Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win

The book’s title is its main theme, asserting that the most important part of a team is the leader and that the most important part of a leader’s outlook is to assume responsibility for everything that affects the success of a mission: “On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame” (30).

Every team member is vital, as are planning, equipment, and rehearsal; to be useful, these parts must be coordinated and unified. Without a leader who can manage this challenge, success is uncertain at best. Once a leader adopts Extreme Ownership, though, all the techniques of leadership become powerful, and success becomes vastly more likely.

If something goes wrong during the mission, it might seem reasonable to blame the person or thing that failed. This attitude leaves the mission at the mercy of circumstances. A leader who accepts total responsibility for all aspects of the project will take into account every possible failure scenario and work to minimize those risks. If something goes wrong anyway, that leader has a plan for working around the damage and progressing the mission.