Leading With Extreme Ownership: What A Difference It Makes

Earlier this year, my Vistage Group Chair, Don Pierro, introduced me to one of the best business books I’ve ever read.

The book is Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

As I read through it, I was completely enthralled by the discipline, training, and results that the Navy SEALs are able to achieve while being involved in very real life-or-death situations. It occurred to me that our already darn-good organization might be way better if we applied the principles of Extreme Ownership to ourselves.

I immediately ordered 13 copies – one for each member of our Leadership Team. Each person was to read the book individually so we could discuss the meaning and value in our next Quarterly Leadership Review Meeting.

Our Quarterly Leadership Review Meetings generally follow the same agenda. We review goals, objectives, and progress from the previous three months, so we get a good gauge of where we are and what our priorities should be for the next quarter.

This meeting was a little different.

The last item on the agenda was to discuss Extreme Ownership and how it resonated with each team leader. We went around the room and each person summarized the areas of the book that impacted him or her the most. 

The review process was very interesting and worthwhile, but what happened next was absolutely unexpected – and maybe one of the most impactful situations I have been involved with in my career! 

Each of the team leaders began apologizing to other team leaders for letting them down on nearly a daily basis. By discussing the meaning of “Extreme Ownership,” we all realized that we had let each other down and we did not like how we felt about it. 

From that day forward, our team has performed at much higher levels than ever before. Communication and process improvement programs are being implemented and accountability is expected.

We are now going to have every person in the company to read the book. I am positive all teams will improve even more!

I strongly recommend that all leaders read this book, and make sure your direct reports do as well. 

As Jocko and Leif say, “There are no bad teams – only bad leaders.”

Marty