The book that I’ve finished reading for this week was a book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin called, Extreme Ownership.

This is not your typical U.S. Navy SEAL book, but don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of war stories. The twist is, the combat stories these two SEALs talk about lead to learned lesson about leadership and how they can be used in the civilian sector. For me, I am not the owner of a business with any employees, but I can definitely use what I read from this book professionally AND personally.

Each chapter is broken up into three parts: a combat story, the principle, and then how it relates to business. Just like one of the lessens learned in combat, this book is laid out simple and concise. Because the book is laid out in this format it keeps the book flowing, which means you want to keep reading. It doesn’t hurt that the combat stories are absolutely compelling.

The book is on leadership, so you might think that if you don’t have employees under you or not in a leadership type position (i.e. manager) then this book won’t really pertain to you. I say, “WRONG.” As I finished this book and even as I was going through it, I wondered that myself. I’m not a manager, and my private counseling business is just me, but everything I got from this book can be used internally. You have to see yourself playing the role of the leader, CEO or president at times to see the big picture, but then also put yourself in the frontline as a middle manager or employee so that you can understand the minute details of specific job. It will also help you put into perspective your role and other peoples roles in you job now. You can capitalize on that knowledge to help you climb the ladder, but more importantly help to the success of “the mission.”

Highly recommend. Now, on to the next book…