The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 439: General Stanley McChrystal - A New Way To Understand Risk & Master The Unknown

Duration: 59m
Broadcast on: 03 Oct 2021
Audio Format: other

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Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12 https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12

General Stanley McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general in the U.S. Army. His last assignment was as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and as the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the director of the Joint Staff and as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. The author of My Share of the Task, Team of Teams, and Leaders, he is currently a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and the co-founder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm.

Notes:

Stan's mentor for his military career and still to this day: an Army officer with a thick southern accent, Major John Vines. His advice: "If there are 3 people responsible for feeding the dog, the dog is going to starve."
Stan graduated from West Point 31 years after his father did. Major General George Smith Patton (General George Patton's son) handed him his diploma. Stan wondered at that moment, what kind of leader you wanted to be. And he came up with, "a good one." Now the more fundamental question is "What do good leaders do?" Instead of just being a good leader, Stan desires to be an effective leader.
Effective leaders:
- Tactically competent
- Are morally good
- Respected
- They create an environment where others want to follow
- They shape how people think and behave
- People that others want to follow
- Have high standards
Risk: in reality, risk is neither mathematical nor finite. Its impact depends to a great extent on how we perceive, process, and respond.
A healthy risk immune system successfully executes 4 imperatives: Detect, Assess, Respond, and Learn
"Risk comes at you from out of the blue, from every angle, when least convenient. There is a cost in becoming overly focused on risk and another at ignoring them. And the sweet spot between the two extremes moves with the circumstances around you."
"I chose a soldier's life for many reasons, one of which was the desire to perceive myself as a courageous risk taker. I liked the idea of taking risks that others would not."
Threat x Vulnerability = Risk
Risk is an eternal challenge. But trying to anticipate or predict every possible risk is a fool's errand. The key is to understand how we need to think about risk, and to then respond appropriately. Rather than living in dread of things we often can't anticipate, duck, or dodge – we must remember these five key insights.
- Look Inward: The greatest risk to us is us.
- It's Up to Us: We have a risk immune system
- Be holistic: It's the system. Make it work
- Balance: The muscles you exercise will be strong: those you ignore will be vulnerabilities
- Risk is always with us, and it's our responsibility to make our teams ready for it
When taking command of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, Stan, along with the leaders of the unit, established The foundational skills - They called them the big 4:
- Physical conditioning
- Marksmanship
- Medical Skills
- Small Unit Drills
But even before mastering basic skills, grounding both individuals and organizations with answers to the most basic questions that relate to the narrative is essential:
- What are our values?
- What exactly do we do? And why do we do it?
- What is expected of each of us?
What went wrong with our response to COVID-19?
- 50 states operated separately instead of a united response
  - "We weren't unified"
- "Our leaders did not communicate effectively."
- "You have to act before the population sees the requirement for it."
Have a front-line obsession - Stan was known for going on the front lines with his soldiers. As leaders, we should do the same with our teams. Be on the front lines to:
- See how it's done with your own eyes, not just reports
- They need to see you go. They'll appreciate it
- It helps create your self-identity
The new hybrid model of in-office and at-home working...
- Be intentional
- Use technology
- Understand what you're not doing
- Don't get lazy
How to deal with imposter syndrome?
- Ask, "What do I know?" "What's my responsibility?" "You have to fight that crisis of confidence."
Excellence =
- Be less flexible on your basic values
- Be flexible with how a problem gets solved

I would say that you really got to fight in posture syndrome because it's a crisis of confidence and sometimes it can make you less effective than you actually are. As you sit there and you see it and you wonder, "Wow, should I even be in this room? Is my opinion worthy?" And you got to step back and say, "What do I know and what's my responsibility?" Welcome to The Learning Leaders Show, presented by Insight Global. I am your host, Ryan Hawke. Thank you so much for being here, text learners to 44222 to become part of Mindful Monday. You along with tens of thousands of other learning leaders from all over the world will receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right. You'll also receive details about my new upcoming book which comes out in January 2022 and you'll have the opportunity to read it first. Text learners to 44222. Now on to tonight's feature of the legend, its General Stanley McChrystal retired four-star general. He was in the United States Army, his last assignment was as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force, and as the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Committee. Stan is also the author of multiple best-selling books including My Share of the Task, Team of Teams, Leaders, and most recently, Risk. He is currently a senior fellow at Yale and Stan is the co-founder of the McChrystal group, a leadership consulting firm during this conversation. We talk about Stan's definition of the five qualities of an effective leader and then how to develop a healthy risk immune system both for yourself and your team and then he shares the first things you should do when taking over a new team. This was wide ranging, we covered a lot, it was fantastic, ladies and gentlemen, the legendary General Stanley McChrystal. Alright, General Stanley McChrystal, man, at first I just got to say it's just so good to see you, it's so good to have you back here on the show for like third, fourth time, I don't even remember, but it's so good to see you, man. It feels great, Brian, so it's my lesson, only go on podcasts for people I really like. Oh, that means a lot to me, and I mentioned it before, but the trip I got to take with you and the students you teach at Yale to Gettysburg was one of the most transformational moments of my life. I retell it over and over and over the care that you put into that trip and the guests you brought, the special forces, guys from Britain and America and the going from place to place, it was just one of the best trips ever, man, and so I just again want to publicly say thank you for that trip to Gettysburg. That's a great time. We still do it every year with our class, you need to come again. I'm going to probably take you up on that offer because it was so much fun. But to get us started, Stan, I want to take us back in time a bit, and let's go back to the summer of 1965, I believe you were 10 years old, and it was weeks before your father deployed to Vietnam for another tour of combat, and I think they took you, your parents took you and your five siblings to look out Mountain, Tennessee where your mom was raised. And there your Aunt Margaret told you the story of another family member, Commander Thomas Callaway-Lattimore. I love it, Stan, if you would tell us more about this story of Commander Thomas Callaway-Lattimore and what you learned from it.

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