Abstract

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Extreme Ownership comes a new and revolutionary approach to help leaders recognize and attain the leadership balance crucial to victory.

With their first book, Extreme Ownership (published in October 2015), Jocko Willink and Leif Babin set a new standard for leadership, challenging readers to become better leaders, better followers, and better people, in both their professional and personal lives. Now, in THE DICHOTOMY OF LEADERSHIP , Jocko and Leif dive even deeper into the unchartered and complex waters of a concept first introduced in Extreme Ownership : finding balance between the opposing forces that pull every leader in different directions. Here, Willink and Babin get granular into the nuances that every successful leader must navigate.

Mastering the Dichotomy of Leadership requires understanding when to lead and when to follow; when to aggressively maneuver and when to pause and let things develop; when to detach and let the team run and when to dive into the details and micromanage. In addition, every leader

- Take Extreme Ownership of everything that impacts their mission, yet utilize Decentralize Command by giving ownership to their team.  
- Care deeply about their people and their individual success and livelihoods, yet look out for the good of the overall team and above all accomplish the strategic mission.  
- Exhibit the most important quality in a leader―humility, but also be willing to speak up and push back against questionable decisions that could hurt the team and the mission.

With examples from the authors’ combat and training experiences in the SEAL teams, and then a demonstration of how each lesson applies to the business world, Willink and Babin clearly explain THE DICHOTOMY OF LEADERSHIP ― skills that are mission-critical for any leader and any team to achieve their ultimate VICTORY.

Takeaways

Introduction: Finding the Balance

• What makes the best leaders and best teams great is that when they make mistakes, they acknowledge them, take ownership, and make corrections to upgrade their performance Link
• The first Law of Combat: Cover and Move. This is teamwork: every individual and team within the team, mutually supporting one another to accomplish the mission. Departments and groups within the team, and even those outside the immediate team that are nevertheless crucial to success, must break down silos and work together to win. It doesn’t matter if one element within the group does its job: if the team fails, everybody fails. But when the overall team wins, everybody wins. Everyone gets to share in that success. Link
• The second Law of Combat: Simple. Complexity breeds chaos and disaster, especially when things go wrong. And things always go wrong. When plans and orders get too complex, the people charged with executing those plans and orders do not understand them. Link
• The third Law of Combat: Prioritize and Execute. When multiple problems occur simultaneously (which happens often), taking on too many problems at once results in failure. It is imperative that leaders detach themselves, “pull back from the details”, and assess to determine the highest priority to the strategic mission. Then, once that highest-priority task has been determined, leaders must clearly communicate that priority to the team and ensure the team executes. Then the leaders and the team can move on to the next priority. Then the next. Training and proper contingency planning assist greatly. Link
• The fourth Law of Combat: Decentralized Command. No one leader can manage it all or make every decision. Instead, leadership must be decentralized, with leaders at every level empowered to make decisions, right down to the frontline troopers in charge of no one but themselves and their small piece of the mission. With Decentralized Command, everyone leads. To empower everyone on the team to lead, team members must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it. This requires clear and frequent communication up and down the chain of command. Link
• You must hold the line with discipline but not become tyrannical. Link
• If a team member fails to perform adequately, for example, a leader must get down in the weeds and micromanage that member until he or she executes correctly. But once the team member gets back on track and resumes effective performance, the leader must maintain the ability to back off and give that team member room to take greater ownership and manage tasks on his or her own. Link

Important

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. With this in mind, a leader can more easily balance the opposing forces and lead with maximum effectiveness. Link

Chapter 1: The Ultimate Dichotomy

• Care deeply for each individual member of the team, while at the same time accepting the risks necessary to accomplish the mission Link
• Leaders must drive their team to accomplish the mission without driving them off a cliff. Link
• The fact that you care about your people more than anything, but at the same time you have to lead them. And as a leader, you might have to make decisions that hurt individuals on your team. But you also have to make decisions that will allow you to continue the mission for the greater good of everyone on the team. If military leaders decided that they were simply going to shield their troops from every risk at all costs, what would they get accomplished? Link
• A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risks and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops. Link It is key to understand the balance caring for people with accomplishing the mission and that failing to balance those two opposing goals would result in his failure to do either. Link

Chapter 2: Own It All, but Empower Others

• The micromanager tries to control every thought and action of each individual on the team. Micromanagement fails because no one person can control multiple people executing a vast number of actions in a dynamic environment, where changes in the situation occur rapidly and with unpredictability. Link
  • Commons symptoms that result from micromanagement: Link
    1. The team shows a lack of initiative. Members will not take action unless directed.
    2. The team does not seek solutions to problems; instead, its members sit and wait to be told about a solution.
    3. Even in an emergency, a team that is being micromanaged will not mobilize and take action.
    4. Bold and aggressive action becomes rare.
    5. Creativity grinds to a halt.
    6. The team tends to stay inside their own silo
• The hands-off leader with a laissez-faire attitude is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Such a leader fails to provide specific direction in some cases almost no clear direction whatsoever. Instead of a lack of thought like a team that is micromanaged, a team with a hands-off leader thinks too much. Its members have grand ideas and plans, they come up with new tactics and procedures; they even start to develop their own broad strategies beyond the boundaries of their responsibilities and competence. Such grandiose ideas and thoughts become a major problem when they are not aligned with the greater vision and goals of the company. So the troops, instead of pushing the team toward its strategic goals, move in random directions. Link
  • Common symptoms that indicate when a leader is too hands-off: Link
    1. Lack of vision in what the team is trying to do and how to do it.
    2. Lack of coordination between individuals on the team and efforts that often compete or interfere with each other.
    3. Initiative oversteps the bounds of authority, and both individuals and teams carry out actions that are beyond what they have the authorization to do.
    4. Failure to coordinate.

