The McChrystal Flap Shows a Problem with His Team's Value Set

President Obama is being forced to decide what to do with renegade General McChrystal. The General and his advisors gave an interview to Rolling Stone in which they ridiculed many of the officials in the "chain of command". Now, Obama is forced to decide whether to accept the resignation that McChrystal is certain to offer (military culture demands that he tender his resignation). This is a President with so many problems confronting him that one has to wonder whether the fates have aligned against him.

When I read about McChrystal and his band of merry, arrogant, men, I see a poisonous culture that is highly problematic. We have seen the same culture at Enron. I saw it first-hand at Nortel. It is a culture of personality in which the boss is so revered or feared (I'll leave it to psychologists to figure that one out) that they become an arrogant, totally self-confident group that feeds off of one another. Everyone who "gets it", in the language Enron executives used to use, is part of the team. Anyone who doesn't agree and live the same life "doesn't get it" and needs to be ridiculed and purged. It is a test of purity. This may build a strong team, but the team is more akin to what the Communists referred to as the "cult of personality" than to a culture of ideas and thought leadership that characterizes most great leaders.

Great leaders surround themselves with people who think and are encouraged to share their ideas, even if they conflict with the prevailing ideas. When thoughts are closed off, there is only one way of thinking. The team gets, what a former professor at West Point I knew called "the spirit of the opposition". That is, a single-minded passion; almost mindless. But, McChrystal is a person who sleeps only a few hours a night; eats only one meal a day; refuses to take water and food while walking around in the harsh climate and heat; and will not nap on the plane. He sees his wife of 33-years only 30-days a year and celebrated their anniversary at a pub in Paris, along with his inner circle. Think about that personality. He is a military guy and we want him to win the war, but he clearly has psychological problems and he has selected a team of advisors that share his problems.

The McChrystal group calls itself "Team America" and believes that they are the only ones who know how to fight the war. Others who disagree are ridiculed, as was on wide display in the Rolling Stone interview. Many of the worst comments were not made by General McChrystal, but rather by unnamed staff. He may not have been in the room when they made those comments, but he clearly gave his team the feeling that they had the right to ridicule the Vice President and others in the Administration.

The military has prided itself on becoming more entrepreneurial and more akin to a corporation than to the hierarchical structure of the past. The success of the military can be found in people like General Petraeus, who appears to be not only bright a brilliant military mind, but also a great leader. Great leaders gain their ideas by having others challenge them. This is what leadership is all about. Not about giving orders, but rather about inspiring a team to internalize the outcome and help the organization succeed.

I recall Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, noting that the most problematic leaders are those who are successful in making their financial numbers, but at the same time destroy the lives of those around them. They are poison to an organization and need to be coached for change or fired if they cannot change. They can too quickly become the "exemplars" of the organization--those others aspire to become. It seems that McChrystal is that kind of leader. He is successful on the one hand, but he also seems to be poison.