In The Dichotomy of Leadership, decorated former US Navy SEAL officers Jocko Willink and Leif Babin show you how to walk the fine line of being a true leader to accomplish missions in your personal and business lives and achieve the goal of every team: victory. He is also the co-founder of the consulting firm Echelon Front. This is has become a mantra of this website: love is at the core of real leadership.And sometimes that love means you need to make tough decisions as well. It begins by telling a story from downrange (military combat missions), then it discusses the principle that particular mission uncovered, and finally the principle then is applied in the business world. The Dichotomy of Leadership lays out 12 major aspects of leadership where people must find balance. Every leader must be ready and willing to take charge, to make hard, crucial calls for the good of the team and the mission. Preference will be given to active duty military authors. All of the questions your team asked after reading Extreme Ownership are answered. I’m sure their “four laws of combat” have been helpful too many, but it felt like it was a big blowing of one’s own horn. US Navy Reading List "A leader must be confident but never cocky." Dichotomy of Leadership follows the same general format as Extreme Ownership. This is a dichotomy; a Dichotomy of Leadership. The book is divided into three parts: 1) Balancing People, 2) Balancing the Mission, and 3) Balancing Yourself. A lot. I started DODReads in 2017 and have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month to keep the site going. If a more junior member or a report knows better than you, it’s your duty to listen to him. Now, in THE DICHOTOMY OF LEADERSHIP, Jocko and Leif dive even deeper into the unchartered and complex waters of a concept first introduced in Extreme Ownership: finding balance between the opposing forces that pull every leader in different directions. Writing notes on the back page of the book worked great for a while, but if I gave the book away I lost the notes. Here, Willink and Babin get granular into the nuances that every successful leader must navigate. Basically, making sweeping generalizations is impossible (and wrong), because great leadership, like most other things in life, is about balance. A leader who can’t admit when there are better alternatives and solutions and when there are other people who have better answers is a leader who is endangering the team and the mission for his own ego’s sake. In this segment, Jocko describes the difficult balancing act that all good leaders must maintain for maximum effectiveness. Great leadership is never extreme, but always about walking a fine line. In addition, every leader must: Take Extreme Ownership of everything that impacts their mission, yet … The book is a sequel to their first one “Extreme Ownership”. Sometimes you must enforce the rules, demand compliance, expect high standards, and crack the whip. US Air Force Reading List The dichotomy with the Default: Aggressive mind-set is that sometimes hesitation allows a leader to further understand a situation so that he or she can react properly to it. To be overly aggressive without critical thinking is to be reckless. Humility is not passivity though. Leaders must take responsibility for underperformance and do all they can to teach, mentor, and help. The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink. Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). Most underperformers don’t need to be fired, they need to be led. Aggressive can be a quality, but it must be weighed against critical thinking and risk assessment. The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win is a 2018 Outstanding Works of Literature (O.W.L.) Sometimes it felt to me like the words and expressions were unneededly exaggerated or self-congratulatory. www.navy-prt.com The authors recall situations in which they pushed to have it their own way only for the sake of not looking weak. References to DoD do not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. The dichotomy of leadership is there really is no one telling you what to do, which is great and than again there is no one telling you what to do….which means it is so about you.