Important

Troops have the guidance to execute but at the same time the freedom to make decisions and lead. Link

Chapter 3: Resolute, but Not Overbearing

• Leaders, on the one hand, cannot be too lenient. But on the other hand, they cannot become overbearing. They must set high standards and drive the team to achieve those standards, but they cannot be domineering or inflexible on matters of little strategic importance. Link

Important

Be resolute where it matters but never overbearing; never inflexible and uncompromising on matters of little importance to the overall good of the team and the strategic mission. Link

Chapter 4: When to Mentor, When to Fire

- Most underperformers don’t need to be fired, they need to be led. But once every effort has been made to help an underperformer improve and all efforts have failed, a leader has to make the tough call to let that person go. This is the duty and responsibility of every leader. Link

Important

Leaders are responsible for the output of the individuals on their team. The goal of any leader is to get the most out of every individual to push each individual to reach his or her maximum potential so that the team itself can reach its maximum potential. Link

Chapter 5: Train Hard, but Train Smart

• Hard training is critical to the performance of any team; this is clearly the case with SEAL platoons and task units deploying to combat zones, where we say: You train how you fight and you fight how you train. The best training programs push their teams hard, far beyond their comfort zone, so that the team can learn from mistakes in training. Link
• Training must be hard. Training must simulate realistic challenges and apply pressure to decision-makers. There is no growth in the comfort zone. Link
• Training must be realistic. Every training scenario should be based upon something that is likely to (or could potentially) be encountered in a real scenario. Link
• Training must focus on the fundamentals. While units must adapt and innovate, some basic tactics do not change. Link
• Training must be repetitive. It is not enough to have a training program for new hires in the first days or weeks that they join the team. Link
• Take Extreme Ownership of training. Rather than wait for someone else to build a training program or make training more realistic and effective, seize the initiative on your own. Link

Important

“We don’t have the budget to train” isn’t a valid excuse. Link “We don’t have time to train” isn’t a valid excuse. Link

Chapter 6: Aggressive, Not Reckless

• Problems aren’t going to solve themselves; a leader must get aggressive and take action to solve them and implement a solution. Being too passive and waiting for a solution to appear often enables a problem to escalate and get out of control. The enemy isn’t going to back off; the leader must get aggressive and put the enemy in check. Link
• Aggressive leaders proactively seek out ways to further the strategic mission. Link

Important: Aggressive means proactive.

It doesn’t mean that leaders can get angry, lose their temper, or be aggressive toward their people. A leader must always deal professionally with subordinates on the team, peers, leaders up the chain of command, customers or clients, and personnel in supporting roles outside the immediate team. Link

• The disease of victory.
  • This disease takes place when a few battlefield successes produce an overconfidence in a team’s own tactical prowess while underestimating the capabilities of its enemy or competitor. Link
  • It is a leader’s duty to fight against this victory disease so that the team, despite its success, never gets complacent. Link

Chapter 7: Disciplined, Not Rigid

• While Discipline Equals Freedom is a powerful tool for both personal and team development, excessive discipline can stifle free thinking in team leaders and team members. Disciplined standard operating procedures, repeatable processes, and consistent methodologies are helpful in any organization. The more discipline a team exercises, the more freedom that team will have to maneuver by implementing small adjustments to existing plans. Link

Important

Disciplined procedures must be balanced with the ability to apply common sense to an issue, with the power to break with SOPs when necessary, with the freedom to think about alternative solutions, apply new ideas, and make adjustments to processes based on the reality of what is actually happening. Link

Chapter 8: Hold People Accountable, but Don’t Hold Their Hands

• Accountability is an important tool that leaders must utilize. However, it should not be the primary tool. It must be balanced with other leadership tools, such as making sure people understand the why, empowering subordinates, and trusting they will do the right thing without direct oversight because they fully understand the importance of doing so. Link
• It is imperative that leaders hold the line and uphold the standards where it matters most Link

Important

It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. Link

Chapter 9: A Leader and a Follower

- Confident leaders encourage junior members of the team to step up and lead when they put forth ideas that will contribute to mission success. Link

Important

A leader must be willing to lean on the expertise and ideas of others for the good of the team. Leaders must be willing to listen and follow others, regardless of whether they are junior or less experienced. Link

Chapter 10: Plan, but Don’t Overplan

• Careful planning is essential to the success of any mission. Link
• Leaders must manage this risk through careful contingency planning for the things that can be controlled. But not every risk can be controlled. Link
• You cannot plan for every contingency. If you try to create a solution for every single potential problem that might arise, you overwhelm your team, you overwhelm the planning process, you overcomplicate decisions for leaders. Link

Important

Careful contingency plans that are focused are key to managing risks and achieving victory. Link

Chapter 11: Humble, Not Passive

• Humility is the most important quality in a leader. Link

Important

Leaders must be humble enough to listen to new ideas, willing to learn strategic insights, and open to implementing new and better tactics and strategies. But a leader must also be ready to stand firm when there are clearly unintended consequences that negatively impact the mission and risk harm to the team.Link

Chapter 12: Focused, but Detached

• Naturally, leaders must be attentive to details. However, leaders cannot be so immersed in the details that they lose track of the larger strategic situation and are unable to provide command and control for the entire team.Link
• Leaders cannot allow themselves to get so obsessed by the details that they lose focus on the bigger picture. Link

Important

Leaders must still be attentive to the details, understand the challenges of the teams executing the mission at the front echelon, and position themselves where they can best support their teams. Link