Author Interview: Stan McChrystal on Leaders: Myth and Reality

By General Stanley McChrystal

General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general and the Co-Founder of McChrystal Group.  He commanded the U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan, which included more than 150,000 troops from 45 allied countries.   From 2003 to 2008, he commanded Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).   His latest book is Leaders: Myth and Reality, he is also author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World.

Leaders: Myth and Reality, was a bestseller, even before it hit the bookstores.  According to Amazon, the book being released today by General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.), former U.S. Navy SEAL Jeff Eggers and former Marine Jason Mangone is already topping the bestseller list for business and organizational learning.  The Cipher Brief’s CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly sat down with General McChrystal ahead of the release of the book to talk about what it is that he learned over his decades in public service, and how his experiences changed his definition of a strong leader.

Under/Cover: This new book, called, Leaders, Myth and Reality, is a very different turn for you in terms of how you think about leadership and lessons learned from the past. What inspired you to take on this project?

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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