What makes a good leader?
Former Army General Stanley McChrystal has some thoughts on this.
If you don’t recognize McChrystal’s name, you might recognize his recent (fictionalized) movie portrayal by Brad Pitt.
Or you might remember this Rolling Stone profile from the late Michael Hastings:
The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority. After arriving in Kabul last summer, Team America set about changing the culture of the International Security Assistance Force, as the NATO-led mission is known. (U.S. soldiers had taken to deriding ISAF as short for “I Suck at Fighting” or “In Sandals and Flip-Flops.”) McChrystal banned alcohol on base, kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess, expanded the morning briefing to include thousands of officers and refashioned the command center into a Situational Awareness Room, a free-flowing information hub modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s offices in New York. He also set a manic pace for his staff, becoming legendary for sleeping four hours a night, running seven miles each morning, and eating one meal a day. (In the month I spend around the general, I witness him eating only once.) It’s a kind of superhuman narrative that has built up around him, a staple in almost every media profile, as if the ability to go without sleep and food translates into the possibility of a man single-handedly winning the war.
McChrystal’s new book, co-authored with Jeff Eggers and Jason Mangone, is called “Leaders: Myth and Reality.” The book spans continents and decades to examine leaders ranging from Maximilien Robespierre to Coco Chanel to Walt Disney.
What makes a good leader? What does McChrystal make of the current status of the American campaign in Afghanistan, which he used to lead? And does he regret anything about that profile?
GUESTS
General Stanley McChrystal, Co-author, “Leaders: Myth And Reality”; four-star general & former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; founder, McChrystal Group; @StanMcChrystal
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
© 2018 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.
Copyright 2018 WAMU 88.5
