Leadership Lessons from Gen. James Mattis (Ret.)

general Jim mattis forty years in the US Marine Corps okay all set all right marionette young asked me a question about the toughest decision that I've ever had to make while I was in the Marine Corps do you regret the decision and would I have done anything differently you know Marinette when we go into the Marine Corps we swear to obey orders and carry them out to the best of our ability and defend the Constitution so I've not regretted those decisions and and one of the toughest that I could mention to you was after being ordered to attack into the city of Fallujah I was ordered to halt the attack deep inside the city and during that first and ultimately abort attack ordered to withdraw our Marines and sailors out of the city they had fought for and they had lost some of their buddies in that fight so it was a difficult decision it was a decision taken for reasons that had nothing to do with the tactical situation on the ground I was concerned to a degree if the Marines would lose confidence in their leadership because of it but they didn't I still recall a young saw gunner being interviewed by a television crew talking about how terrible he must feel that he was being ordered out of the city and he was a slow talking marine from down south he just calmly looked into the camera said doesn't matter we'll just hunt him down somewhere else and kill him and I bring this up because ultimately it's about the spirit of the Marine Corps that nothing nothing really can stop us and we just don't take refuge in self-pity or any of that kind of stuff and so as a result the Marine Corps remains a very feared organization in this world as it should be so tough decisions tough times and sometimes things don't go our way doesn't have anything to do with the decision we make about how we feel about every marine makes their own decision about how they're gonna react what happens to them and that's what sets the Marine Corps apart because when the times get tough the Marines get tougher Phil Claiborne wants to know how did I continue to stay motivated throughout my Marine Corps career that's real easy Phil I'll tell you right up front there were some jobs in the Marine Corps I didn't care for I learned to hate minefields at age 21 when the Marine Corps trained me as a second lieutenant and the infantry to go through them and I continued to hate minefields as long as I had to encounter them throughout my career but the reason I stuck around the Marine Corps was the spirit of the Marines I knew I could make a lot more money doing something else and I knew I could live a lot better quality of life and not be deployed all the time but it was the spirit of the Marines that kept me motivated I never went to work feeling like woe is me that life is tough for anything else I look forward to every day and it's simply because I stuck around the Marine Corp for the right reason and that was to serve alongside young Marines old elf wants to know how do you keep improving as a leader to meet the demand of each role in your career we all get promoted you have different roles to play how do you stay teachable as a leader I think the most important thing here joel is that you have to assume you must keep improving if you make that your decision that you must improve if you look at every week in the Marine Corps is your last week of peace and you must be better at the end of this week as a warfighter then you'll push yourself on your three-mile run down to 18 minutes and you'll accept no excuses you'll push yourself in 21 pull-ups and you'll accept no excuses you'll push yourself to read the Commandant reading list you'll push yourself that when the things are going tough in the field you keep your spirit up and you're the man everyone can turn to knowing that you don't give up and you just keep improving every day with the assumption that if you're gonna lead more Marines in the futures you get promoted they expect you to be the physically toughest the mentally sharpest and spiritually just the most undiminished person that nothing not cold not rain not enemies situation not frustrating rules and get you down and you just maintain this body mind and spirit improvement at all times you stay teachable most by reading books by reading what other people went through I can't tell you the number of times I looked down at what was going on on the ground or I was engaged in a fight somewhere and I knew within a couple of minutes how I was going to screw up the enemy and I knew it because I've done so much reading I knew what I was going to do because I've seen other similar situations in the reading I knew how they'd been dealt with successfully or unsuccessfully and so long as you continue along this line so long as you remember somebody on the other side is watching hoping that you're not at the top of your game that you're not reading to you're not working out not strong spiritually then they're gonna think they've got you you want to always be the toughest the sharpest out there I've got a question here from rael jr. from Camp Rhino in 2001 it was in southern Afghanistan right after 9/11 Raoul when you and I were out there and you asked about a cold night in Afghanistan when I was walking the perimeter by myself greeting a bunch of young Marines and what was I thinking about well I think I remember the night in question if you'll recall the mortars were firing in one direction and we had a lot of shooting going on at one side of the perimeter and the reason they keep some of us gray-haired guys around is because it's not our first war it's not our second war and what I was doing was walking to the opposite side of the perimeter just suspicious if the enemy was perhaps fainting on one side and they were actually going to attack over on your side of the perimeter so I was over there knowing full well that the Marines at the position that we are being attacked would handle the enemy I wanted to make certain we were ready for any surprises so I was over there just checking on the Marines see another doing and all of them wanted to get over the other side of the perimeter get in the fight and I said oh you boys just stay right here there will be plenty of fighting before this is done so that's what I was thinking about that night ole and thanks for being out there it was a cold night Jonathan Herrera wants to know what is the one leadership lesson you learned as a general grade officer that you would wished you have known your whole career you know you learn all the way through Jonathan and each rank you're learning more and if there was one lesson that came more and more into focus over the years it was one I learned by watching similar side units for example I watched dozens of platoons go through certain ranges or I saw companies dozens of companies and fights I always wondered what made one unit better than another they were all well trained they all came through the bootcamp all of them all of them had been recruited from America and they were quality young men so what made them different it was the junior leadership the junior NCOs the junior officers who's coaching who's animating spirits