American - Soldier | August 14, 1954 -
Leaders must establish common purpose and build trust within an organization.
Stanley A. McChrystal
TrustPurposeOrganizationBuild
By nature, I tended to trust people and was typically open and transparent... But such transparency would go astray when others saw us out of context or when I gave trust to those few who were unworthy of it.
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If every soldier is authorized to make one mistake, then we lose the war.
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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.
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Wars often begin with enthusiastic vigor but typically settle into costly, dirty business characterized for soldiers by fear, frustration, and loneliness.
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In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
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There's an art to asking questions. Briefings are valuable but normally communicate primarily what the subordinate leader wants you to know, and often the picture they provide is incomplete.
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In an organization that is unwilling to change, find the opportunity to talk and interact with people - figure out why they don't want to change. It could be habits. It could be people's personal equities and reputations are defined by the role they're in or the process they've mastered.
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I think life is hard at the combat outposts, and anything that distracts us from supporting them, in my mind, is something that we shouldn't do.
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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.
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I find that if the day is terrible but I worked out, at the end of the day I can go, 'Well, I had a good workout'. Almost no matter what happens.
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I said if you want me to go back to Afghanistan and work, I'm happy to do that. If you think accepting my resignation is best for the cause and for the nation, then I have no complaint with that.
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