Lessons in Leadership: A Conversation with GEN (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal

In this week's episode of The Burn Bag Podcast, co-hosts A'ndre and Ryan speak to retired Four Star General Stanley McChrystal about his views on leadership. We discuss the topic with the General by drawing on lessons in leadership from his own career, looking at how General McChrystal spearheaded the transformation of JSOC, or the Joint Special Operations Command, to effectively adjust to new battlefields and circumstances that insurgencies wrought. Under his leadership, JSOC went from conducting 4 raids a month to 300 raids a month, and captured Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein and killed Al Qaeda in Iraq Leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  General McChrystal gives us his take on the leadership qualities that made both of these men so lethal and deadly to American forces, and digs into how al-Zarqawi's leadership in particular transcended his practical duties and made him in some ways more dangerous than Osama bin Laden -- even after death. We then bring the conversation to contemporary issues, getting the General's take on how COVID-19 and the fight against terrorism are similar, and how common failures have exacerbated the challenges associated with each. Lastly, General McChrystal outlines how the military needs to rethink what the 'traditional' soldier is in light of new challenges across a range of domains, that include cyberspace,  and how his work now with the McChrystal Group is furthering the 'battlefield to the boardroom' mentality.