brought out the best in their troops who had admired leadership we all know that earning the trust and respect of your subordinates is critical you you simply have to earn that trust you have to earn that respect you have to earn that every day because when it's all over and done with you're not going to win any fights as a leader your troops are gonna win those fights but there was another word I learned to prioritize as I evaluated units and that word was affection it's not popularity with all the favoritism that comes with trying to be a popular person as a leader that's a road to failure but affection that you create any unit an affection so strong that the troops will stick by one another they'll carry out the mission even in peril and I bring this one up because I believe that that kind of affection brings out self discipline where people don't want to let down the unit and I think that if there is one lesson I learned along the way that the more you can build that kind of affection in a unit when the going gets tough when people are getting shot down around you it'll pull together it'll pull through and it'll be a lot smoother organization it'll move more rapidly against the enemy more fluidly against the enemy and it will generally speaking have fewer disciplinary problems in garrison whether it be duis sexual harassment or all that that stuff that you see some jerks do and on the other hand when you're in combat you'll find that they really play hell with the enemy because what they sense about each other and the conviction they have to supporting one another their commitment to one another Fillie best 36 where do you guys get these names wants to know what leadership books do you recommend a great great question because the Commandant reading list is designed specifically to identify the very best reading there is on leadership if you go to that that lit reading list you'll find gates of fire and when you read gates of fire you find you as a young leader will never face anything worse than what fighters have faced in the past if you read Eugene sledge his book about with the old breed at Peleliu and Okinawa you'll find the spirit of the Marine Corps overcoming the most difficult combat conditions and again you'll find that you will face nothing new Under the Sun you will be able to overcome it if you keep your Marine Corps training and your Marine Corps spirit foremost it requires you to do a lot of reading because there are many different styles of leadership you must stay authentic to who you are but at the same time we expect you to leave in no uncertain terms and the Marine Corps you're not paid to have a midlife crisis or ask people to help you through your midlife crisis you're there to give the enemy a midlife crisis and that means you put your Marines together into a good tough team and by reading from the Commandant reading list you cannot go wrong in getting different leadership ideas that will serve you very very well seppia all the things wants to know what did you look for in your NCOs and how should the relationship between an NCO and an officer complement one another you know seppia for all NCOs and petty officers in the Fleet Marine Forest I look for two qualities I knew I can trust Marines I made that assumption I can trust Marines so what I was looking for was initiative and aggressiveness I wanted them to have the initiative to take charge the aggressiveness to carry out whatever the order was I wasn't interested in them saying that something was difficult I wasn't interested in the difficulty difficulty is is an excuse that the Marine Corps will never accept from its sailors Marines its petty officers and NCOs so I looked for the initiative and aggressiveness and the ability to bond with their troops so that their troops looked at them as the admired leader the toughest leader the most capable leader that they could hope for as far as the relationship between an NCO and an officer there are some things that rightly belong to NCO leaders the other things that have to do with the daily functioning of the unit while the officers should be more concerned with being the Sentinel looking further out making certain ready unit is ready for whatever is coming down the pike whatever missions are coming so he's always on the lookout for an enemy for an ambush this sort of thing and creates that kind of combat hunter mentality in in the Marines but the NCO has got to make certain the Petty Officer have got to make certain that the sailors and Marines look and act like Marines and they're ready for whatever is coming whatever the officer brings down is the mission they are ready to embrace it and carry it out hey del bono wants to know again where do you guys get these names you know I'm gonna come up with a few Goodman for myself after this hey del bono asks what in your opinion is the most important leadership trait and of why there is no way to separate out the leadership traits because if you prioritize one or over the others then you actually become a weaker leader you've got to look at all of them and how they come together that make you into the kind of leader that your troops want to follow and are willing to follow knowing you have the skill and the enthusiasm you have the passion you have the compassion that makes you the full package remember what we want to do is make Marines and win battles and you do this by creating a Marine Corps there's no better friend and no worse enemy you can't be strong in one leadership trait and lackluster in another and be a good leader so the answer to the question about which is the most important leadership trait I think it's how you put it together in your own authentic way so you stay yourself but at the same time you recognize your responsibility to put all the leadership traits together in one complete package Roy McVeigh asks what is the kill casualty radius of my knife hand well right I would tell you that B once you get to be a high ranking officer the kill casualty radius is whatever your Marines make it and by the time I got up to senior ranks it was hundreds of miles but I would just tell you that I remain humbled that I was able to stay in the Marine Corps so long when young Marines like you would make that kill cavity radius very deep in enemy territory and carry out the Marines mission in a way that by the time you're a high-ranking officer basically you're your reputation is carried made by you young Marines who went into the fights with the enemy so the kill cavity radius as far as you can throw it there young man thank you

Channel: Marines

Views: 1,421,723

Rating: 4.9230213 out of 5

Keywords: Marines, Marine Corps, usmc, united states marines, united states marine corps, marine corps, military, armed forces, jarhead, leatherneck, devil dog, first to fight, the few, the proud, Marine (military)

Id: 3EYU3VTI3IU

Length: 16min 36sec (996 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Milestailsprowe]

Every time he talks all I can think is why isn't he President

[u/Kinmuan]

GEN MATTIS CONFIRMS KNIFE HAND CAN KILL AT HUNDREDS OF MILES

[u/Dr_Smoothrod_PhD]

I fucking love this man.

[u/[deleted]]

Mattis for president!