Do you ever feel like your team just doesn’t get it? You’ve communicated it and explained it several times, in several different ways, but they still don’t get it? I know this happens to me all the time and it can be super-frustrating. I’m like, what is wrong with these people, they just don’t get it, yada yada yada.’s

I made a shift recently and it’s life-changing. I don’t blame “them” anymore if they don’t get it. I blame me. It’s my fault if the team doesn’t get what I’m communicating. If they don’t get it, I must not have been clear enough in my communication… Or I must not have said it enough times… And if I’ve done those things and they still don’t get it, that means they are not the right person to be on my team perhaps. And that’s my fault too. Because I am responsible for who should be a member of the team.

This is called taking “extreme ownership” and there’s a book by a retired Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink with the same name. Check it out, it’s definitely a good read for anyone in GovCon. (It’s also great on Audible because the co-author Leif Babin has a deep grainy voice).

Can you imagine what life would be like if more people in your organization took extreme ownership, rather than saying “it’s not my fault, it’s his fault?”

That would be life-changing for your organization.