Leaders: Myth and Reality

There is no checklist on how to be a leader. There is no one model on how leaders should lead. Each one of us will have to develop our own leadership style and also be adaptive depending on the context and circumstance.

Four star General Stan McChrystal who served for thirty years in the United States Army and was in commend of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan, has co-authored several books on leadership including the best seller “Team of Teams” and more recently “Leaders:Myth and Reality”. 

Leading the coalition force in Afghanistan was obviously complex but it is no less challenging to solve the complex issues global businesses are facing today.

I had the fortunate opportunity to work with the The McChrystal Group on leader development and development of a winning culture for our organization. Here are a few nuggets I would like to share:

Decision making: Empowered execution is enabled by shared consciousness.

Learning organization: Failure is the fastest path to knowledge. 

Change: Change will not happen if we just wait. We are the ones we are waiting for.

Empowerment: Don’t wait for empowerment, take ownership.

Bias: You can never be smart enough to outsmart your bias.

Leader: Leader is about unlocking others potential to maximize their own performance

Network: Chance benefits the connected minds.

Conflict: There would be no innovation if there are no conflicts.

Thank you to the McChrystal Team: Tim, Maryam, Jeff, Beau, Brad, Pamela!

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