The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win

297 Pages·2018·11.14 MB·English

by  Jocko Willink

Task Unit Bruiser SEALs, explosive ordnance disposal bomb technicians, and Iraqi soldiers conduct a
clearance operation in the Malaab District of eastern Ramadi alongside U.S. Soldiers of Task Force Red
Currahee, the legendary “Band of Brothers” of the 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
(1/506th), 101st Airborne Division. A 1/506th company commander, “Gunfighter Six,” an outstanding
warrior and professional Soldier, is in the foreground at right.
(Photo courtesy of Todd Pitman)

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Table of Contents
About the Authors
Copyright Page

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Dedicated to the Big Tough Frogmen of SEAL Team Three, Task Unit
Bruiser, especially: Marc Lee, Mike Monsoor, and Ryan Job, who laid
down their lives; Chris Kyle, a friend and a Legend; and Seth Stone, the
Delta Platoon commander, our brother. May we honor them always.

PREFACE
War is a nightmare. It is awful, indifferent, devastating, and evil.
War is hell.
But war is also an incredible teacher—a brutal instructor. We learned lessons
in war, written in blood, about sorrow, loss, and pain. We also learned about the
fragility of human life and the power of the human spirit.
Of course, we learned about strategy and tactics. We learned how to most
effectively take the fight to our enemies. We learned how to analyze targets,
gather and exploit information, find our enemy’s weaknesses, and capitalize on
them. We applied these lessons and made the enemy pay for their transgressions.
But of everything we learned, nothing is as universal and transferable as how
we came to truly understand the power of leadership. We saw how successful
leaders could create victory where victory seemed impossible. We also
witnessed how poor leadership could bring defeat upon teams that seemed
invincible.
We discovered firsthand that the principles of leadership are “simple, but not
easy.” There are strategies, techniques, and skills that take time and practice to
utilize effectively. The foremost requirement for potent leadership is humility, so
that leaders can fully understand and appreciate their own shortfalls. We learned
much on the battlefield and have tried to pass those lessons on, but we are still
humbled every day by our mistakes and all that we continue to learn.
This book builds upon our first book, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy
SEALs Lead and Win. It is the follow-on book that so many readers of Extreme
Ownership asked us to write. We have laid out the concepts in The Dichotomy of
Leadership with clear descriptions and context so that it can be read and
understood independently of the first book. For further explanation of the
overviews given in the following pages, readers may want the deeper
understanding and background provided in Extreme Ownership. But, while it
may be helpful to understand the first book for greater enlightenment, it is not
essential.
In both books, we reference our experiences in the military, where we both
served as SEAL officers. The bulk of our lessons learned draw from the Battle of
Ramadi in 2006, where we served as the leaders of SEAL Team Three, Task
Unit Bruiser. During that battle, the SEALs from Task Unit Bruiser fought with
incredible bravery and tenacity. They delivered huge impact on the battlefield.
But Task Unit Bruiser also suffered severe casualties. Those sacrifices will never
be forgotten.
Upon our departure from active duty in the U.S. Navy, we launched a
company, Echelon Front, to share the lessons we learned with leaders in every
capacity. In 2015, we published Extreme Ownership. Through that book, leaders
all over the world embraced its fundamental principles—the mind-set of
Extreme Ownership and the four Laws of Combat: Cover and Move, Simple,
Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command. More than a million
readers have taken those tenets and implemented them in their professional and
personal lives with extraordinary results.
But employing these principles to the fullest proves challenging. The
nuances, if neglected or misunderstood, create obstacles difficult to overcome.
We wrote this book to provide the granular insight and understanding that often
render the difference between success and failure. This book will enable you to
better process, analyze, and apply these leadership principles to your battlefield,
in whatever arena that might be, whether leading in combat, business, or life.
The format of The Dichotomy of Leadership mirrors that of Extreme
Ownership: there are three parts to the book, four chapters in each part, and three
sections to each chapter. The first section of each chapter describes an
experience from combat or SEAL training; the second section discusses the
relevant principle; and the third provides the direct application of the concept to
the business world.
The Dichotomy of Leadership is not a memoir or a history of the Iraq War.
As we said in Extreme Ownership, “This book is about leadership. It was written
for leaders of teams large and small, for men and women, for any person who
aspires to better themselves. Though it contains exciting accounts of SEAL
combat operations, this book is … a collection of lessons learned from our