Lessons of Leadership (SD)

On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the President was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven. To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO's special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation's military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron. The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Earlier this year, Admiral McRaven retired from the Navy to become Chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, Admiral McRaven addresses a profoundly simple question, "How do you change the world, when so much lies beyond your control?" Recalling incidents from his own life and service, he demonstrates that we all have opportunities to perform numberless small acts of encouragement, courage and compassion that can have repercussions far beyond our own lives.

Andrew Young was the pastor of a small country church when he faced down the Ku Klux Klan to organize a voter registration drive in South Georgia. He became the leading negotiator for the national Civil Rights Movement, enduring death threats, beatings and jail time to win for African Americans the rights of full citizenship they were promised by the Constitution, rights they had been long denied. Alongside his friend, Martin Luther King, Jr., he marched through the most dramatic episodes of the great struggle: from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the streets of Birmingham and Selma, and finally to Memphis, where an assassin's bullet ended Dr King's life.

Young fought on, winning election to the United States House of Representatives, as the first African American to be elected to Congress from the Deep South since Reconstruction. As a Congressman, he supported a little-known former Governor of Georgia in his long-shot bid for the Presidency, and when Jimmy Carter became President, he named Andrew Young to serve as his country's Ambassador to the United Nations. At the UN, Andrew Young maintained his commitment to universal human rights, plunging into the most challenging controversies of the day, including the liberation struggles of Southern Africa and the search for peace in the Middle East.

He capped his career in public service with two terms as Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Once again, he proved himself an able negotiator, balancing the interests of the business community with the needs of the city's poorest citizens, completing the city's transformation from a battleground of the Civil Rights era to the proud showplace of the modern South. Half a century after the battles of the 1960s, Andrew Young remains an outspoken champion for the rights of all mankind.

Ray Dalio is the founder and owner of Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest and richest hedge fund. The firm manages approximately $130 billion in global investments for institutional clients including foreign governments and central banks, pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations. The son of a jazz musician, Dalio began investing at the age of 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300, tripling his investment when the airline merged with another company. After completing his education at Long Island University and Harvard Business School, Dalio worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and invested in commodity futures. In 1975, at age 26, he founded Bridgewater Associates in his two-bedroom Manhattan apartment. As the firm expanded, he wrote a 100-page essay, 'Principles,' to share his management philosophy with his employees. Dalio believes his team must be 'radically truthful and transparent' to achieve excellence. 'We need to know what's true,' he asserts, 'especially those things that we would rather not be true’Ķ' In both 2010 and 2011, Bridgewater ranked as the largest and best-performing hedge fund manager in the world. Its clients and employees routinely give Bridgewater top satisfaction ratings in annual surveys. Forbes magazine has estimated Dalio's net worth at $10 billion, making him one of the wealthiest self-made men in America. In 2011, he personally earned $3 billion. Ray Dalio shares his philosophy of life and business in this podcast, recorded at historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., during the 2012 International Achievement Summit.

For those who follow the gyrations of American politics, the week is not complete until David Brooks is heard from. After completing his two columns a week for The New York Times, Brooks takes to the airwaves every Friday, on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and on PBS television's The News Hour. On the air, as in print, he brings historical perspective, a bracing candor and gentle humor to his analysis of the week's events. Brooks was a senior at the University of Chicago when a piece he'd written, lampooning conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr., caught the eye of its presumed target and led to an assignment with Buckley's National Review. Brooks later became a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly. As a foreign correspondent, he covered Europe, Russia, South Africa and the Middle East for The Wall Street Journal, and later edited the paper's opinion page. His 2000 bestseller, Bobos in Paradise, was a work of 'comic sociology' anatomizing the class of 'bourgeois bohemians' ('Bobos' for short) whose lives combine capitalist enterprise with counterculture tastes. In his latest book, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, Brooks applies the lessons of neuroscience and sociology to explore the unconscious drives and choices that ultimately make individuals productive, happy or successful. This podcast was recorded at the Top of the Hay, on the top floor of the Hay-Adams Hotel, overlooking the White House in Washington, D.C., on the first night of the 2012 International Achievement Summit. Brooks discusses the lives of three individuals -- Dorothy Day, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower -- who achieved greatness by identifying and overcoming their personal weaknesses.

