General Stanley McChrystal – How To Lead

General Stanley McChrystal, the former four star general who served for thirty-four years in the US Army.

In 2003 he was directly involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In 2006 his forces were responsible for the death of the Al-Qaeda leader Musab al-Zarqawi. And in 2009, he took command of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Following his public retirement in 2010, he became a senior fellow at Yale University and co-founded the McChrystal Group.

In his new book Leaders, Myth & Reality, he explores what leadership really means, debunking, the many myths.

Chapters:
00:00 Trailer.
03:15 Brian’s thoughts on the episode.
05:37 Brian’s introduction.
06:14 London from a military perspective,
07:41 Stan learned of leadership and team management skills from early love of naval history.
08;35 The myths and realities of Horatio Nelson’s captaincy and leadership in battle.
11:00 Past heroic leaders were flawed men, thus encouragingly, many more of us are capable of leadership.
13:01 Stan explains what he meant by “I don’t even remember events in my own leadership correctly”.
16:10 West Point in the 1970s.
19:20 A leader’s daily habits and intentional discipline confirm their team’s faith in them when observed daily
21:06 Why Stan found Special Forces a disappointment and got fired.
25:22 Learning to combine his military role with political and intelligence agency agendas.
32:55 Building relationships with Washington D.C. when working in the field of war.
37:19 Resistance to fundamental change in operational methodology required to deal with Al Qaeda in Iraq.
42:36 Explaining collateral damage to the civilian public and justifying it to himself.
44:14 Why the abuse of Iraqi detainees occurred in Abu Ghraib prison and why he took responsibility.
49:27 Torture is effective, people will talk, however, he showed The Battle of Algiers to Force leaders.
54:04 Stan appointed to take charge in Afghanistan in midst of new President Obama administration conflict.
1:03:01 Stan reflects on the aftermath of the Rolling Stones article and his subsequent resignation,
1:09:11 How Stan deals with the periodic times when his brain recalls what went wrong.
1:12:07 The McChrystal Group and writing ‘Leaders, Myth, and Reality,’
1:17:17 Good leadership leads to everyone working to solve the problem not working to execute directives.
1:19:42 The book investigates the leadership style of historical leaders in different genres.
1:25:39 The American people desperately need to look in the mirror now about leadership and their role in it.
1:27:14 Stan’s daily habit which is non-negotiable.
1:28:11 What his friends would say was his superpower.
1:29:46 Worst and best days of his life.
1:31:15 Two very topical scenarios that scare him.
1:34:18 Something that may surprise you about Stan, it surprised him.
1:36:00 Phone call to the twenty years old Stanley McChrystal.
1:37:27 Best advice ever received.
1:40:07 Success Secrets.
1:40:44 Brian’s summing up.

McChrystal Group

Stanley McChrystal on Twitter

Stanley McChrystal TED talk

Stanley A McChrystal on Wikipedia

Books:

Leaders, Myth and Reality

Team of Teams

Topics discussed:

Abu Ghraib prison

The US war in Afghanistan

The US war in Afghanistan

Julius Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon river

The United States Military Academy, West Point

My Lai Massacre

Plebe

Hazing

Special Forces (United States Army)

75th Ranger Regiment (United States)

The Battle of Algiers (film)

Saving Private Ryan (film)

Rolling Stone article

People mentioned in this episode:

Horatio Nelson

Horatio Hornblower

Saddam Hussein

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Mullah Dadullah Akhund

Dr Philip Zimbardo

John McCain

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

David D McKiernan

Albert Einstein

Martin Luther King Jr.

Leonard Bernstein

William M Tweed

Margaret Thatcher

Harriet Tubman

Zheng He

Xi Jinping

Martin Luther King Sr.

Robert E Lee

Thomas Friedman