Follower — Every leader must be willing and able to lead, but just as important is a leader’s ability to follow. A leader must be willing to lean on the expertise and ideas of others for the good of the team. Leaders must be willing to listen and follow others, regardless of whether they are junior or less experienced. If someone else has a great idea or specific knowledge that puts them in the best position to lead a particular project, a good leader recognizes that it doesn’t matter who gets the credit, only that the mission is accomplished in the most effective manner possible. Confident leaders encourage junior members of the team to step up and lead when they put forth ideas that will contribute to mission success. When the team wins, much of the credit goes to the leader, whether or not that leader was the person driving the operation, tactics, or strategy, and a good leader pushes the praise and accolades down to their team. Leaders who fail to be good followers fail themselves and their team. But when a leader is willing to follow, the team functions effectively and the probability of mission success radically increases.
10. Plan, but Don’t Overplan — You cannot plan for every contingency. If you try to create a solution for every single potential problem that might arise, you overwhelm your team, you overwhelm the planning process, you overcomplicate decisions for leaders. Rather than preventing or solving problems, overplanning creates additional and sometimes far more difficult problems. It is important, however, that leaders manage the dichotomy in planning by not straying too far in the other direction — by not planning enough for contingencies. When leaders dismiss likely threats or problems that could arise, it sets the team up for greater difficulties and may lead to mission failure.
11. Humble, Not Passive — Humility is the most important quality in a leader. When we had to fire SEAL leaders from leadership positions in a platoon or task unit, it was almost never because they were tactically unsound, physically unfit, or incompetent. It was most often because they were not humble: they couldn’t check their ego, they refused to accept constructive criticism or take ownership for their mistakes. A leader cannot be passive. When it truly matters, leaders must be willing to push back, voice their concerns, stand up for the good of their team, and provide feedback up the chain against a direction or strategy they know will endanger the team or harm the strategic mission.
12. Focused, but Detached — Naturally, leaders must be attentive to details. However, leaders cannot be so immersed in the details that they lose track of the larger strategic situation and are unable to provide command and control for the entire team. Detachment is also an ongoing issue with which many leaders struggle. Leaders cannot allow themselves to get so obsessed by the details that they lose focus on the bigger picture. It is essential for leaders to understand that this should be their default mind-set, so they can always be aware of it. If they don’t maintain a position above the fray, then leaders are failing their team and failing the mission.
13. Bonus: Communication: With others you could hear the panic in their voices. Listening to hundreds of radio calls like this taught me and the rest of the Task Unit Bruiser leadership that staying calm on the radio was a mandatory trait if you wanted to lead effectively.
14. Bonus: Positioning: When I ran the training for the West Coast SEAL Teams, one of the lessons I regularly taught was that the most important piece of information you could have on the battlefield is the knowledge of where you are. Without that, nothing else matters. The next most important piece of information is where other friendly forces are located. Only then does it matter where the enemy is; without knowing where one’s own unit is and without knowing where other friendly units are, it is nearly impossible to engage the enemy.
15. Bonus: Growth: As a general rule, it was “flank or be flanked.” Either you maneuvered on the enemy or the enemy would maneuver on you. Stagnation on the battlefield will get you killed.