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

Drawing from his experiences as a Marine Corps officer, fighter pilot and TOPGUN instructor, author Dave Berke, alongside Jocko Willink, illustrates how leadership is integral to overcoming every challenge. Berke’s insights, based on his time in combat and his role at Echelon Front, aim to help readers become 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.

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.

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