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

ready to explain what they had done wrong and how it had contributed to
the failure. But I had heard enough.
“You know whose fault this is? You know who gets all the blame for
this?” The entire group sat there in silence, including the CO, the CMC,
and the investigating officer. No doubt they were wondering whom I
would hold responsible. 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.”
It was a heavy burden to bear. But it was absolutely true. I was the
leader. I was in charge and I was responsible. Thus, I had to take
ownership of everything that went wrong. Despite the tremendous blow
to my reputation and to my ego, it was the right thing to do—the only
thing to do. I apologized to the wounded SEAL, explaining that it was
my fault he was wounded and that we were all lucky he wasn’t dead. We
then proceeded to go through the entire operation, piece by piece,
identifying everything that happened and what we could do going
forward to prevent it from happening again.
Looking back, it is clear that, despite what happened, the full
ownership I took of the situation actually increased the trust my
commanding officer and master chief had in me. If I had tried to pass the
blame on to others, I suspect I would have been fired—deservedly so.
The SEALs in the troop, who did not expect me to take the blame,
respected the fact that I had taken full responsibility for everything that
had happened. They knew it was a dynamic situation caused by a
multitude of factors, but I owned them all.