Willink realizes that the battlefield is the only practical place to train Iraqi troops, and he comes to believe in that approach.

On his second Iraq tour, Willink’s SEALs are ordered to work with ill-trained Iraqi recruits, which greatly slows the SEALs’ progress. The CEO eventually replaces the CTO with a new leader who promptly turns the company’s fortunes around. Babin later explains to a financial services company that blame doesn’t fix problems, but the firm’s chief technology officer persists in blaming others for the failure of his products. He switches the front-running crew’s leader with the worst crew’s leader, and the losing team promptly begins to win, while the formerly best team stays competitive and takes second place. In later life, Willink shows a company’s director of manufacturing how Extreme Ownership, instead of placing blame, can help the director coordinate distant plants so they work together smoothly.Īs a SEAL instructor, Babin demonstrates the power of leadership during a class competition. He takes the blame for the communications mix-up, fixes the problem, and promises that it’ll never happen again-and it doesn’t. Though SEAL team operations were generally successful, the authors made mistakes in the field: They lost three team members, and eight others were wounded-painful lessons that taught them vital truths about leadership.ĭuring one battle, Army troops fire on a SEAL team, but, in a major test of his commitment to Extreme Ownership, Willink solves the crisis before anyone gets killed. The authors served together in Iraq during the Battle of Ramadi, where an entire city had to be reclaimed, block by block, from determined al Qaeda insurgents. SEALs penetrate enemy territory to disrupt opponents, rescue friendlies, gather intelligence, and support invasions. The authors were trained in the US Navy SEAL program, arguably the toughest military school for special operations soldiers. Placing blame for problems prevents them from getting solved, but accepting blame and taking steps to fix a situation moves a mission forward. The 2017 second edition’s ebook version forms the basis for this study guide.Įxtreme Ownership is how great leaders take responsibility for every aspect of their team and its mission. Alone and with Babin, Willink is the author of multiple books he also hosts the Jocko Podcast, which expands on the lessons of leadership.

Later, they trained SEAL recruits, and, after retiring from the service, formed the consulting firm Echelon Front to teach businesses the principles they learned on the battlefield. Jocko Willink, for 20 years a Navy SEAL, fought alongside fellow SEAL officer Leif Babin during the Battle of Ramadi.

Extreme ownership workbook