Yes, Call Sign Chaos is a biography of one of the Marine Corps’ more storied and legendary generals, but it’s also a primer on leadership, and a first person account of the wars America fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. In it we see the rise and development of a man who became both a student of history and of those who followed him. A voracious reader with legendary (and prized) reading lists, he acknowledges that only an aide earlier in his career had read more than him (then 1st Lieutenant Warren Cook--now LtCol Cook). He notes that the importance of reading history is that it gives a leader some margin: “Living in history builds your own shock absorber, because you’ll learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems.” With this shock absorber a leader realizes they don’t need to come up with every solution on their own. Mattis is more direct in some of his closing reflections: “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate--you can’t coach and you can’t lead.” And for Mattis, everything boils down to developing leaders because that is how one accomplishes the mission of defeating the enemy and doing everything you can to keep your Marines alive. So here I'll offer you (spoiler alert) Mattis’ leadership philosophy distilled to its essence. Have a bias for action. Set the tempo for that action and reward those who meet that tempo or exceed it. Speed is king because time can’t be recovered once it’s lost. Reward the initiative of those under you--even when they fail.
I’d encourage you to read through my key quotes and takeaways below for many more lessons. But I’ll close here by discussion one of the great Mattis quotes:
“Powerpoint is the scourge of critical thinking.”
He notes that powerpoint is only good for displaying data and I'd argue most military service members would agree. The very first admiral I ever worked for was also one of the best leaders that I worked for (as a reservist airline pilot, he also had the best hair and mustache in the Pentagon--can one have a "grooming mentor") and he demonstrated the truth of Mattis' assertion whenever he would speak to audiences. His powerpoint’s rarely ever had more than a few words. Instead, his powerpoints would contain pictures or a few maps. He’d use those illustrations to tell a story and lay out his argument or point. This method would force the listeners to stay engaged, take some notes, and not just mentally check out (knowing that they could just refer to the powerpoint slides later). We need leaders to embrace this truth and use their presentations to create narratives that tell a story that cogently lays out the problem at hand so that solutions can be discovered and developed.
See our 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key Quotes
88 “Note to all executives over the age of thirty: always keep close to you youngsters who are smarter than you.
92 “Any general who isn’t spiritually connected to his troops is not a combat leader.”
96 “To expect success every time is wishful thinking, but we should default to supporting commanders who move boldly against the enemy...initiative and audacity must be supported, whether or not successful.”
102 “Never think you’re impotent. Choose how you respond.” Mattis when faced with adversity or impossible situations.
124 “Great nations don’t get angry; military action should be undertaken only to achieve strategic effects.” Mattis’ considerations prior to orders to attack into Fallujah.
132 “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.” Mattis during continuations with sheikhs.
141 “If there’s something you don’t want people to see, you ought to reconsider what you’re doing. The most compelling story for us should be the naked truth about the reality of our operations.” Mattis on openness with media.
144 “Be polite, be professional--but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” Mattis’ direction to his grunts as he charges them to thread the line and act ethically while being prepared to act lethally when shot at.
150 “Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition.” Mattis picked this up from chess matches and then wanted to teach his squad leaders how to pick up subtle cues in the same way in combat situations. So he started to use tactical simulators and a dedicated training program to go along with it. Despite aviation using simulators to great effect, this had never been done for infantry which shoulders the buk of the fatalities.
156 “Without credible military force, our diplomacy is toothless.”
156 “Operations occur at the speed of trust.” “Make your intent clear, and then encourage your subordinates to employ a bias for action.”
159 “Attitudes are caught, not taught.” An important tenet of successful leadership is maintaining morale amidst adversity.
177 “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” attributed to Winston Churchill but Mattis uses it in discussing the value of NATO.
182 “Powerpoint is the scourge of critical thinking.” It’s only good use is for displaying data.
212 “If a democracy does not trust its troops, then it shouldn’t go to war.” Mattis in pushing for better rules of engagement which would be “reflexive, not reflective, so that troops can react swiftly and legitimately when time is of the essence.”
237 “Living in history builds your own shock absorber, because you’ll learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems.”
237 “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate--you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”
Key Takeaways
46 Origin of Mattis’ call sign came from then LtCol John Toolan, who wrote CHAOS on the chalkboard and asked Mattis when he came in the room: “Does the Colonel Have Another Outstanding Solution.”
