Four-Star General Jim Mattis, who retired from military service in 2013, narrates his more-than-40-year military career as well as his two-year tenure as secretary of defense in Call Sign Chaos. General Mattis was born in Washington State in 1951 and spent the bulk of his military career in the Middle East. Understandably, he does not discuss political issues that were part of his agenda as secretary of defense, but his military career, as recounted in this book, does give us ample examples of effective leadership. So what business-area implications can we take from these military leadership insights?
Call Sign Chaos is a three-part book, dealing successively with direct leadership, executive leadership and strategic leadership.
The first section of the book is on direct leadership—that is, how to lead in relatively smaller organizational entities. This situation contrasts with more indirect leadership situations as they occur in larger organizations. In such a closely-knit setting, direct team coordination is key. General Mattis raises the issue that conflicting messages from higher up in the organization can frustrate the leadership efforts of those at the lower levels—a theme he will reiterate throughout the book.
Section two is related to executive leadership—that is, leading in larger organizational entities, typically with multiple organizational layers. General Mattis draws heavily on lessons he learned from leading in the 1991 military campaign in Iraq. A key insight is to keep pace with issues and maintain responsiveness! To maintain the speed, one should be action-oriented and “just do it!” The general warns us here about placing too much focus on processes, which are often embedded in excessive bureaucracy or lead to it. Orders from higher organizational levels often contradict speed-driven actions in the field. At times, higher-level objectives, perhaps with a broader focus than the narrower scope of a given project, may cause conflict, which can be a source of frustration and difficulty.
The final section of the book deals with strategic leadership, key military-political interactions and the reconciliation of such higher-level objectives in conflict. This section thus deals with leadership issues at the top level, highlighting several points:
Set clear priorities and stick to them, above all to keep speed.
Fight loss of morale.
Try to be clear on who is with you versus who is not. Allies are key!
Dismiss people who do not seem to be fully committed, however uncomfortable this decision may be.
The book does not deal with General Mattis’ years as secretary of defense in President Trump’s government, as it would be inappropriate to discuss current high-level political issues. His profile of action orientation in war campaigns and his outspoken criticism of policy-making at the highest levels, mostly directed against former President Obama, were probably to the liking of President Trump and may have led to his nomination as secretary of defense. Still, Mattis did subsequently leave his post as secretary of defense to protest against what he saw as President Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. This conflicted with one of Mattis’ key leadership principles, dialogue and deliberations at the top.
Let us now review some of the book’s highlights that are valuable for businesspeople:
First, the book reports on how carefree youth join the disciplined US Marines, with their three “C-pillars” of values: competence, caring and conviction. Recruiting and selection are essential in this successful organization, with a focus on recruiting for attitude and then training for skills. Having the right team in place is crucial to keep the momentum and to go full speed.
With larger organizations, more indirect leadership is needed, yet the same principles remain applicable. General Mattis does, however, point out two caveats:
Watch out for overcontrolling!
Appreciate the relevance of staff with an advisory-focused roles.
To work together in teams is crucial across disciplines and across national boundaries. However, the authors warn that bureaucratic entities tend to slow down, sometimes even stop, specific initiatives. Even temporary slowdowns might have grave dysfunctional consequences. Failing to move when one has a unique window of opportunity can be very expensive.
All of the above leadership insights relate primarily to situations in which the meaning of the lead task might be directly related to a particular strategic initiative. Much of what has been discussed here would, of course, also be relevant for leadership in particular settings. An often-overlooked additional point is to prepare well and avoid “traffic jams” so that top speed can be maintained. Also, one should always try to avoid causing damage on peripheral or collateral entities, be they individuals or organizations.
When considering an entire organizational unit (such as a division), General Mattis’ mantra is to “improve, adapt and overcome.” As mentioned earlier, these principles entail changing members of a division’s key management who might be hesitant regarding the chosen strategy and thus are less committed. Also, when progress is being made, General Mattis adopts a teaching from the British Army that one should not celebrate success but take success in very measured ways. Furthermore, since momentum is crucial, higher-ups in the organization need a high degree of consensus regarding a chosen strategy so as not to later jeopardize its momentum.
Of course, poor leadership decisions can be made at the top of any organization. Such decisions often lead to dysfunctional pressures between a speed-driven strategic propensity of a given division and a hold-driven strategic propensity from the top. At times, the clarity of strategic intentions may be even more obscure, intentionally or not. Divisional “guerilla warfare” may be the result of such a case. Here, a division’s leaders should, above all, ensure that these key issues are covered:
Train (and bring along) executives at lower levels within the division to ensure maximum effectiveness.
Coordinate more explicitly with other divisions—effective guerilla tactics are synonymous with good coordination.
Involve stakeholders on the ground (i.e., civilians).
The corporate level should, of course, ideally back such a guerilla strategy, although typically most often do so only covertly. High morale among foot soldiers is helpful in General Mattis’ perspective to gain such backing. Independent smaller units are expected to rebuild, show commitment and be positive (“hold the line”)!
Mattis offers additional thoughts on how to render a guerilla strategy particularly effective. Strategic planning is often counter-functional; it fosters complacency and slowness to act. Rather, Mattis calls his readers to “act,” “seize the day,” and “just do it!” Overly bureaucratic organizational entities and individuals should ideally be isolated and, if possible, even eliminated. For instance, General Mattis disbanded the JFCOM (Joint Focus Command) of the greater Middle East for this very reason.
At the highest level of an organization, Mattis finds that three main priorities should be clearly held:
Support the organization’s division managers (and, specifically, figure out how to)
Secure political friends (strategic allies; and again, determine how to)
Prepare eventual strategic contingency options
The authors further suggest that interaction at the top can be sorted into these categories:
Housekeeping (such as dealing with strategic inventory resources)
Decision-making—ensuring that things run smoothly
Alarms—crisis orders requiring immediate strategic considerations, typically acute responses
Diminishing strategic support has its risks. Unilateral withdrawal may be seized upon by an enemy, who might attempt to take advantage of it. Thus, withdrawal is typically risky, even though there may be overriding political (or corporate) reasons. From here stems Mattis’ call to determine who might be friend or foe—the 2011 Arab Spring comes to mind in that regard. Clarifying who is who often requires active inputs at the top of an organization, at a level that regrettably sometimes seems to be lacking the necessary competence and vision.
All in all, Call Sign Chaos is a great book whose insights can easily extend to the business sphere. Specifically,
An effective organization requires emphasis on recruiting, training, educating (and learning), equipping and promoting. The acid test is that effective organizations are said to be exceptional within the larger organization.
Speed is key, and decentralization is key to guaranteeing speed.
Spirited leadership is equally valuable to achieve speed. Open dialogue that leads to specific conclusions regarding given strategic debates is a must.
The strategic insights offered by one of the most successful leaders of what is perhaps the largest modern organization in the world deserve to be taken with great consideration, especially as these insights can apply to modern business leaders as well.
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