Sublime

the traditional heroic decision maker. In the Task Force, we found that, alongside our new approach to management, we had to develop a new paradigm of personal leadership. The role of the senior leader was no longer that of controlling puppet master, but rather that of an empathetic crafter of culture.

The best teams—like the three snipers on the deck of the Bainbridge—know their coach (or commander or boss) trusts them to trust each other. Those horizontal anti-MECE bonds of trust and overlapping definitions of purpose enable them to “do the right thing.”

An inexperienced but capable leader needs time to fully own his or her area of responsibility; in the meantime, I get more involved than I normally would to teach and mentor. As that person gains experience, I slowly allow more freedom and demonstrate more trust.

soldiered with the Communist leadership that would ultimately wrest control of the country from the Nationalists. While there, he became interested in Chinese guerilla operations against the Japanese, specifically the small-unit, “democratic” leadership model that pushed authority and responsibility down to the most junior levels in small combat

The Marshall Space Flight Center is run by one man, William R. Lucas. His style of management can be best described as feudalistic. In his ten-year tenure as Center Director, he established a personal empire built on the “good ol' boy” principle. The only criterion for career advancement is total loyalty to this man. The loyalty to country, NASA,

Had I not witnessed this amazing transformation, I might have doubted it. But it was a glaring, undeniable example of one of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. How is it possible that switching a single individual—only the leader—had completely turned around the