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Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, "like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic."

one of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

As a leader, if you don't understand why decisions are being made, requests denied, or support allocated elsewhere, you must ask those questions up the chain. Then, once understood, you can pass that understanding down to your team. Leaders in any chain of command will not always agree. But at the end of the day, once the debate on a particular course of action is over and the boss has made a decision--even if that decision is one you argued against--you must execute the plan as if it were your own.

In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.

From time to time, leaders must show this hard edge. They must make those around them somewhat uneasy, even ill at ease, in not knowing what to expect from you, the leader. The knowledge that there is this hardness inside you can have a very sobering effect on those who might otherwise be sloppy--those who occasionally need to be reminded of your policies and practices.

I nod silently but refuse to say more. I always liked that phrase in Saving Private Ryan: "There's a chain of command: gripes go up, not down."

expect leaders to buffer their people from all the political and bureaucratic insanity, not throw them into it.

A word on the display of emotions. Almost no one can conceal his emotions. Behavioral scientists believe that one of the main reasons why people become leaders is not from what skills they seem to possess, but rather from what extremely superficial impression they make on others through hardly perceptible physical signals--what we call today "charisma,"

And once the decision was made, the discussion was over. My ultimate job, and yours, is not to give an opinion. Everybody's got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.

Effective management is putting first things first. While leadership decides what "first things" are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.

"Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better."

"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

Great leaders, in contrast, are able to inspire people to act. Those who are able to inspire give people a sense of purpose or belonging that has little to do with any external incentive or benefit to be gained.

Here's a short checklist worth keeping in mind when it comes to persevering, to doing it "your way" at all costs: 1. A leader must never quit. 2. A leader must know when to quit. 3. Proving that you are right or proving that someone is wrong are bad reasons for persisting. 4. Good logic, sound principles, and strong belief are the purest and most productive reasons for pushing forward when things get rough.