Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

he doesn’t really deal with the big picture,” Gary replied. His anger
subsided and his bruised ego diminished as he realized the
superintendent had probably not been willfully insubordinate. He now
began to understand the reasons the superintendent made the decisions
he did.
“As a leader, it is up to you to explain the bigger picture to him—and
to all your front line leaders. That is a critical component of leadership,”
I replied.
But Gary was still concerned about how to deal with his drilling
superintendent—and the superintendent’s ego. “How can I communicate
this to him without ruffling his feathers and getting him all pissed off at
me?” asked Gary. “If I confront him about this, our communication will
get even worse than it already is.”
“That is another critical component of leadership,” I quickly replied.
“Dealing with people’s egos. And you can do so by using one of the main
principles we have taught you during our course: Extreme Ownership.”
Gary responded, “Ownership of what? He’s the one that screwed this
up, not me.” It was clear Gary’s ego was getting in the way of the
solution to this problem.
“Ownership of everything!” I answered. “This isn’t his fault, it’s
yours. You are in charge, so the fact that he didn’t follow procedure is
your fault. And you have to believe that, because it’s true. When you talk
to him, you need to start the conversation like this: ‘Our team made a
mistake and it’s my fault. It’s my fault because I obviously wasn’t as
clear as I should have been in explaining why we have these procedures
in place and how not following them can cost the company hundreds of
thousands of dollars. You are an extremely skilled and knowledgeable
superintendent. You know more about this business than I ever will. It