When I became commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force, I was leading thousands of individuals, from Special Forces to the broader interagency effort. I quickly realized that while we had the most best and most effective operators and small teams in the world, we were unable to scale.
You can get knocked down, and it hurts and it leaves scars. But if you’re a leader, the people you’ve counted on will help you up. And if you’re a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet.
As our leaders in Washington confront tough decisions about our budget priorities, I urge them to continue federal funding for public broadcasting.
In combat operations in places like Afghanistan, we often confronted the specter of dangerous people with powerful weapons who were a threat to their community and to our soldiers. Our aim was to quickly determine who in that community was a legitimate actor who could be trusted with a firearm and who was not.
Empowering, cultivating, and ultimately serving those who follow you will unlock massive potential within your organization, allowing you to solve for problems in real time.
Public, noncommercial broadcasting is also giving kids social-emotional skills like persistence and self-control that are fundamental to success in school, not to mention in the military, the institution where I spent most of my career.
A fundamental principle that I learned in my career, and a principle that my consulting company McChrystal Group helps American civilian companies to adopt, is that winning units and organizations ensure that the time they actually spend – daily, weekly, and yearly – must hew closely to their priorities.
I go back and think of President Kennedy, who had a military service background, but he comes into the presidency, and he’s faced with a decision on the Bay of Pigs, with the C.I.A. and the military giving him data, and it turns out very badly.
If who you were was entirely based upon the position you were in or the headlines you got in the newspaper, or you had essentially subcontracted out your self-worth to the judgments of others, then you’re going to be like tumbleweed. You’re going to be blown.
Military leaders, many of whom were students of counterinsurgency, recognized the dangers of an incremental escalation and the historical lesson that ‘trailing’ an insurgency typically condemned counterinsurgents to failure.
Defeat the Taliban. Secure the population.
I came to believe that a leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust.
Pages: 1 2
