• Dr. No
  • Posts
  • Dr. No – Issue #34 – Why Most Leaders Fail (and How Extreme Ownership Fixes It)

Dr. No – Issue #34 – Why Most Leaders Fail (and How Extreme Ownership Fixes It)

Author

Manuel Deó
April 29, 2025

Hey lawyer,

Welcome to this week’s issue of Dr. No — your 3-minute mental upgrade for legal leaders who refuse to play small.

Same sharp format, same unreasonable ambition:
• ✅ 1 Provocative Question to challenge assumptions
• 📚 1 Insightful Book for strategic leadership
• 🧠 1 Mental Model to sharpen thinking
• 🤖 1 AI Tool for high-performance GCs
• 💭 1 Quote to Reflect

This week’s topic?
How extreme ownership can turn chaos into compound wins.

1 - Question For You:

Which relationships in your life push you toward growth and ownership — and which reinforce stagnation and the "passenger syndrome"?

No leader builds empires surrounded by passengers. Audit your inner circle ruthlessly. Ownership, like excellence, is contagious.

2 - Book Insight: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Jocko (the Navy SEAL commander who literally taught leadership under gunfire) shares a brutal reality:

When leaders own everything in their world — there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.

🔹 Quick Takeaway:
• Bad plan? → Leader’s fault.
• Weak execution? → Leader’s fault.
• Team confusion? → Yes, still the leader’s fault.

One famous SEAL Team anecdote:
When a "blue-on-blue" incident (friendly fire) happened under Jocko’s watch, instead of finger-pointing, he stood up in front of HQ and said:
"There is only one person to blame for this: me."
It earned him more trust and authority — not less.

🔹 Try this:
When a junior drops the ball in a deal closing or mishandles a regulator call, pause before blaming. Ask yourself:

“Did I define what success looked like? Did I give the right tools and feedback? Did I set the tone?”
Ownership doesn’t start when things go wrong. It starts before the mission begins.

3 - Mental Model: Circle of Control (Stoicism x Munger Thinking)

You control your actions, decisions, and mindset.
You don't control the market crash, the board’s mood swings, or that surprise from the antitrust authorities.

High performers ruthlessly separate:

  • Inside the circle (what I can act on)

  • Outside the circle (what I can’t)

Apply it today:
Stop bleeding energy on politics, deadlines, or unfair outcomes.
Relentlessly double down on prep, clarity, and execution — that’s your only arena.

4 - AI Tool for GCs: Wispr Flow

Voice your thoughts. Let AI do the typing.

  • Dictate emails, memos, client updates, or to-do lists straight into text — no hands, no friction.

  • Works with deep understanding and top-tier dictation accuracy.

  • Designed for moments when your brain is faster than your keyboard.

Bonus: Capture ideas while commuting, walking, or pacing before a tough board meeting.

Extreme ownership begins when you remove every excuse for “I didn’t have time to write it down.”

5 - Quote to Reflect:

"Responsibility is the price of greatness."
— Winston Churchill

Take ownership of everything you touch — even the mess you didn’t create. That’s how you separate yourself from 99% of leaders.

PS:
Need more extreme ownership on your team?
Ámbar is the world’s go-to platform for highly-vetted legal talent.

From niche projects to peaks of work, scopeable or stand-alone projects, or attrition chaos — we’ve got your back.
✅ Zero drama. ✅ Zero bureaucracy. ✅ 100% results.