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

leaders took on board this concept of Extreme Ownership,” I replied.
“You have one major issue, though.”
“Let me guess,” replied the CEO. “My chief technology officer.”
“Affirmative,” I responded. “He resisted the concept of Extreme
Ownership at every turn.” I had seen this before, both in the SEAL
Teams and with other client companies. In any group, there was always a
small number of people who wanted to shirk responsibility. But this
CTO was a particularly serious case.
“Your CTO might be one of the worst ‘Tortured Geniuses’ I have
seen,” I said.
The CEO acknowledged that his CTO was a problem, that he was
difficult to work with and other department leaders in the company had
major issues with him. But the CEO felt that because the CTO’s
experience level and knowledge were critical to the company, he
couldn’t possibly fire him. It also seemed the CTO felt he was above
reproach.
“I can’t tell you to fire anyone,” I responded. “Those are decisions
only you can make. But what I can tell you is this: when it comes to
performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.
You have to drive your CTO to exercise Extreme Ownership—to
acknowledge mistakes, stop blaming others, and lead his team to
success. If you allow the status quo to persist, you can’t expect to
improve performance, and you can’t expect to win.”
A week later, I followed up with a phone call to the CEO to see how
his team was doing.
“Some folks are really embracing this concept of Extreme
Ownership,” he said enthusiastically. “But the chief technology officer
continues to be a problem.” The CEO related how, upon my departure,