America's greatest living chronicler of men at war, Rick Atkinson draws on an intimate knowledge of the soldier's life. The son of a career army officer, he was born in Germany and grew up on military posts. He developed his mastery of research -- along with his powerful prose style and keen eye for the telling detail -- as a reporter for The Kansas City Times and The Washington Post. In 1982, he was honored, along with the rest of the Kansas City newsroom team, with a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. The same year, he received an individual Pulitzer for national reporting. Among the articles cited by the prize jury were a series he wrote on the West Point class of 1966. Atkinson later elaborated this story in his bestselling book, The Long Gray Line. Since 1983, he has worked for The Washington Post, covering everything from election campaigns and the savings and loan scandal to the wars in Bosnia and Somalia. His reporting on the 1991 conflict with Iraq resulted in the book Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. As editor in charge of investigations, he brought the paper a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1999 with a series of stories on police shootings in the District of Columbia. Atkinson accompanied General David Petraeus and the 101st Airborne as an embedded reporter in the first months of the Iraq war. He distilled these experiences in the book In the Company of Soldiers, hailed as the most vivid depiction yet written of the day-to-day experience of combat soldiers in Iraq. Last year, he returned to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate the impact of roadside bombs in the two conflicts. Between assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Atkinson is writing an exhaustively researched history of the U.S. armed forces in the European theater of World War II. The first book, An Army at Dawn, was widely praised as the definitive account of the North African campaign and received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History. The second acclaimed volume, The Day of Battle, focusing on the Italian campaign, was published in 2007. He is now at work on the third volume of his trilogy, recounting the liberation of Western Europe.

America's greatest living chronicler of men at war, Rick Atkinson draws on an intimate knowledge of the soldier's life. The son of a career army officer, he was born in Germany and grew up on military posts. He developed his mastery of research -- along with his powerful prose style and keen eye for the telling detail -- as a reporter for The Kansas City Times and The Washington Post. In 1982, he was honored, along with the rest of the Kansas City newsroom team, with a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. The same year, he received an individual Pulitzer for national reporting. Among the articles cited by the prize jury were a series he wrote on the West Point class of 1966. Atkinson later elaborated this story in his bestselling book, The Long Gray Line. Since 1983, he has worked for The Washington Post, covering everything from election campaigns and the savings and loan scandal to the wars in Bosnia and Somalia. His reporting on the 1991 conflict with Iraq resulted in the book Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. As editor in charge of investigations, he brought the paper a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1999 with a series of stories on police shootings in the District of Columbia. Atkinson accompanied General David Petraeus and the 101st Airborne as an embedded reporter in the first months of the Iraq war. He distilled these experiences in the book In the Company of Soldiers, hailed as the most vivid depiction yet written of the day-to-day experience of combat soldiers in Iraq. Last year, he returned to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate the impact of roadside bombs in the two conflicts. Between assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Atkinson is writing an exhaustively researched history of the U.S. armed forces in the European theater of World War II. The first book, An Army at Dawn, was widely praised as the definitive account of the North African campaign and received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History. The second acclaimed volume, The Day of Battle, focusing on the Italian campaign, was published in 2007. He is now at work on the third volume of his trilogy, recounting the liberation of Western Europe.

In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, My American Journey, was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. General Powell was the first African-American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the 1991 Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the Presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology. For over 20 years, he has been at the center of the most momentous events of our time.

In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, My American Journey, was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. General Powell was the first African-American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the 1991 Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the Presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology. For over 20 years, he has been at the center of the most momentous events of our time.

When Susan Hockfield was a student, women in the sciences had few role models. As a senior at the University of Rochester, she had come up with an idea for an interesting experiment, but lacked the confidence to carry it out herself. "People like me don't do these things," she remembers thinking. Fortunately, a sympathetic professor encouraged her, and she resolved to pursue a career in the sciences. Today, she is a neuroscientist of international reputation, and the president of one of the world's leading research universities. Dr. Hockfield's research has focused on the development of the brain and central nervous system. She pioneered new technology in brain research and has discovered proteins that regulate structural changes in the neurons and influence the movement of cancer cells in the brain. Among other insights, her work may open new avenues for the treatment of the deadly brain cancer glioma. When she was chosen to head the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was not only the first woman to hold the post, but the first biologist to head a faculty better known for its achievements in physics and electrical engineering. Although her appointment reflects the ever-increasing importance of biology and biomedical research, she is also winning praise for her leadership of the MIT Energy Initiative, a massive research program that may well transform the way we power our homes, cars and businesses. In this podcast, recorded at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Dr. Susan Hockfield discusses the importance of collaborative thinking in both science and academic leadership.

America’'s greatest living chronicler of men at war, Rick Atkinson draws on an intimate knowledge of the soldier’'s life. The son of a career army officer, he was born in Germany and grew up on military posts. He developed his mastery of research’Ůalong with his powerful prose style and keen eye for the telling detail’Ůas a reporter for The Kansas City Times and The Washington Post. His reporting on the 1991 conflict with Iraq resulted in the book Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. Atkinson accompanied General David Petraeus and the 101st Airborne as an embedded reporter in the first months of the Iraq war. He distilled these experiences in the book In the Company of Soldiers, hailed as the most vivid depiction yet written of the day-to-day experience of combat soldiers in Iraq. Between assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Atkinson is writing an exhaustively researched history of the U.S. armed forces in the European theater of World War II. The first volume, An Army at Dawn, received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History. In this podcast, recorded at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Atkinson touches on his experiences as a war correspondent in Iraq, as well as his multi-volume history of the European front in World War II.