224: Admiral James Stavridis | Underappreciated Leadership Lessons

Admiral James Stavridis is a 4-Star Navy Admiral who served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Following his military career, he served as Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Currently he serves as Partner and Vice Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation.

In this episode we discuss the following:

To be a great leader, you have to be in shape. Leaders need energy and health, and sleep is a weapon. If you’re not rested, you’re not ready for battle.

Admiral Stavridis was Captain of a destroyer that failed inspection, it was his peers that had his back and saved him that day. Invest in our peer relationships because they will be honest with us and be unafraid to reach out.

Great leaders are great readers. To be a reader is to lead a thousand lives. Every book is a simulator, whether we’re learning resilience from The Old Man and the Sea or leadership from the Godfather. Since conducting this interview, I have been reading The Admiral’s Bookshelf, and I love learning the lessons he learned from his top 25 books. And because of this conversation I created my own bookshelf of the 25 books that have most influenced me. I’ve pasted these in the show notes and on my website.  

The Admiral’s final lesson is timeless. Be humble. 

And inspired by The Admiral's Bookshelf, I created my own bookshelf.

Nate Meikle’s Bookshelf

1. The Book of Mormon & Bible
   • Taught me about Jesus Christ, love, repentance, forgiveness, and endurance
2. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   • Reminds me to avoid the superficial
3. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
   • Motivated me to become a professor
4. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
   • The first book to get me excited about personal finance, one of the most important, underappreciated topics IMO.
5. A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
   • Motivates me to be honest in all things
6. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
   • Improved my communication skills dramatically
7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
   • Warns me of the dangers of infidelity
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   • Motivates me to live a life of integrity
9. My Personal Best by John Wooden
   • Taught me about servant leadership and to treat friendship like a fine art
10. The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
    • Made me realize the importance of long tail events
11. Jim Trelease Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
    • Motivated me to teach my daughter to read at age 2, read tens of thousands of books to her (and our subsequent 3 children), and ultimately write my own book (Little Miss) about how to inspire children to love reading
12. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
    • Taught me the importance of storytelling and how to tell great stories
13. The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield
    • Taught me about Buddhism, and the three causes of human suffering (Grasping, Aversion, Delusion)
14. A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine
    • Taught me about Stoic Philosophy and the value of negative visualization and wanting the things we have
15. The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
    • Taught me to not coddle my children and the dangers of cognitive distortions (and the value of cognitive behavioral therapy)
16. The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweill (published in 2005)
    • Made me realize that AI is likely the most important invention ever, and persuaded me that Artificial General Intelligence will arrive during my lifetime
17. Poor Charlie’s Almanack, by Charlie Munger
    • The greatest collection of wisdom I’ve ever come across related to investing (specifically) and decision making (generally)
18. Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke
    • Taught me about the dangers of resulting / outcome bias (judging a decision by the outcome rather than the process)
19. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
    • Taught me the importance of seeing a negotiation from the other person’s point of view, and constantly showing them that you understand their position (by labeling, mirroring, and using an accusations audit)
20. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
    • Taught me about elite ambition, determination, and focus
21. Endurance by Alfred Lansing
    • Taught me about unflinching leadership
22. Good Energy by Casey Means
    • Persuaded me to eliminate processed foods and exercise 5-6 days per week
23. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
    • Reminds me how capable children are
24. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
    • Inspires me to be courageous
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
    • Reminds me to try to laugh every day, in every class, in every conversation