Extreme ownership by J. Willink and L. Babin. Quotes V

-We couldn't help but laugh at our predicament.
-We would not call in vehicles or additional troops and put them at risk unless we took serious casualties and absolutely needed them.
-I could not allow myself to be overwhelmed. I had to relax, look around, and make a call. That was what Prioritize and Execute.
-A leader must remain calm and make the best decisions possible. Relax, look around, make a call.
-A particularly effective means to help Prioritize and Execute under pressure is to stay at least a step or two ahead of real-time problems.
-Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.
-Which one is your highest priority?
-Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don't try to do everything at once or you won't be successful.
-On the battlefield, I expected my subordinate leaders to do just that: lead.
-Front-line leaders must also have trust and confidence in their senior leaders to know that they are empowered to make decisions and that their senior leaders will back them up.
-Those junior leaders learned that they were expected to make decisions. They couldn't ask: 'What do I do?'. Instead, they had to state: 'This is what I am going to do'
-I trusted them to lead.
-Teams must be broken down into manageable elements of four to five operators, with a clearly designated leader.
-Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it.
-Leaders are not stuck in any particular position. Leaders must be free to move to where they are most needed, which changes throughout the course of an operation.
-Junior leaders must know that the boss will back them up even if they make a decision that may not result in the best outcome, as long as the decision was made in an effort to achieve the strategic objective.
-He was new and inexperienced, but he was smart, hardworking, and highly motivated.
-We were lucky. But we had also made our luck.
-Leaders must delegate the planning process down the chain as much as possible to key subordinate leaders.