It all started because Art Petty and Rich Petro wrote a great book. The book was Practical Lessons in Leadership. The year was 2007.

I gave the book a great review. Art and I connected. We’ve been talking about business and leadership and books ever since. Whenever we chat, whatever we chat about, we wind up talking about books. “Have you read …?” “What did you think of …?” “What’s your take on …?”

Art had the idea that we should share some of our book conversations with you. I think it’s a great idea. This is our first foray into podcastland together. We’re going to talk about books that leaders may want to read. That means leadership books and also history, biography, and probably some science and literature.

Our first podcast is about Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis and Bing West. Listen to the podcast for our views of the book. Check out Art’s show notes, below. You can also read my full review of Call Sign Chaos and check out my notes and highlights on Goodreads.

And now, on with the show!

 

Call Sign Chaos Review Show Highlights:

• Wally’s reminder this book is one person’s story: 1:00
• Art’s pleasant surprise about the scale and scope of the book: 1:56
• Wally’s view on the main strength of the book (and the three types of leadership Mattis had to learn): 3:26
• Wally’s ax to grind with the book and its treatment of Marine Corps history: 5:18
• One of the key benefits of the book—the Marine Corps reading list: 6:58
• The big things that jumped out of the book for business leaders/professionals: 9:14
• Why Art loves the concept of “Commander’s Intent” (and Wally’s history lesson on where this came from.) 10:22
• What Wally would ask General Mattis if he could “sit down and have a beer” with him. 12:05
• The “trigonometry level of warfare” 14:05
• The challenges of navigating civilian oversight: 15:00
• Art’s favorite section—The Art Of Leading: 17:00
• Mattis on strategy: 18:05
• Mattis on trust: 19:10
• Centralized vision and decentralized management: 19:50
• Art translates “Getting inside the enemy’s OODA loop” in Chicago vernacular20:49
• If you’re not additive as a leader, here’s what Mattis says you are: 21:30
• Who is this book best for? 22:00
• Art and Wally argue over how to rate books! 23:20
• Final thoughts: 24:20

Note: All links to books on Amazon are affiliate links. If you follow the link and buy the book I receive a small commission.