Extreme Ownership of the Agency

In May, one of our agency clients, Milestone Risk Management & Insurance Services in Irvine, Calif., (Ron & John Hoefer) sponsored an incredible Leadership Summit at the Hyatt in Huntington Beach, Calif. We attended the event along with 564 insurance clients, prospects and insurance company representatives. The all-day event featured Navy SEAL Jocko Willink and two of his fellow seals, Mike Sarraille and Andrew Paul, who commanded Unit Bruiser during the battle of Ramadi, Iraq, and helped bring stability to the violent, war-torn city after 9/11.

We found Jocko’s, who authors the books “Extreme Ownership, Discipline Equals Freedom” and some children’s books like “The Way of the Warrior Kid,” ideas to be a unique way to look at leadership principles that are directly transferable to the business world.

What is Extreme Ownership?

Extreme Ownership is taking complete responsibility for everything that happens in your organization, regardless of the circumstances. His strategies give the simple tools needed to be able to effectively lead a winning team. Great leaders own everything in their world that affects the mission. Every success, every failure, every problem and every solution. One must check their ego. Acknowledge failures and setbacks; analyze and develop solutions. One must not accept excuses and should find a way to win. Leaders must lead in the absence of orders. They figure out what needs to be done and they do it!

Key Lessons Learned

When Jocko left Ramadi in much better shape than when Unit Bruiser arrived, there were three key lessons learned that can be applied in any business:

1. Have humility, which means check one’s ego!
2. Take ownership in the problems and solutions up and down the chain; and
3. Teamwork.

Laws of Combat & Running a Business

1. Cover and Move – is teamwork. Every member of the team in a firm needs to work together and be mutually supporting of one another for the singular purpose of mission accomplishment. Teams within the group, elements and departments work together and support each other. They do not compete against each other or operate independently. Employees need to be rewarded and recognized for their cross-department communications beyond just their individual sales goal.
2. Simple – anything in life has inherent layers of complexities. Simplifying as much as possible is crucial to success. Everyone on the firm’s team must know and understand his or her role in the mission and what to do in the event of likely contingencies. When initially laying out a firm’s plan, one must build it in a way that can be effectively briefed to the lowest common denominator. Employees all need to know the strategic mission so that they can make better decisions at their level of how to execute that vision.
3. Prioritize and execute. Leaders must recognize the situation they are in, analyze the issue and respond. In this age of distraction with thousands of pieces of information flying through, taking time to become clear on priorities is the only way to win. Focus on your most important task. Then move on to the next priority and execute.
4. Decentralized command – simply put, everyone leads. Leaders at every level are given clearly delineated responsibility and the ability to execute. Everyone must understand what they are doing and, most importantly, why they are doing it. Give employees the goal of their position first and only suggest ways of achieving it after.

Know the Dichotomies of Leadership

1. Decentralized Command … extreme ownership. Find the balance between these by being a leader and knowing when to follow. Despite Jocko’s rank, he follows the person with the best plan even if it is not his.
2. Aggressive, but not overaggressive. One needs to assess the value of the operation and know it may not be the correct amount of risk to take!
3. Humble, not passive. There is always bureaucracy and paperwork. Deal with the small things and then have respect for a “no” on the big things the boss asks you.
4. Discipline equals freedom. There should be discussions ahead of time on all strategic moves and operating procedures for everything. That way, when something needs to be done, everyone knows what to do, and there is trust that it will be done correctly.

The key is to balance all of these things in an organization. Leadership is the most important thing in any team, and it dictates success or failure.

Do Self and Team Assessments

People are their own harshest critics. What standards do you set for yourself? Success or failure rests with the team. Take blame; it is your fault. Be blunt and be brutal. Let people debrief themselves. Establish a culture of assessment – of the team and self. When companies stop debriefing, such as when they are winning too much, they become complacent. Keep debriefing.

Sales Teams vs. Administrative Teams

There needs to be communication, or there is no relationship. Sales teams can lose if operations can’t deliver, or if sales can’t sell the product. Each side must know that without the other, or they don’t exist. Do whatever you can to support them. Tell people thank you. Take care of each other.

Training vs. Experience

Make training realistic and repetitive, so that people don’t even have to think. Everyone in an organization should role play being the boss, the client and then the staff. That way, they can also see each other’s perspectives.

Creating Urgency in Organization

People need to know why they are doing something and what is the goal or mission? Otherwise, they don’t understand or know the consequences of not getting to the why.

Summary

These keys to extreme ownership and leadership were an inspiration on the battlefield and can also be so in running an insurance agency or any business. Please share these concepts with everyone in the organization, and it will help the firm reach its goals and improve communication. The owners will feel they are not alone in the process of making the firm a great place to work and a growing, exceptional entity that others will be proud to work for.