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General Stanley McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general after over 34 years of service in the U.S. Army. His final assignment was as the commander of NATOās International Security Assistance Force and all US forces in Afghanistan.
His memoir, My Share of the Task, was a New York Times bestseller in 2013. He also wrote Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. His latest book, Leaders, unpacks the myths and realities of leadership, and as a student of leadership and a military strategy enthusiast, I couldnāt wait to dig into it, and share my learnings with readers.
He profiled thirteen historic leaders across different lines such as founders, heroes, power brokers and reformers. Profiled names include Walt Disney Coco Chanel, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr.
Rather than do as so many other leadership books do and ask āwhat did they have in commonā, McChrystal breaks from convention and instead asks āwhat did they not have in common?ā, in order to uncover fresh insights that challenge our long-held beliefs and notions of what a leader looks like.
With that, here are my key takeaways from Leaders.
The same applies to countless business methodologies and how-to narratives. Many of the āGood to Greatā companies chronicled in Jim Collinsā bestseller are no longer on the S&P500.
Albert Einstein did this on his way to discovering his theory of both general and special relativity.
Many of us spend more time playing politics, aligning ourselves with people, and outsourcing accountability via pointless meetings than actually creating.
This worked for Einstein at cocktail parties, but Iāve found it works for me in noisy cafes.
Creativity requires a duality of collaboration and solitude. Abraham Lincoln required considerable time alone to reflect whilst planning his next move during the American Civil War.
Few of us are jealous of Elon Musk, for example.
And thatās why they make for hot box office tickets!
Generals of armies past did this when they occupied new territories, executing prisoners that were aligned with the overthrown king, essentially to quell later uprisings.
In an organizational context, if you acquire reluctant employees who are aligned to previous leaders or ways of doing things, it might be best to let them go and in favor of values-aligned employees.
As Dan Pink put it, intrinsic motivation is about mastery, autonomy and purpose. If you can instill in followers a sense of purpose, they will more likely to follow you.
Today, we celebrate and follow people who polarise us, not those who sit on the fence and are afraid to truly stand for anything.
In the business world, trying to sell a product that requires that you educate your audience first on why it exists and its merits is an uphill battle. Selling them something they already understand and are screaming out for, thatās akin to rolling a boulder downhill.
In trying to develop a following, which of your audience's passions can you harness?
This comes back to a short feedback loop, which shows up in military strategies as well as in entrepreneurship. The quicker you move, the quicker you learn and the quicker you adapt, the more likely you will be to succeed, especially in fast-changing, ambiguous environments.
āāF*ck you moneyā is one example of this.
So, get out of the building and collaborate.
Otherwise, they may grow to resent each other, and you.
Walt Disney mortgaged Mickey Mouse to finance the production of Snow White.
Creativity alone is awesome but paired with effective (rather than over-bearing) systems and logistics to get things done, then you are at a unique juncture and have a significant advantage over competitors who lack one or the other (from my own observations, the majority).
So donāt feel like an imposter or that you have to always be a superhero.
For example, David from David & Goliath, Oddyseus from The Odyssey or Achilles from The Iliad.
Protestant reformer Martin Luther did this by leveraging the printing press before most of his adversaries, spreading his ideas far and wide.
Today, you might do this in a business context by leveraging an emerging social media channel before it becomes huge.
Sometimes itās not about ticking the box, but about the overall experience. This applies in romantic relationships, as much as it does in business, economics or politics.
This is a powerful question to ask whenever using models to frame your learning or decision making.
Sure, all professional basketballers have certain physical attributes in common and training systems they came up in, but what did, say, Larry Bird not have in common with the rest? For starters, growing up he would shoot 500 free throws every morning before he went to school each morning.
Steve Glaveski is the co-founder of Collective Campus, author of Employee to Entrepreneur and host of the Future Squared podcast. Heās into everything from 80s metal and high-intensity workouts to attempting to surf and do standup comedy.
Steve Glaveski is on a mission to unlock your potential to do your best work and live your best life. He is the founder of innovation accelerator, Collective Campus, author of several books, including Employee to Entrepreneur and Time Rich, and productivity contributor for Harvard Business Review. Heās a chronic autodidact and is into everything from 80s metal and high-intensity workouts to attempting to surf and hold a warrior three pose.