General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Ret.), Leaders: Myth and Reality

Retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal discusses lessons learned from a range of influential leaders - from President George Washington to Walt Disney - along with his views on the current global security landscape.

On learning from past leadership: “One of the mythologies we've gotten about leadership is we expect leaders to be something they cannot possibly be and then we are frustrated when they don’t live up to that.”  

On confronting the cyber threat: “Right now…each individual [in the military] gets sort of point defense…and it doesn’t work in cyber that way…. It’s got to be layered…. And it’s got to be very, very cross-compartmented in information sharing because you can’t be effective [with] each individual defending their own turf. And so I think the government’s going to be far more involved in the future in cyber defense than in the past.”  

On implementing a year of paid service in the US: “The reality is if we’re going to do anything big in America - we’re going to do it. Nobody else can do it, and so why can’t we just decide to do it? Why can’t we say we’d be a better country if we did it? And then we can argue about the how. It’s easy to argue about the little pieces of it. But I believe we’d be fundamentally different and fundamentally healthier for it.”