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

“Extreme Ownership—good leadership—is contagious,” I answered.
“Boat Crew Two’s original leader had instilled a culture of Extreme
Ownership, of winning and how to win, in every individual. Boat Crew
Two had developed into a solid team of high-performing individuals.
Each member demanded the highest performance from the others.
Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit. Each individual
knew what they needed to do to win and did it. They no longer needed
explicit direction from a leader. As a result, Boat Crew Two continued to
outperform virtually every other boat crew and vied with Boat Crew Six
for first place in nearly every race.”
I detailed how the original leader of Boat Crew VI joined Boat Crew
II thinking life would be easy for him. Instead, he had to seriously step
up his game to keep up with such a high-performance team. For him, the
greatest lesson of that day was learned: he witnessed a complete
turnaround in the performance of his former team as he watched a new
leader demonstrate that what seemed impossible was achievable through
good leadership. Though he had failed to lead effectively to that point,
the original leader of Boat Crew VI learned and implemented that
humbling lesson. Ultimately, he graduated from BUD/S training and had
a successful career in the SEAL Teams.
“In summary,” I told them, “whether or not your team succeeds or
fails is all on you. Extreme Ownership is a concept to help you make the
right decisions as a key leader so that you can win.”
The chief technology officer bristled. “We are making the right
decisions,” he said. He was serious.
Surprised at his statement, I responded, “You’ve all admitted that as
a company you aren’t winning.”
“We may not be winning,” said the CTO resolutely, “but we’re