Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willinck
Jocko Willinck, a former Navy SEAL, recounts lessons he learned about leadership from his time in the battle of Ramadi. From these lessons, Jocko has started a company called Echelon Front where he coaches businesses to use the techniques in this book to amplify their efforts.
In the book, he emphasizes a concept he coins Extreme Ownership; which is, surprisingly, NOT extreme. It’s a mentality of taking charge of your actions as a leader and acknowledging the role you play in problems/solutions. Extreme Ownership is comprised of several techniques/principles that must be balanced (extremely balanced). Willinck presents each of these principles with accompanying war stories and business applications that really hit home the reason these principles are paramount to becoming a good leader. I found that the war stories were not indulgent in anyway and, to me, hammered home the impact of the principles in leadership situations that civilians can hardly comprehend.
Overall I loved the book. It will be a reference for me throughout my life.
Things I liked about this book
Discipline equals freedom
This is one of the last concepts from the book and actually leads into an entire second novel of the same name. I identified heavily with this idea that using discipline to have more control over ourselves actually frees us to be more powerful. It’s a wonderful idea that I look forward to studying more.
War stories
Jocko’s stories are enthralling. He tells some truly amazing tales that would steal my attention with or without accompanying leadership principles.