Stan McChrystal on Leadership

Stan McChrystal

COMISAF

JSOC-CO

Leading the singularly most effective instrument within the US Government seems to have instilled in GEN McChrystal a clear sense of the limitations of national power. He had the best trained, most generously resourced, mission oriented Federal Government Workers around (yes, you need to adjust your idea of a "Government Worker"). Leading JSOC could justifiably give you a sense of arrogance or complacent potency. Arrogance is not the word you will associate with General Stan McChrystal. He seems to have a humble resiliency; he knows how tough, complex and limited the US is at shaping the world.

He speaks to the Council on Foreign Relations and Tom Brokaw in this video from last week. It's a little strange to see him in a black suit, out of uniform. But here is what he had to say.

• US Gov mission in Afghanistan didn't develop much past retribution
• Before US Gov mission-Afghanistan could develop into a strategy, we had already invaded Iraq
• Iraq made it harder to win in AFG - we lost some legitimacy in the region
• Deployment rotation schedule made it impossible to understand these complex situations. Folks were rotated in and out of country before they knew what the hell was going on around them
• Be empathetic to your enemies/friends/neighbors. If you decide to kill them, you are going to need to understand them, systematical. In the process of understanding them to kill them, you may learn they aren't the threat you thought they were. This is not coincidental. This should make you question the frequency with which we turn to violence in our complex international relationships (THIS IS COMING FROM THE PREMIER HUNTER KILLER IN US HISTORY!!!)
• Listen. Learn.
• Constantly take in different perspectives on the same question. You may start to illuminate the answer.
• "Surgical Strikes" = Myth

He breaks down this common myth really well. He gives his famous knowing smile. "I've had surgery before and once you break the skin there is scarring." He was the surgeon in chief for a long time. He knows how mythical this idea of surgical strike really is. "The OBL raid is a great example because it highlights the unintended consequences."

• "Dave Patraeus says it better than I ever will"

That ended up being true, unfortunately. Dave understood how to use and work the media. He always looked at ease. Stan tried the same approach but he was just not disciplined enough with what cards he showed. Ended up getting burned for it by RS. The country is the real loser because he's an incredible team builder and executor of complex missions, something the country has a major shortage of.

• Leadership involves bringing people together and making them work together towards solving problems
• "Relationships are more important than the objective of the day." Build relationships, relentlessly, inside your team and outside, at all times, even at risk of tactical goals
• He says After 9/11 there was this scream, "we gotta go do something now and it's gotta be dramatic". We missed the opportunity to take a long, slow subtle approach of being the aggrieved party, being the coalition builder, and being the leverager of subtler aims.

GEN McChrystal comes across with an incredible capacity for empathy. He seems to really work in the world of human relationships. Any attempt to caricature the General would likely not survive a conversation with the man himself. Not because he has proven to be a virtuosic killer. But because he is so disarmingly empathetic.

Stan uses his intellect and strength to understand his environment. He removes the human preponderance towards fear; the reactive approach that yields defensiveness and destruction. Instead he uses his senses to perceive, understand and then shape his environment using whatever tools are available (Does Sidhartha come to mind, anyone?). Some call this Full Spectrum Ops, some call it All-source INTEL Fusion, some call it buddhist, others still call it dynamic leadership. I just call it awesome.

Sure, it's sad that we lost someone so good and so effective, brought down by something so petty. A Journalist putting a few quotes together into a narrative. But don't feel too bad for this guy. As he said: "he is a journalist and that is the job of a journalist. Why would I expect him to behave differently? It is not wrong or right, it just is."

McChrystal takes this zen approach to being who he is: a soldier.

"I wished I could have finished my mission." The mission always ends before you want it to. Often cut short for incomprehensibly random reasons. Sorry Stan, there's no finish line to this mission, just a place where you pass the baton... It's continuous. There was never an end to tough challenges and the requirement for leadership. Thankfully, he survived to share his wisdom, insight and great skills with those who need to learn.