Stan Rodda is a campus pastor at New Life Christian Church in Chantilly, VA.  He is also married to Misty, has three great kids, and a reader of leadership books.  This morning he sent me the following tweet:

I want to thank Stan for inspiring this post.  Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS LEAD And WIN is an incredible book!  Written by by U.S. Navy SEAL officers, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, this should be on the shelf of every leader.  I wanted to provide just 25 lessons from the book to give you a glimpse of just some of the lessons they provide.

The following are 25 Lessons On Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS LEAD And WIN:

  1. “Some leadership principles developed in training proved ineffective in actual combat.”
  2. “Without a team – a group of individuals working to accomplish a mission – there can be no leadership.  The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.”
  3. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success.  The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas.  They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.”
  4. “Leaders must own everything in their world.  There is no one else to blame.”
  5. “A leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual.”
  6. “A leader, however, does not take credit for his or her team’s successes but bestows that honor upon his subordinate leaders and team members.”
  7. “They were winning and morale was high.”
  8. “One of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership; there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
  9. “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.”
  10. “As a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
  11. “Leaders should never be satisfied.  They must always strive to improve.”
  12. “Good leaders don’t make excuses.  Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
  13. “If you aren’t winning, then you aren’t making the right decisions.”
  14. “There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective.  Effective leaders that lead successful, high-performance teams exhibit Extreme Ownership.  Anything else is simply ineffective.  Anything else is bad leadership.”
  15. “Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.”
  16. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team.  It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead.  If you are on your own, I don’t care how good you are, you won’t be able to handle it.”
  17. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism.  It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation.  Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.”
  18. “The most important tactical advantage we had was working together as a team, always supporting each other.”
  19. “As a leader, it doesn’t matter how well you feel you have presented the information or communicated an order, plan, tactic, or strategy.  If your team doesn’t get it, you have not kept things simple and you have failed.  You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands.”
  20. “Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously.”
  21. “Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people.”
  22. “Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it.”
  23. “Trust is not blindly given.  It must be built over time.  Situations will sometimes require that the boss walk away from a problem and let junior leaders solve it, even if the boss knows he might solve it more efficiently.”
  24. “As a leader, if you are down in the weeds planning the details with your guys, you will have the same perspective as them, which adds little value.”
  25. “As a leader, nothing had prepared me for that monumental burden I must forever carry for not bringing all my guys home to their families… To them (American pundits), the casualty figures were just statistics – numbers on a page.  To us, they were teammates and friends – brothers.  Their families suffered the greatest hardship.”

I am only scratching the surface of the leadership lessons contained in this book.  Make sure you pick up your copy of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS LEAD And WIN today by clicking HERE or on the image below!

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