Extreme Ownership for College 1.1: Extreme Ownership
My analysis of the terrific book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Part 1 of 12.
I’ll focus on what 21-year old, just-graduated, tech-loving kids (people like me) or college students can relate to. Hopefully there’s some value in these articles even if you don’t fit that demographic. This is not a summary of the book by any means. My goal will be to give my perspective on these lessons and hopefully incite some thoughts from you, the reader. Let’s begin.
The leader must own everything in his or her world. (Page 30)
After reading through this chapter, I couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated. I had worked in project groups in high school or coded up software in internships and seen the person who didn’t carry their weight. Deadweight, we called it. Though there wasn’t a so-called “leader”, we usually had our roles and it made more sense to me that we should all be focused on doing it. As a student, you’ve got your own worries. School, athletics, clubs, research and the list goes on and on. You barely have time to sleep or even have a social life. Just turning assignments in on time can be incredibly difficult and going the extra mile on any project can sap any motivation you have. So, you’re not responsible for making sure everyone else is doing their job to the best of their ability, right?
Wrong.
You are responsible, whether you like it or not. In all the great project groups I worked in (no matter how hard the project was), there was at least one person who made it their job to hold everyone accountable. They sent emails, followed up on Facebook messenger, Insta dm-ed and constantly kept everyone in the loop. What they realized at that time was that how one person did their job reflected on everyone. And yes, there may be peer reviews that change the grade at the end of the project (where you can roast the person/people who got carried!), but the frank truth is that you are a team and leaders know that how one person does their job inherently reflects on everyone else.
This means that it is your job, as a leader, to push people in your team, communicate effectively and take responsibility over how things should run. And even if there may be no official “leader” role in a project group, there’s nothing stopping you from being one.
Willink, Jocko, and Leif Babin. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. Macmillan, 2018.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section!
