Over a 13-year career in the U.S. Navy—including nine years as a Navy SEAL—Leif Babin earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and a Purple Heart for his service, which included leading major combat operations as a platoon commander in Iraq during the Battle of Ramadi in 2006. In this humbling, high-stakes role, Babin learned what it takes to lead others effectively under pressure, a focus that would become his life’s work.
After leaving active duty, Babin had planned to attend law school. But August 6, 2011 marked the largest single-incident loss of life in the 20-year Afghanistan war and in SEAL history. Several of his personal friends and teammates were lost that day, including Chief Petty Officer Brian Bill, who had attended Babin's wedding just one month earlier.
That tragedy was a wake-up call for Babin. "It was a stark reminder that life is short, and you can't waste a day of it," he reflects. "To me, the best job in the world was being a SEAL platoon commander. But the second-best job was teaching leadership."
For two years, Babin had taught a leadership course required for every junior officer graduating from the SEAL training pipeline, reshaping SEAL leadership instruction based on his hard-earned combat experience.
This gave Babin a deeper understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to leadership. After he left the Navy, he recognized that the most meaningful way to carry those lessons forward was to teach leadership to others.
His commitment to developing leaders then took on a new form when he reunited with his SEAL teammate and former Task Unit Commander Jocko Willink. Together, they founded Echelon Front, a leadership development and consulting firm built on the principles they had learned on the battlefield.
Now, across industries around the world—from global corporations to startups, nonprofits, educators, first responders, and more—Echelon Front shares lessons aimed to help people become better leaders in every capacity. “When people take and implement these leadership principles, it not only makes them better, but they make everyone around them better as well,” Babin says. “They become a better parent, a better spouse, a better leader in the workplace, and a better leader in their community.”
One of the key leadership principles Babin teaches is “extreme ownership,” which emphasizes that leaders must take full responsibility for their failures and successes, refusing to blame others and implementing solutions to solve problems and drive greater performance.
“Extreme ownership means that there is no one else to blame. There are no excuses. You have to own everything in your world, everything that impacts your mission,” Babin explains. “That is a simple concept, but it is extremely difficult to apply in real life.”
Those real-life applications extend well beyond combat. In Babin’s family, leadership is by example and through teamwork. With his three children, he has found ownership is contagious. “You can’t control anybody else; you can only control you,” Babin says. “If you want others to take ownership, you take ownership. Then, you get a team of people that are solving problems and working together to accomplish the goal.”
For Babin, that kind of leadership at home is more important now than ever. “Hollywood in recent years does not often celebrate men that exhibit strength … that protect and provide for their families, that protect their communities,” he says. In a time when strong male role models in pop culture can be difficult to find, he believes the home provides an opportunity to model these principles, with strong families offering the examples that help shape future leaders.
In turn, these individuals have the power to influence entire communities. “I think that if I could pass one lesson on to the men of our community, it’s that humility is the most important quality in a leader,” Babin says. “Rather than having all the answers or issuing constant instructions, the best leaders are humble, listen to others, keep an open-mind, and empower others to lead.”
That humility is evident in a leader’s ability to both give and receive direction. “To be a good leader, you also have to be a good follower,” Babin explains. Effective leaders must be ready to step up and take charge when needed but also be willing to follow others on the team when they have a good idea—even those who are junior to them—as well as support the leaders above them in the chain of command.
With that balance, leaders must set goals and give others ownership of the outcome, creating trust and accountability. Instead of dictating the plan, Babin recommends asking the team, “Here’s the goal—how do you want to accomplish it?”
In fact, Babin notes that some of his most successful SEAL operations required very little direction from him. “In the combat operations that I’m most proud of, I didn’t have to say anything because I had a team of leaders at every level that understood what the goal was,” he says. “And when you’ve got leaders that are solving problems and making things happen, overcoming obstacles, and moving toward the goal, that’s a team that can run circles around every other team.”
It’s this kind of quiet, tightly connected team—built on ownership, humility, and trust—that Babin envisions for the men of Dripping Springs: “The best leaders are confident enough to let others lead. You want to be the silent leader that doesn’t have to bark orders at people because the team knows what to do,” he says. “You want to be the leader that empowers your family, your team at work, and others in your community to step up and lead.”
EchelonFront.com | @echelonfront
“When people take and implement these leadership principles, it not only makes them better, but they make everyone around them better as well.” Leif Babin
The best leaders empower others to lead.
Strong families help shape future leaders.
Lessons in Leadership
Along with Jocko Willink, Leif Babin co-authored the number-one New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership, which introduces the core concept that a leader is responsible for everything within their sphere. Its sequel, The Dichotomy of Leadership, also a bestseller, explores the careful balance leaders must strike, such as being disciplined but not rigid.
Echelon Front provides leadership training and development through in-person and online programs, events like the Extreme Ownership Muster, experiential learning such as Field Training Exercise (FTX), and customized programs and strategic advising for organizations and individuals seeking to build high-performance teams and achieve personal growth.