Admiral James Stavridis is a 4-Star Navy Admiral who served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Following his military career, he served as Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Currently he serves as Partner and Vice Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation.

In this episode we discuss the following:

To be a great leader, you have to be in shape. Leaders need energy and health, and sleep is a weapon. If you’re not rested, you’re not ready for battle.

Admiral Stavridis was Captain of a destroyer that failed inspection, it was his peers that had his back and saved him that day. Invest in our peer relationships because they will be honest with us and be unafraid to reach out.

Great leaders are great readers. To be a reader is to lead a thousand lives. Every book is a simulator, whether we’re learning resilience from The Old Man and the Sea or leadership from the Godfather. Since conducting this interview, I have been reading The Admiral’s Bookshelf, and I love learning the lessons he learned from his top 25 books. And because of this conversation I created my own bookshelf of the 25 books that have most influenced me. I’ve pasted these in the show notes and on my website.  

The Admiral’s final lesson is timeless. Be humble. 

And inspired by The Admiral's Bookshelf, I created my own bookshelf.

Nate Meikle’s Bookshelf