Four-Star General: Leadership Tactics from Battlefields to Boardrooms | General Stanley McChrystal
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
What does leadership look like in the middle of a war zone—one of the most dynamic, agile, and consequential environments on the planet? General Stanley McChrystal knows intimately what it’s like – and is committed to teaching his hard-earned leadership insights to others.
Heading up the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), he led the U.S. military’s most elite special ops teams against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and from there was commissioned to command the war on terror in Afghanistan.
That mission in itself is treacherous… and General McChrystal also crashed head-on with a political controversy – one that led to the end of his military career but opened the door to teaching leadership at Yale university, authoring multiple bestsellers, founding the McChrystal Group (his well-known management consulting company) and even being portrayed by none other than Brad Pitt in the movie War Machine.
What General McChrystal teaches isn’t about battlefield maps and tactics, it’s about building a team that’s informed, committed and focused. And even when the mission isn’t immediately successful, it’s about teaching the importance of risk, failure, and ultimately marching forward.
It's a fascinating discussion, rich with gems and insights. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As a leader, what you learn first is the core of it and self-discipline. |
| 0:05.8 | If you're not out there doing a lot and failing a good percentage of the time, |
| 0:09.7 | it means we're not doing enough. |
| 0:11.2 | And although people sometimes worry, if I don't have my hand on every |
| 0:14.4 | chess piece that we're going to lose I would argue if you have your hand on every chess piece |
| 0:19.2 | you will lose. news. Okay, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Michael Jervay, |
| 0:36.0 | by trade and training a high performance psychologist, and I am absolutely thrilled and honored |
| 0:41.8 | to welcome one of the United States most accomplished |
| 0:45.2 | and well-known military leaders, General Stanley McChrystal. So what does |
| 0:51.2 | leadership look like in the middle of a war zone, one of the most dynamic and |
| 0:55.6 | agile and consequential environments on the planet? |
| 0:59.8 | General McChrystal knows. |
| 1:01.4 | He knows it intimately what it's like and he has been committed to teaching |
| 1:05.8 | his hard-earned leadership insights to others and that's really what this |
| 1:09.8 | conversation is about. |
| 1:11.3 | He heading up the joint Special Operations Command, he led the U.S. |
| 1:15.2 | military's most elite spec ops teams against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and from there was |
| 1:22.0 | commissioned a war on terror in Afghanistan. |
| 1:25.0 | While that mission in it of itself is treacherous, General Stanley McChrystal |
| 1:30.0 | also crashed head-on with a political controversy. |
| 1:33.8 | One that led to the end of his military career, |
| 1:36.6 | but it opened the door to teaching leadership |
... |
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