The Dichotomy of Leadership (Expanded Edition)

Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win

By: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin

Narrated by: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin

"The authors grasp the awesome responsibilities of leading, and their assertive performances convey an urgency that makes this lesson memorable" —Audiofile

This program is read by the authors.

THE INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Extreme Ownership comes a revolutionary approach to help leaders recognize and attain the leadership balance crucial to victory.

More than three million readers of Extreme Ownership learned to apply combat-proven leadership lessons from authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Now, in the new edition of the sequel, Willink and Babin dive deeper into the most challenging aspect of leading people: The Dichotomy of Leadership. This most difficult—and essential— element of leadership requires finding the balance between the forces that pull at every leader in opposite directions. Humbling lessons learned in combat and in teaching leadership to the next generation of SEAL leaders, highlighted for the authors with crystal clarity what works and what doesn’t. As leadership consultants to over 1,600 companies and organizations across the U.S. and multiple countries, they have worked with thousands of leaders across the full spectrum of industries in the business world. Through dynamic examples from their combat and training experiences in the SEAL Teams and vignettes from the business arena, Willink and Babin demonstrate how each leadership concept applies on the battlefield, in business, and in life.

With a new foreword and Q&A section, this revised edition of Dichotomy provides the crucial insight and awareness necessary for leaders to understand when to lead and when to follow, when to focus and when to detach, when to tighten the reins and when to let the team run, when to aggressively maneuver and when to be prudent. In The Dichotomy of Leadership, the authors deliver an audiobook that rivals Extreme Ownership with life-changing guidance that should be essential listening for every leader and team for generations. Understanding how to maintain balance enables leaders to most effectively lead, accomplish their mission, and achieve the ultimate goal of every team: Victory.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

Critic reviews

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE DICHOTOMY OF LEADERSHIP:

“Until this point in my life, I've never read a book that reveals the truths of leadership in such detail and rawness. The true value of this book cannot be quantified in words.” —Pete Roberts, Co-Founder & CEO, Origin Maine USA

“The Dichotomy of Leadership needs to come with a warning label: BRUTALLY HONEST. Finally, a book that tells the truth on how hard and complex it can be to tackle leadership challenges.” —Lindi Horton, Director of Cloud Services, Cyber Security Company

“Inspiring, practical, and honest lessons that transcend the battlefield. Buy this book, read it, and apply the lessons to any challenge.” —Sarah Armstrong, CFO, Mesa Technical Associates

“The Dichotomy of Leadership provides even more depth and dimension to the principles of Extreme Ownership.” —Sonja Winkler, Senior Director of Operations, Nashville Symphony

"Jocko and Leif have done the impossible. The Dichotomy of Leadership is better than Extreme Ownership. In this book they refine the principles that made two of the leading voices in management and leadership today. All of the questions your team asked after reading Extreme Ownership are answered. The nuance provided in The Dichotomy of Leadership is exactly what our team needed to fully implement Extreme Ownership. " —Bryce Maddock, CEO, TaskUs

“Even better than Extreme Ownership. It’s FREAKING AWESOME.” —Joe Masciantonio, Vice President of Sales, The Nature’s Bounty Company

Good teaching

A very well written book. It was also delivered well. I appreciate the SEALs and all service members.

how relevant to almost every aspect of life.

I liked how the principles shared can be applied to most aspects of life. Also that even though I listened to this book only recently aspects proved true from years past in leadership roles!

Listening to this book is the best way to commute to work as a team leader

Distilled leadership wisdom, worth 1000x the cost of the audiobook, true self development, no fluff

Solid follow up to extreme ownership

Expands on a lot that extreme ownership gave us. Thank you for puttying this out there

A great balance of information, story, and application

really good read and even better after the 3rd and 4th re-read, lots of