Leading Up the Chain of Command
Take ownership of influencing those above you, not just below
Leading Up the Chain of Command flips the traditional leadership complaint on its head. Instead of blaming senior leadership for poor decisions, lack of resources, or unclear direction, this framework holds the subordinate leader responsible for ensuring that their boss has the information, context, and recommendations needed to make good decisions. If your boss is making bad decisions, the Extreme Ownership response is to ask: What am I failing to communicate? What context am I not providing? What solutions am I not proposing? The framework holds that in most cases, leaders above you are not malicious or incompetent — they simply lack the ground-level context that you possess. It is your responsibility to provide that context proactively, package it in a way that is easy to act upon, and propose solutions rather than just escalating problems. When subordinate leaders take this ownership, it transforms the relationship from adversarial to collaborative and dramatically improves organizational decision-making quality.
- If your boss is making bad decisions, first ask what information you have failed to provide
- It is the subordinate's responsibility to provide context and solutions, not just problems
- Leading up requires the same ownership mindset as leading down
- Blaming leadership above is the most common form of avoiding personal accountability
- Own the Relationship with Your BossStop viewing your relationship with senior leadership as something that happens to you. Accept full ownership for the quality of information flowing upward. Ask yourself: Does my boss have the context they need to make good decisions about my area? Am I proactively providing updates, or am I waiting to be asked? Am I framing problems as solvable challenges with recommended solutions, or am I just dumping problems? Create a regular cadence of proactive updates that give your boss ground-level visibility without requiring them to ask.Pro tipSend a brief weekly summary that covers: what went well, what is at risk, and what you recommend — before your boss has to askWarningThis is not about being sycophantic or political — it is about genuine information flow that improves organizational decision quality
- Propose Solutions, Not Just ProblemsNever bring a problem to your boss without at least one recommended solution. This shifts the conversation from you are doing this wrong to here is a situation, here is my analysis, and here is what I recommend we do. Even if your boss chooses a different solution, providing your recommendation demonstrates competence, gives them a starting point, and shows that you have thought through the problem deeply enough to own it. Over time, this builds trust and increases the likelihood that your recommendations will be adopted.Pro tipFrame recommendations as: Based on what I see at the ground level, I recommend X because Y — this leverages your unique positional advantage
- Build Trust Through Consistent Execution and TransparencyLeading up successfully requires a foundation of trust, which is built by consistently delivering on commitments, being transparently honest about failures, and demonstrating that your recommendations are based on data and mission alignment rather than personal agenda. When you have earned trust through consistent execution, your upward influence increases exponentially. Leaders above will increasingly seek your input, adopt your recommendations, and provide the resources and support you need because they trust your judgment.Pro tipThe fastest way to build upward trust is to own a failure publicly before your boss discovers it — proactive transparency is more powerful than any number of successesWarningIf after consistent genuine effort your boss remains unresponsive, the problem may be organizational culture rather than your approach — but exhaust this framework first
When higher headquarters issued operational directives that Babin believed put his team at unnecessary risk, his initial reaction was frustration and blame. After applying Extreme Ownership, he realized headquarters lacked the ground-level intelligence he possessed. He began proactively providing detailed situation reports with recommended courses of action. He framed his input in terms of mission success rather than personal preference, giving headquarters the context to make better-informed decisions.
Babin and Willink discovered this principle when they struggled with decisions from their own chain of command in Iraq. Initially, they blamed higher headquarters for poor decisions that put their teams at risk. But when they applied the Extreme Ownership lens, they realized that headquarters was making decisions with incomplete information — information that Babin and Willink had failed to provide. Once they took ownership of leading up by proactively providing context, intelligence, and recommended courses of action, the quality of decisions from above improved dramatically.