The best quotes by the author we have brought to you
“A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.” (Extreme Ownership Quotes)
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A leader must be close with subordinates but not too close. A leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself. Leaders must never get so close that the team forgets who is in charge.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A leader must be strong but likewise have endurance, not only physically but mentally.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A leader must control his or her emotions. If not, how can they expect to control anything else? Leaders who lose their temper also lose respect.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A leader must lead but also be ready to follow.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A person’s biggest strength can be his greatest weakness when he doesn’t know how to balance it.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“A true leader is not intimidated when others step up and take charge. Leaders that lack confidence in themselves fear being outshined by someone else.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Almost no mission ever goes according to plan. There are simply too many variables to deal with. This is where simplicity is key. If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“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. But if you let them plan the details, it allows them to own their piece of the plan. And it allows you to stand back and see everything with a different perspective, which adds tremendous value. You can then see the plan from a greater distance, a higher altitude, and you will see more.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“As SEALs, we operate as a team of high-caliber, multitalented individuals who have been through perhaps the toughest military training and most rigorous screening process anywhere. But in the SEAL program, it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Boat Crew Six had become comfortable with substandard performance. Working under poor leadership and an unending cycle of blame, the team constantly failed. No one took ownership, assumed responsibility, or adopted a winning attitude.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“But we can’t ever think we are too good to fail or that our enemies are not capable, deadly, and eager to exploit our weaknesses. We must never get complacent. This is where controlling the ego is most important.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified. Decisions have immediate consequences, and everything – absolutely everything – is at stake. The right decision, even when all seems lost, can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The wrong decision, even when a victorious outcome seems all but certain, can result in deadly, catastrophic failure.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Confidence is contagious, a great attribute for a leader and a team. But when it goes too far, overconfidence causes complacency and arrogance, which ultimately set the team up for failure.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Every leader must walk a fine line. That’s what makes leadership so challenging. Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another. The simple recognition of this is one of the most powerful tools a leader has.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“His realistic assessment, acknowledgment of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing. If the plan is too complex, the team can’t make rapid adjustments to it, because there is no baseline understanding of it.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leaders in any chain of command will not always agree. But at the end of the day, once the debate on a particular course of action is over and the boss has made a decision – even if that decision is one you argued against – you must execute the plan as if it were your own.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. They”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leaders must recognize limitations and know to pace themselves and their teams so that they can maintain a solid performance indefinitely.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leaders should never be satisfied. They must always strive to improve, and they must build that mind-set into the team.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command, but up as well. We have to own everything in our world. That’s what Extreme Ownership is all about.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Leadership is the most important factor on the battlefield, the single greatest reason behind the success of any team.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“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.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“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.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” I explained how a leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“SEALs are known for taking significant risk, but in reality SEALs calculate risk very carefully.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“The focus must always be on how to best accomplish the mission.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“The true test for a good brief,” Jocko continued, “is not whether the senior officers are impressed. It’s whether or not the troops that are going to execute the operation actually understand it. Everything else is bullshit.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“There is no 100 percent right solution. The picture is never complete. Leaders must be comfortable with this and be able to make decisions promptly, then be ready to adjust those decisions quickly based on evolving situations and new information.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if there are no consequences—that poor performance becomes the new standard.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
“You can’t make people listen to you. You can’t make them execute. That might be a temporary solution for a simple task. But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous—you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.”
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Extreme Ownership
