Navy Seals Leadership

Learn 12 principles that form the building blocks for winning in business and in life – as explained by former Navy Seals.

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Winning the War Within as a Leader

Posted: October 21, 2021
The first four principles for winning in business and in life have nothing to do with luck or environment. It's all about who you are on the inside.

Talking Points:

  • Ownership: All responsibility for every failure rests with the leader.
  • Accountability: There are only two types of leaders – effective and ineffective.
  • Buy-In: The leader has to be a true believer in the mission and vision.
  • Humility: Ego clouds and disrupts everything.
Discussion:
  1. Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. Which of the four principles stand out most to you, and why?
  3. Which principle is your strongest? Which is your weakest?
  4. What happens to a team where the top leaders don’t take extreme ownership? Give an example.
  5. “There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” Agree or disagree? Explain.
  6. What are some signs that someone is failing to buy into the team’s mission? Do you have someone on your team like that?
  7. Give an example of ego disrupting the team.
  8. Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?

Adapted from the book Extreme Ownership.

Maintaining the Edge as a Leader

Posted: September 2, 2021
Planning. Verticality. Decisiveness. Discipline. These final four principles can help you maintain the leader’s edge - on the battlefield or in life.

Talking Points:

  • The planning principle: Organizations need to create a standardized and repeatable planning process that is geared toward the “frontline troops”. The more simple and actionable the planning process, the better.
  • The verticality principle: Communicating down, as well as up, the chain of command is an important aspect of leading well. Senior leaders need to clearly make their intents known down to their junior leaders. Junior leaders, in turn, need to send their situational awareness back up to their senior leaders, so they can make better planning decisions.
  • The decisiveness principle: Good leaders will make the “best call amidst uncertainty”, Bad leaders will only paralyze themselves and make their team ineffective if they wait for 100% certainty to make a decision.
  • The discipline principle: The most important quality for an individual or a team to have is self-control and disciplined habits. When it comes to working within the framework of well established procedures, everyone must find the balance between freedom and discipline.
Discussion:
  1. Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. Which of these four principles is your team’s strongest point? Which is the weakest? Explain.
  3. Are there plans in place for your organization to be more standardized or more ambiguous? Explain.
  4. How can you make your planning process simpler, more actionable, or repeatable for your team?
  5. As a leader, how clear are your intentions to your team? When have you listened and used feedback from your team?
  6. When have you made a good decision with the best information you had at the time? When have you waited too long to make a decision? What happened?
  7. How can you find the balance between working within established procedures and having freedom to be creative?
  8. As a leader, how can you be aggressive without being overbearing?
  9. Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?

Adapted from the book Extreme Ownership by Jakko Willink and Leif Babin.

The Four Laws of Combat in Leadership

Posted: December 30, 2021
When it comes to working as a team to accomplish a mission, these four principles work from the battlefield to the boardroom.

Talking Points:

  • Alignment: Cover and move as a team to accomplish the mission.
  • Clarity: Keep the plan simple enough for everyone to communicate it.
  • Priority: Execute on the most important strategic objectives first.
  • Empowerment: Decentralize command to let everyone make decisions.
Discussion:
  1. Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. Which of these four principles is your team’s strongest point? Which is the weakest? Explain.
  3. Explain how “cover and move” applies to your team. Give an example.
  4. Make a list of the things you need to simplify in your organization. How has complexity hurt your team?
  5. What are the top three priorities for your team right now? How long will it take to execute on those priorities?
  6. How many people on your team would say they feel empowered to make important decisions? How confident are you in their ability to make the right decisions?
  7. Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?

Adapted from the book Extreme Ownership by Jakko Willink and Leif Babin.