Preface

The principles of leadership are “simple, but not easy.” The foremost requirement for potent leadership is humility. Leaders must fully understand and appreciate their shortfalls.
The Four Laws of Combat are (1) Cover and Move, (2) Simple, (3) Prioritize and Execute and (4) Decentralized Command.
In most cases, leadership requires balance. Leaders must find the equilibrium between opposing forces: being aggressive yet cautious, being disciplined yet flexible, being a leader but also a follower. Achieving proper balance is the most difficult aspect of leadership. No matter the arena, balance must be achieved for optimal performance. Too much authority means a reluctance to execute. Too much aggression puts the team and the mission at risk. Not enough aggression means waiting too long to act and equal risk. Training your team too hard means burnout yet, without challenging and realistic training, the team remains unprepared for what they may face.
Often mistakes and failures provide the most valuable lessons.

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Introduction - Finding the Balance

Being cool under fire is a great quality that every leader should work toward.
The goal of a leader should be to work his way out of a job. By putting junior leaders and frontline workers in charge, it creates a culture of leaders at every level of the team. The balance between leadership and followership is represented in the dichotomy of leadership.
Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership - Leaders must take ownership, extreme ownership of everything in their world, everything that impacts their mission. When mistakes happen, effective leaders take ownership, determine what went wrong and prevent them from happening again as they move forward. Flawless performance is a myth. What makes the best teams and leaders great is that they (1) acknowledge mistakes, (2) take ownership and (3) make corrections to upgrade performance. With each iteration, the team and its leaders enhance their effectiveness.
Laws of Combat

Cover and Move: This is teamwork. Every individual, and team within the team, mutually supporting one another to accomplish the mission. All departments and groups are crucial to success. To win, every element within the group must do its part. It doesn't matter if one element does it’s job: if the team fails, everybody fails. But when the overall team wins, everybody wins. Everyone gets to share in that success.
Simple: Complexity breeds chaos and disaster, especially when things go wrong. And things always go wrong. When plans and rules get too complex, the people charged with executing those plans and orders do not understand them. When the people on a team understand, then they can execute. Plans must be simplified to the point that everyone recognizes the overall ‘commander’s intent’ -- the greater purpose behind the mission. Orders must be communicated in a way that is simple, clear and concise.
Prioritize and Execute: Oftentimes, multiple problems occur simultaneously. 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. Next, they must communicate that priority to the team and ensure that the team executes. Then, the leaders and the team can move on to the next priority. And then the next. Training and proper contingency planning assist greatly to better prepare teams and leaders to effectively prioritize and execute under pressure in real time.
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. 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--and most importantly: trust. Focus on finding the right balance in leadership and on maintaining that balance within teams, among peers and both up and down the chain of command. Every good leader must develop the ability to recognize, understand and adjust that balance. While it isn’t easy, through knowledge, disciplined practice and sustained effort, it is possible to master finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of leadership.

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Part I: Balancing People

(01) The Ultimate Dichotomy

The ultimate dichotomy: to train, work with and develop a team of friends and brothers, to care about those men more than anything in the world and then lead those men on missions that could get them killed--to care deeply for each member of the team, while at the same time accepting the risks necessary to accomplish the mission.
Principle: there are limitless dichotomies in leadership and a leader must carefully balance between these opposite forces. A good leader builds powerful, strong relationships with subordinates and is willing to do anything for them yet, recognizes there is a job to do. If leaders develop too close a relationship than is necessary to complete the task or project, they may not have the wherewithal to lay off individuals, even if it is the right move for the good of the company. Some get so close to subordinates, they are unwilling to have the hard conversation, to tell them that they need to improve. On the other hand, if a leader it's too detached from the team, he may overwork, overexpose or otherwise harm its members, achieving no significant value from the sacrifice. Find balance. Push hard without pushing too hard. Drive the team to accomplish the mission without driving them off a cliff.
Application to Business: Failing to find the balance between caring for people and accomplishing the mission results in failure to do either. Care but, at the same time, complete the mission.

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(02) Own it All but Empower Others

Take extreme ownership for the success or failure of a mission but balance it with decentralized command so those under your lead are fully empowered to execute with conviction and lead from their positions with certitude. This allows us to see much more of the big picture and to see how different operations might support or conflict with each other. With subordinate leadership running tactical operations, the leader has a chance to look up and out and play at a higher level.
True extreme ownership means that all responsibility rests with you as the leader but it doesn't mean you are responsible for doing everything. It's important as well, do not let the dichotomy slide the other way and to become too hands-off. Silence the dichotomy between taking too much ownership and not taking enough.
Principal: find a balance between micro-management and hands-off leadership. No one person can control multiple people executing a vast number of actions in a dynamic environment. Micromanagement also inhibits the growth of subordinates: when people become accustomed to being told what to do, they begin to await direction. Initiative and creativity fade and eventually dissolve. On the other hand, the leader with a laissez-faire attitude fails to provide specific directions on how to make the mission clear. The teams within the team get ideas that may not align with the mission and move in random directions, or in ways that conflict with what others on the team are doing. This is no way to achieve greatness.
Symptoms of micromanagement:

Will not take initiative unless ordered.
Team does not seek to solve problems; instead they sit around waiting for a solution.
Even in an emergency, a team that is being micromanaged will not take action.
Bold and aggressive action becomes rare.
Creativity grinds to a halt.
The team rarely steps out of its own Silo to coordinate efforts with other divisions for fear of overstepping.
An overall sense of passivity and failure to react.

Corrective Action: Pull back from giving detailed directions. Clearly explain the broad goal of the broad goal of the mission—the end state desired and why the mission is important. Then, allow the team to plan how to execute it. Continue to monitor what is happening and to check progress but refrain from giving specific guidance on the execution, unless the plan being formulated will have extreme negative consequences. If time and risk levels permit, step away completely and allow the team to plan and execute a mission on their own.
Symptoms of Being Too Hands Off:

Lack of vision in what the team is doing and how to do it.
Lack of coordination between individuals and often, competing interests.
Initiative oversteps the bounds of authority and both individuals and teams carry out actions that are beyond what they have the authority to do.
Failure to coordinate. Even in great attempts to solve problems and accomplish the mission, individuals and teams can interfere with one another's efforts or end up duplicating efforts if they fail to coordinate.
The team is focused on the wrong priority mission or in pursuit of solutions that are not in keeping with the strategic direction of the team or the commander's intent.
There are too many people trying to lead, leaving no one to execute. Instead of progress, we see discussion. Instead of action, debate. Instead of unified movements,we see fractured elements pursuing individual efforts.

Corrective Action:

Give clear guidance. The mission, the goal and the end state must be explained in a simple, clear and concise manner.
The team must understand the boundaries in place and what actions to take should it bump up against the boundaries.
If multiple overlapping efforts are being pursued, the leader must decide on and clearly implement the chosen course of action. The team must also be educated on efforts being executed by other teams so deconfliction can occur.
If there are "too many coaches, and not enough players" the leader must assign and clearly delineate the chain of command, roles and responsibilities of the team leaders and give them proper authority. With clear direction, efforts are coordinated and the team can work together toward a unified plan. The key is balance, where troops have guidance to execute but at the same time the freedom to make decisions and lead.

Application to Business - Find the balance between decentralized command and extreme ownership. When too decentralized, no one knows the direction in which 'we' are going. Take too much ownership and people won't act with any level of initiative.

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(03) Resolute But Not Overbearing

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