440: Leadership in the Midst of Chaos, with Jim Mattis

Coaching for Leaders

Dave Stachowiak

Education, Business, Management, Self-improvement, Careers

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jim Mattis: Call Sign Chaos Jim Mattis served more than four decades as an infantry officer in the United States Marines, rising to the rank of 4-star general. In 2017, he was nearly unanimously confirmed as the 26th Secretary of Defense of the United States, a position he held for almost two years. Today, he is a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author of the new book with Bing West: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead*. In this conversation, Jim and I discuss his career in the Marines and the leadership lessons that emerged during combat. Jim shares the mistake he made in soliciting support for his plan to capture Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora and discusses how he handled disagreements on strategy in Fallujah. Finally, Jim recommends three books and reflects on the greatest threat to America today. Key Points Creating “focused telescopes” outside the normal chain of command were useful in discovering concerns that might not otherwise have become known. Keep key stakeholders in the loop with these three questions: What do I know? Who needs to know? Have I told them? “You cannot order someone to abandon a spiritual burden they’ve been wrestling with.” Even in a war zone, command was only a small portion of the daily tasks. Most of the time was spent coaching. “History teaches that we face nothing new under the sun.” Books will help you take advantage of the accumulated experiences of leaders who came before you. Resources Mentioned Meditations* by Marcus Aurelius Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant* by Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain Long Walk to Freedom* by Nelson Mandela Book Notes Download my highlights from Call Sign Chaos in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way to Stop Rescuing People From Their Problems, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 284) Develop Leaders Before You Leave, with David Marquet (episode 405) Influence Through Overlapping Networks, with Sandie Morgan (episode 422) How to Start Seeing Around Corners, with Rita McGrath (episode 430) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Chaos. It's a word that today's guest has embraced and also been in the midst of for his 40 year military career.
0:09.0	On this episode, former U.S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis on the principles of leadership in the midst of chaos.
0:17.0	This is Coaching for Leaders, episode 440. Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.
0:27.0	Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is coaching for leaders and I'm your
0:36.7	host Dave Stahophiac. Leaders aren't born. They're made. And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful
0:46.4	conversations.
0:48.2	How do you handle the toughest situations?
0:51.4	Any leader doing work worth doing ultimately finds themselves navigating
0:56.0	challenging waters. Today's guest is no stranger to challenges or to chaos.
1:01.2	I'm glad to welcome to the show Jim Mattis. He served more than four
1:04.6	decades as an infantry officer in the United States Marines, rising to the rank of
1:09.6	four-star general. In 2017 he was nearly unanimously confirmed as the 26th Secretary of Defense of the
1:17.1	United States, a position he held for almost two years. Today he is a distinguished fellow
1:22.0	at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author of the new book with Bing West call sign chaos learning to lead.
1:30.0	Mr Secretary, welcome to coaching for leaders.
1:33.4	Well, thanks, Dave. It's good to be on your program. I've listened to you before, got a lot out of it.
1:38.6	Well, the honor is mine, sir, to get to talk to you and I was thinking about just some of the things that have
1:44.7	happened in the recent events, and you were at the Al Smith dinner not too long ago giving
1:50.9	a speech, and you said that your parents would have been surprised to see
1:55.6	you headlining an event with so many clergy in attendance.
2:00.4	What would have surprised your parents?
2:02.1	Well I think I enjoyed a little bit of a huck-fin kind of growing up, always up in the desert around where I grew up, out hunting, fishing, hiking with the Boy Scouts in the Cascade Mountains.
	...

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