Stan McChrystal: Leadership for Non-Wimps

This is Remarkable People. We are on a mission to make you remarkable.

Helping me in this episode is the remarkable Stan McChrystal, a retired four-star US Army general who served in the Army for 34 years.

He was the commander of the US and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan. And he led the US’s premier military counter-terrorism force, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College. Stan also accomplished fellowships at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2011, he founded the McChrystal Group, which includes an advisory team that improves the performance of organizations and mentors the men and women who lead them.

Stan is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He sits on the boards of Navistar International Corporation, Siemens Government Technology, and JetBlue Airways.

His latest book is called Risk: A User’s Guide. It is the best book about leadership that I have ever read. At my expense, I’ve sent copies to the president of Sony Electronics, CEO of Liquid Death, Steve Case (founder of AOL), and Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon.

The best part of this interview occurs in the final minute when he explains what I call the “granddaughter’s test” so be sure to listen to the very end.