from last place to first. The boat crew members had begun to work
together as a team, and won. Boat Crew II still performed well, though
they narrowly lost the race. They continued to challenge Boat Crew VI
for the lead in the follow-on races. And each of these boat crews
outperformed all the rest, with Boat Crew VI winning most of the races
over the better part of the next hour.
It was a shocking turn of events. Boat Crew VI, the same team in the
same circumstances only under new leadership, went from the worst boat
crew in the class to the best. Gone was their cursing and frustration. And
gone too was the constant scrutiny and individual attention they had
received from the SEAL instructor staff. Had I not witnessed this
amazing transformation, I might have doubted it. But it was a glaring,
undeniable example of one of the most fundamental and important truths
at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad
leaders.
How is it possible that switching a single individual—only the leader
—had completely turned around the performance of an entire group? The
answer: leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s
performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader.
The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives
performance—or doesn’t. And this applies not just to the most senior
leader of an overall team, but to the junior leaders of teams within the
team.
* * *I reflected back to my own experience as a boat crew leader in BUD/S
through the tribulations of Hell Week, where I had failed and should
have done better and where I had succeeded. My boat crew at times had