Coaching For Leaders

Jim Mattis: Call Sign Chaos Jim Mattis served more than four decades as an infantry officer in the United States Marines, rising to the rank of 4-star general. In 2017, he was nearly unanimously confirmed as the 26th Secretary of Defense of the United States, a position he held for almost two years. Today, he is a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author of the new book with Bing West: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead*. In this conversation, Jim and I discuss his career in the Marines and the leadership lessons that emerged during combat. Jim shares the mistake he made in soliciting support for his plan to capture Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora and discusses how he handled disagreements on strategy in Fallujah. Finally, Jim recommends three books and reflects on the greatest threat to America today. Key Points Creating “focused telescopes” outside the normal chain of command were useful in discovering concerns that might not otherwise have become known. Keep k