How Extreme Ownership Gives You Freedom
This is why I am thankful for my experience in the role of Project Manager.
I am not an expert in project management, but I want to share what I learned. Project management is a weird thing. It has the word “management” in it, but you’re not managing anyone. No one reports to you. You can’t decide the priority of their to-do list outside of tasks related to your project. And trust me, they have enough on their plate even without your project.
You manage no one, but you depend on everyone. When it first hit me, I felt doomed. Can the situation be even more unfair?
How can you tell if this project manager is good or bad? I can share one red flag with you. It’s blaming people who did not deliver. Yes, you heard me right. Blaming people who did NOT deliver. Our natural reaction is defensive: “But they did not deliver indeed, of course it’s their fault!”
Now here’s the deal. The word “manager” relates to the word “project”. You are ultimately responsible for this project. When you make a mistake — it’s your responsibility. When someone else did not deliver and it affected the project — hello, still your responsibility. It is your responsibility to ensure that all teams deliver their part on time. It’s your responsibility to find out about the potential problem in advance. Find another way. Communicate. Escalate. Scream and shout. Ask other people to help. But find a way to solve it. This is Extreme Ownership.
So how does it give you freedom? Very simple. Remember this unfair situation where you manage no one but depend on everyone? When you practice Extreme Ownership, you’re not depending on anyone anymore. Of course you need other people to make this work. But you are not trapped anymore by someone’s incompetence or bad management. You are ready to solve any problem you face. This is much more liberating than blaming others for what you could’ve solved if you’d considered it your responsibility. Trust me, you can do much more than you think.
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Highly recommend reading it, no matter what your job is. It is life changing.
By Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
