Leaders

The bestselling author of Team of Teams dismantles the Great Man theory of leadership, by profiling leaders whose real stories defy their legends.

Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal has studied leadership his whole adult life, from his first day at West Point to his most recent work with the corporate clients of the McChrystal Group. In this follow-up to his bestsellers My Share of the Task and Team of Teams, McChrystal explores what leadership really means -- as opposed to the many myths that have surrounded the concept. He focuses on thirteen great leaders, showing that the lessons we commonly draw from their lives are seldom the correct ones.

For example, Robert E. Lee was one of McChrystal's heroes and an icon to this day at West Point. On paper, Lee was the ideal leader. He excelled in every way possible for an Army officer in the three decades before the Civil War. Yet Lee ultimately made the wrong moral choice about which side to serve -- and then failed as the top general of the Confederate Army. After exploring the nuances of Lee's life, McChrystal rethinks some of his own core assumptions.

He also profiles several pairs of unlikely leaders from very diverse eras and fields, to compare how they responded to similar challenges. These include...

McChrystal leads readers to a new leadership paradigm, recognizing that the qualities that helped one leader might sink another, and that no one theory can explain every success or failure. He challenges would-be leaders to humbly respond to their environments, rather than imposing their same old rules.