I want to practice to the point where it’s almost uncomfortable how fast you shoot, so that in the game things kind of slow down.” – Stephen Curry I realized that if my chain of command had questions about my plans or needed additional information or more detailed paperwork, it was not their fault,” I said. “It was my fault. I knew we were making the right decisions and being careful to mitigate every risk we could control. I knew our combat operations were critical to achieving strategic victory in Ramadi. So if my boss wasn’t comfortable with what I was doing, it was only because I had not clearly communicated it to him.” 11. Decisiveness Amid Uncertainty Military Situation You must understand the strategic impact of what you are doing and why. This information must be explained to your junior leaders. Everybody is going to be excited to play in a Super Bowl. When you still enjoy the preparation and the work part of it, I think you ought to be still doing that. I think as soon as I stop enjoying it, if I can’t produce, if I can’t help a team, that’s when I will stop playing.” – Peyton Manning In many cases, the leader must align his thoughts and vision to that of the mission. Once a leader believes in the mission, that belief shines through to those below and above in the chain of command. Actions and words reflect belief with a clear confidence and self-assuredness that is not possible when belief is in doubt.

The SEAL unit was under fire and pinned down inside a building with an IED threatening their exit. They went to the roof to escape the situation only to have a SEAL team member fall through what they thought was the roof and injure himself two floors down. It was an overwhelming situation and one where the leaders could do any number of things, but get overwhelmed. Every team must have junior leaders that can step up and take the role of leader if their bosses are absent. Plan, but Don’t Overplan — 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. Rather than preventing or solving problems, overplanning creates additional and sometimes far more difficult problems. It is important, however, that leaders manage the dichotomy in planning by not straying too far in the other direction — by not planning enough for contingencies. When leaders dismiss likely threats or problems that could arise, it sets the team up for greater difficulties and may lead to mission failure.The difference between the two boats was the leader. They swapped out the boat crew leaders. They ran the drill again. “The same team in the same circumstances only under new leadership, went from the worst boat crew in the class to the best.” All the good things I had done and the solid reputation I had worked hard to establish in my career as a SEAL were now meaningless. Despite the many successful combat operations I had led, I was now the commander of a unit that had committed the SEAL mortal sin. The list of mistakes was substantial. As directed, I put together a brief, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with timelines and depictions of the movements of friendly units on a map of the area. Then I assembled the list of everything that everyone had done wrong. Those all may be factors. But there is one most important reason why this plan has failed,” I said.

Make sure you live in the moment and work your butt off every single day, and I hope I inspire people all around the world to just be themselves. Be humble, and be grateful for all the blessings in your life.” – Stephen Curry In a hostage rescue situation the SEALs had made a plan. Shortly before the mission they received new intel that there were IEDs in the yard and machine gun nests in the building. They followed the plan, secured the target. They reenacted that situation years later in training. Many of them thought they should have aborted the mission. But a good plan would already account for those types of contingencies. Remember the story where the platoon was trapped in a building with an IED outside the only door. They breached a separate wall and went out onto a neighboring roof. Once on the roof, someone fell to the ground, and they had the IED ready to detonate. They had to prioritize and execute to make it out safely. I looked around. The building he pointed to was riddled with bullet holes. The QRF Humvees had put over 150 rounds from a .50-caliber heavy machine gun into it and many more smaller caliber rounds from their rifles and light machines. Now the Abrams tank had its huge main gun trained on the building, preparing to reduce it to rubble and kill everyone inside. And if that still didn’t do the job, bombs from the sky would be next. It goes without saying, winning against a good team in a hostile crowd on the road, it’s just an absolutely huge win.” – Peyton ManningRejection might sting, but my feeling is that often, it has very little to do with you.” – Robert De Niro

If your bosses are asking many questions before you are allowed to do anything, then you aren’t doing a good enough job explaining your plans to them. Managing up: Leading up the chain of command requires tactful engagement with the immediate boss (or in military terms, higher headquarters) to obtain the decisions and support necessary to enable your team to accomplish its mission and ultimately win. To do this, a leader must push situational awareness up the chain of command. I do a little sign on the court every time I make a shot or a good pass and i pound my chest and point to the sky – it symbolizes that I have a heart for God. It’s something that my mom and I came up with in college and I do it every time i step on the floor as a reminder of who I’m playing for.” – Stephen Curry

This is one of my informal book summaries. Every book that I read is turned into notes. I like to reflect on those notes every so often depending on what is going on in the world and what other articles I’m writing. I wanted to share them with you so that you might get some value out of it as well. If someone isn’t doing what you want or need them to do, look in the mirror and determine what you can do to better enable this. Roger,” he replied, stunned and disappointed at what had transpired. No doubt, as an outstanding leader himself, he felt somewhat responsible. But having operated in this chaotic urban battlefield for months alongside Iraqi soldiers, he knew how easily such a thing could happen. Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise. No one senior leader can be expected to manage dozens of individuals, much less hundreds. Teams must be broken down into manageable elements of four to five operators, with a clearly designated leader. Those leaders must understand the overall mission, and the ultimate goal of that mission — the Commander’s Intent. Junior leaders must be empowered to make decisions on key tasks necessary to accomplish that mission in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Teams within teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission, with leaders who have clearly delineated responsibilities. Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it. If frontline leaders do not understand why, they must ask their boss to clarify the why. Business Application Think about the story of the CTO who wouldn’t accept ownership. The CEO was allowing sub-standard performance from his CTO and his CTO wouldn’t accept ownership.

Remember the story with Chris Kyle and the blurry outline in the building across the street. They could not shoot the outline without knowing who it was. They had to send someone into the building to find out whether it was friendly or enemy.Have the humility to understand and accept when your boss has criticism or does something that you don’t agree with. Every leader must be able to detach themselves from the immediate tactical mission and understand how it fits into strategic goals. With Extreme Ownership, junior leaders take charge of their smaller teams and their piece of the mission. Efficiency and effectiveness increase exponentially and a high-performance, winning team is the result. Business Application I have to leave the games now if the announcer says something I don’t agree with. I’m thinking, ‘Peyton, it is not healthy to be all worked up before a game.’” – Peyton Manning