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The narratives were dramatic, moving, and a world apart from anything with which I am familiar, but the principles apply. That’s what I found with a leadership book I recently finished. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.
I listened to it via Audible. The book was read by the authors, and they sound like you’d imagine SEALs sound. If you like war stories combined with business lessons, you’d love it. Throughout the book they used lessons learned in combat and stories from business consulting to present leadership principles, but they primary principle is in the title: extreme ownership.
[su_quote cite=”Jocko Willink”]Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”[/su_quote]
It’s so easy to find reasons why something isn’t working. And often there are a dozen somewhat valid reasons. But when you’re leading a group in combat, there is no excuse good enough to give up or to settle, you continue to lead until you see defeat or victory.
As I applied the principle to ministries, small groups, and outreaches I lead, I immediately began to list the excuses. But we don’t have the right people, or the school isn’t open to that, or our culture is hostile to such and such, or I don’t have enough time. And to some extent, there is truth with all of these. But do I want to move my teams toward defeat or victory?
[su_quote cite=”Jocko Willink”]Any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.”[/su_quote]
Over the past couple of years there was a lack of focus in my college ministry. And I think it’s attributable to a dozen different reasons (all partly true). However, we began to take ground this semester when I decided to take responsibility and do what I could do to move us toward greater focus.
For a couple of reasons, our large group gathering is off-campus and hosted at the local church. There are pros and cons, but over the past couple of years I felt like we’ve become less focused on college outreach. I can’t immediately change a bunch of things, but what I could do was more clearly trumpet our vision. We took three large group gatherings in a row to talk about God’s call for us and our special opportunity with the colleges in our area. At the end of each of these three services I had college students from a school or two come forward and the rest of the group pray for them.
These two solutions might seem simple, but by taking three weeks to address the vision, I made it plainer than I’ve made it in a while. And more significantly, taking time to pray for all our students from each school (a) blesses and empowers these students and (b) also clearly says to the whole group, we are here to empower students to reach these campuses!
My students and young-professionals might walk away and not remember what I said, but the times of prayer three weeks in a row made a memorable statement. And it changed momentum and focus for the whole group.
[su_quote cite=”Jamie Sinclair”]Great leaders go beyond excuses and move their teams to success.[/su_quote]
It was simple, but it required me moving beyond excuses and taking ownership. Hopefully this challenges and empowers you where you lead. Don’t allow excuses to stop you, take ownership and lead your team toward success!
photo credit: Navy SEAL Training via photopin (license)
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