The Need to Lead: A TOPGUN Instructor’s Lessons on How Leadership Solves Every Challenge

The third book in the Extreme Ownership series, following on the phenomenal success of ex-Navy Seals Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership.

The Need to Lead invokes the classic Top Gun movie quote. It is also an undeniable truth that author Dave Berke experienced as a Marine Corps officer, fighter pilot, TOPGUN instructor and ground combat leader, fighting alongside Jocko and Leif in Iraq. Today he works at their leadership training company Echelon Front. This book, based on his experiences in combat and TOPGUN training as well as teaching organizations around the world, helps readers be better leaders and understand that leadership is a universal requirement for success, no matter the environment.

By adopting the right leadership mindsets and behaviours, we gain the capacity to solve problems, support the people around us and amend our mistakes. How do we develop these necessary skills? By embracing the principles imparted to Berke from each humbling moment in the cockpit:

* EVERYONE IS A LEADER: From the CEO to the most junior employee, everyone at every level, is a leader. Leadership isn’t about rank, title, position or function. The more people see themselves as leaders, the more they want to contribute to the team’s success.

* LEADERSHIP EXISTS IN EVERY CAPACITY: Leadership is often viewed as an attribute relevant to our professional lives, but it exists in every capacity, it applies in every situation. The same behaviours should guide us as parents, spouses, family members and friends of all kinds.

* EVERY PROBLEM WE FACE IS A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM: The problems we confront at work aren’t caused by external factors. They are caused by our failure to lead. If a lack of leadership is the problem, and good leadership is the solution, then how we lead becomes the most critical factor affecting the outcome.

* LEADERSHIP IS A SKILL: Good leaders aren’t simply born. Leadership can be learned, which means every single person in the world can get better at it if they choose. This book is their guide.

*And much more!

Through compelling stories from TOPGUN training and combat, to the boardroom and at home, Berke gives readers the necessary tools to succeed.

© 2025 Macmillan Business (Lydbog): 9781035090778

Release date

Lydbog: 23. oktober 2025