Nick Hutchison breaks down five leadership principles from Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: leaders own all outcomes, ego blocks improvement, decentralized command works best with 2-6 direct reports, leading up the chain prevents misalignment, and effective leaders balance opposing traits like confidence and humility.
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Hello and welcome to episode number 13 of the brand new video series 5 Lessons Learned brought to you by Book Thinkers, where each and every week the team and I will discuss the top 5 lessons learned from a book that we've read and loved. This week we're going to discuss Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. This book is not a war memoir, but it is a collection of experiences that help demonstrate certain principles that have to do with being a successful leader. We loved this book. So without further ado, let's jump into lesson number 1. Lesson number 1 has to do with the most important aspect of this book, and that's leadership. So what determines a successful leader from an unsuccessful leader? Jocko and Leif break it down in a very simple way. Successful leaders lead teams that win, While unsuccessful leaders lead teams that lose, and you want to avoid losing. In combat strategy, they have to organize a diverse team of people in various groups under highly complex missions in order to achieve a strategic goal. That sounds like a lot, but it can be directly related to business. There are so many different moving parts in every corner of the puzzle, and you need to organize all of them, have them all fit in perfectly in order to win. At the end of the day, there is only one person that's responsible for the outcome of every single mission, and that's the leader. This book will help you get there. So that's lesson number 1, be an effective leader. Lesson number 2 is that when practicing extreme ownership, there is absolutely no room for ego in leadership. No room. Take your ego, toss it out the door if you want to practice extreme ownership. For a couple reasons. Number one, there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Only bad leaders. Leaders have to take full responsibility. They have to own full responsibility for the outcome of every single mission. Win or lose, it's the leader's fault because everything that their subordinates do or even their bosses do can be directly influenced by them. It is their responsibility. And then number two, Ego can lead directly to the inability to properly reflect or unbiasedly reflect and assign areas of improvement for the future. If you say, hey, that was Johnny's fault because that was Johnny's team that messed up and that snowballed into a bigger problem and messed up the whole thing. Well, you're Johnny's boss. It's your fault that that happened. You need to take full responsibility because when you assign blame for yourself when you lose, Then you're able to properly assign areas for improvement within yourself, which trickle down to your team. Take your ego, toss it out the door. There's absolutely no room for it. And that's lesson number 2. Lesson number 3 is that you should be practicing decentralized command. Decentralized command allows you to effectively manage groups of 2 to 6 people And no more. If you're currently managing more than that, how do you have the mental capacity in order to understand every single situation and have the time to deal with every single situation that your direct reports have to deal with? It's impossible. So decentralizing your command, allowing some of your direct reports to have direct reports, and allowing some of those direct reports to have direct reports allows you to be more effective in your immediate responsibilities. Leading people is one thing, but leading people that lead other people that lead other people is a completely different monster, and it requires a different skill set. It's more professional, and it helps you again minimize the risk of things spiraling out of control. Because if you had 20 direct reports, or if you had 30 direct reports, and some people over here having problems and you don't understand their relationship with other people over here having problems, How do you effectively manage the situation? You can't. So practice decentralized command. That is lesson number 3. Lesson number 4 is something I had never read in any other leadership book, and that is leading up the chain. Leading up the chain allows you to push situational awareness to your direct bosses in order to completely avoid any misalignment on goals or strategies or execution. If your direct bosses have a problem with what you're doing, if they're consistently asking for questions or critiquing your actions, that's your responsibility to fix that. It's your fault for their misalignment. You need to reach up the chain and educate those people, ask them questions, provide them information in advance, and make sure that there is absolutely no misalignment. And it's so awesome, it's such a cool concept when you take full responsibility for that Because you feel as though you have more of an ability to change your immediate surroundings. No longer are you just relying on authority to lead the people below you, but you have to rely on skill to lead the people above you. It's pretty liberating, actually. So that's lesson number 4, and if you want to find more information on that lesson, there's a lot of content in this book about it. Lesson number 5 is on the dichotomy of leadership. We're going to read a few examples directly from the book, but definitely take a read through this section because there will be many, many, many more, and they also explain them a little bit more than we're going to here. We're going to read right here that a good leader must be confident but not cocky, courageous but not foolhardy, competitive but a gracious loser, attentive to details but not obsessed by them, Strong but have endurance. Be a leader and a follower. Humble but not passive. Aggressive but not overbearing. Quiet, not silent. Calm, not robotic. Logical but not devoid of emotions. Close with the troops but not as close to them as you could be. That could result in a lot of problems. Able to execute extreme ownership while exercising decentralized command. As you can see, each one of those dichotomies balances the other one out. Be a leader and a follower. That's a difficult line to walk, and there are so many more examples in this book. So that's lesson number 5: exercise all of these dichotomies and pay attention to them. If you've made it this far, thank you so much, and we hope you've enjoyed the top 5 lessons today. From Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. This book is full of a ton of leadership wisdom. We hope you check it out. We will drop a link in the comment section below where you can pick up a copy. Second, if there is a book that you'd like us to read, please drop us a message or comment in the comment section below. We're happy to read any book under the sun. And then last but not least, check out bookthinkers.com if you'd like a little bit more interaction with us. Go out there, read, retain, share, and grow, and we hope to see you soon. Bye.
