"The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job."

Retired Navy SEAL, podcaster, author, and leadership consultant Jocko Willink and his partner (also a former Navy SEAL) Leif Balbin wrote a really good book on leadership principle, called Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win.  The essence of the book boils down to one simple principle, summarized by Willink:

“The book derives its title from the underlying principle — the mind-set — that provides the foundation for all the rest: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame."

The book is structured in such a way that each chapter starts with a story from Willink's and Balbin's experience as Navy SEALs in the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The story illustrates a key leadership principle, which they explain further in the middle section of each chapter.  The chapter then concludes with an example of their leadership principle in practice in a non-military setting. 

The blogger, Jeffri Sandy provides an excellent summary of the key principles in his blog post "10 Lessons from Extreme Ownership":

1. Admit and own mistakes and develop plan to overcome them, and blame no one else.

2. As a Leader, you must demonstrate Extreme Ownership throughout the chain of command down.  There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

3. As a Leader, you must explain not just what to do, but WHY.  Find out If You don't know.

4. Control your own Ego.

5. Simplify the plan.

6. Prioritize and execute.

7. Build trust with your members.

8. Leading down the command.

9. Leading UP the command.  Don't ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.

10. Discipline yourself.

As an example of the last leadership principle, Jocko Willink starts his day every morning around 4:30 AM or so - and just to prove it, he posts a picture of his watch every morning when he wakes up on his Twitter and Instagram site.  It's a great illustration of the "practice what you preach" principle.

Even if you are not in to military stories, there is a lot to learn in Willink's and Balbin's book.  I also don't want to glorify the U.S. Navy SEALs - they are an elite military force for sure, but they have also had their share of leadership problems over the last few years (see here).  I highly recommend the book.

I enjoyed "Extreme Ownership" so much, that I recently checked out their next book, The Dichotomy of Leadership from the library.  Willink and Balbin once again structure this book in the same way that they did in Extreme Ownership - a military story, a brief discussion of the key leadership principle, and an illustration of the leadership principle in a non-military setting. 

The book starts out with an Introduction by Balbin.  He is sharing a personal experience from the War in Iraq in 2006.  He describes a rather tense firefight that seems to be heading in the wrong direction.  His next line is a powerful one:

"Every bone in my body wanted to step up and take charge, bark a verbal command that could be heard over the sound of intense gunfire.  But I wasn't in charge."

Consider this - Balbin was the Platoon Leader in charge of the SEALs in the firefight.  Actually, he was one of those SEALs in the firefight.  On that particular day, the platoon's operation was being led by the Assistant Platoon Leader, who happened to be one of the least experienced SEAL officers in their unit.  Balbin provided some assistance to his junior officer, but he never took control of the situation.  He didn't have to - with a little encouragement and a gentle push, the junior officer led the team to safety and turned a potentially losing firefight into a victory. 

As Balbin stated, "The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job."  He recognized that his Assistant Platoon Leader needed to have the experience of commanding a field operation under the tense, emotionally-charged, conditions of combat.  By putting his junior officer in charge, he gave him important leadership experience, which ultimately made the whole unit more effective.  He goes on further:

"Trying to navigate between leadership and followership was an example of the Dichotomy of Leadership, the balance that every leader must find between two opposing forces in leadership.  Ready to lead, but also knowing when to follow.  Taking Extreme Ownership of everything that impacts the mission, but also empowering others to lead with Decentralized Command."

We've heard that before - Balbin is talking about one of the foundational principles of High Reliability Organizations, "Deference to Expertise".  I talk about this one a lot, because it is so incredibly important.  But in order to get there, frontline leaders need to have the experience and training to be able to fulfill the mission, whether it is a special forces operation in a war zone, the sales launch of a new product, or taking charge of a code blue team in a hospital.

The goal of every leader is to train his or her direct reports so that they can take charge.  It's actually kind of strange when you think about it.  The goal of every leader is to become superfluous!  Leaders, regardless of the setting, should yield to their "Assistant Platoon Leaders" as frequently as possible, but always remain available to provide coaching, guidance, and mentorship when necessary.  The direct report benefits.  The team benefits.  The leader benefits.  And ultimately, the organization benefits.