84 He acknowledges that he comes up with very few new ideas but that he takes the opportunity to integrate and learn from the lessons of others.
87-8 Without the creation and stoking of “vicious harmony” on the battlefield, one’s leadership is outdated and incomplete. This type of harmony requires coordination and most importantly TRUST across all sectors (military, diplomacy, service etc.)
88 Aide 1st LT Warren Cook comes up with the idea for the “mother of all sand tables” to rehearse the invasion of Iraq with the different combat leaders wearing colored and unit-labeled jersey to walk through the invasion of Iraq. Important here is that Mattis created an environment where his aide felt comfortable interrupting to offer a solution and that Mattis didn’t just blow him off. https://www.hoover.org/news/nsaf-profile-us-marine-corps-lt-colonel-warren-cook
90 his success in initial Iraq invasion was getting “inside the enemy’s OODA loop”--that is “not giving the enemy time to react and repeating the loop faster than they could.
101 Digital technology and instant communication don’t necessarily clear the fog of war--if the information is incorrect or incomplete to start with, then its instantaneous communication can make matters infinitely worse.
132 When faced with subpar guidance from headquarters or higher, you must suppress your frustration and deal with the situation at hand.
133 Mattis division lost 18 marines because the theater and national command’s couldn’t get their act together and tell them what to do...only what not to do.
143 Crazy story about this meeting he had with Junabi, head of the “moderate” Mujahideen Council. This was a man who had tried to kill him months earlier. If it had gone the wrong way, he was ready to kill Junabi.
146 Mattis takes issue with the notion of the mission being to “bring all my men home safely.” Instead he said it must be to “defeat the enemy” and do everything to keep your marines alive.
156 Military’s Achilles’ heel is overconfidence in uninterrupted communications. We need to consider and learn how to continue the fight when our networks fail. This hearkened back to the idea of commander’s intent which Admiral Nelson encapsulated perfectly before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805: “In case signals can neither be seen nor perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”
173 NATO transformation was stymied by a process-driven culture that lacked energy and which didn’t value initiative.
182 Powerpoint can only display data--it does nothing to enhance critical thinking. Instead we need our leaders to create a narrative that tells a story that cogently lays out the problem at hand so that solutions can be discovered and developed.
202 Sought to emulate George Washington’s brand of leadership which prompted him to
235 I’ll caveat my observations here by noting that the below wasn’t the point of Mattis’ section on “Lethality as the Metric”...it was only a glancing comment he made--but it still bothered me. The only fault that I found came in his reflections chapter where he asserts that our military is all about teamwork. That assertion would actually make a good question to pose to service members periodically: Is the military all about teamwork? I guess the first step would be to come up with the military’s accepted definition of teamwork. I hung up on this assertion because I believe it’s one of those broad statements that is too often unchallenged and simply accepted--as in, the military is a hierarchical organization with strong leaders therefore it’s a teamwork-based organization. There may be communities or units that are teamwork-centric, or teamwork-obsessed but certainly not the entire military. The second fault that I find comes in his next sentence: “Everyone enters the military at junior rank and rises according to merit.” Certainly, the first phrase is accurate as that is the current baseline--we all start at the bottom (although there are, of course, varying degrees of bottom) but does everyone rise according to merit? I mean, that is the general idea with our promotion system and that is generally how it happens but I think it’s worthwhile to return to the basic definitions. Word matter. So what does “merit” mean within the military promotion system? Because in reality, servicemembers rise according to a multitude of factors: merit, timing, time-in-rank, class rank, lineal number, personality conflicts with commanding officers, good commanding officers, horrible commanding officers. Purely anecdotally, given how quickly veterans rise within civilian organizations after their military service, it would seem that those organizations are more merit-based than the U.S. military.
238 Mattis’ leadership philosophy distilled to its essence is this: Have a bias for action. Set the tempo for that action and reward those who meet that tempo or exceed it. Speed is king because time can’t be recovered once it’s lost. Reward the initiative of those under you--even when they fail.
242 You want those under your leadership to think the following at all times: “What do I know? Who needs to know? Have I told them?”
Key Quotes
88 “Note to all executives over the age of thirty: always keep close to you youngsters who are smarter than you.
92 “Any general who isn’t spiritually connected to his troops is not a combat leader.”
96 “To expect success every time is wishful thinking, but we should default to supporting commanders who move boldly against the enemy...initiative and audacity must be supported, whether or not successful.”
102 “Never think you’re impotent. Choose how you respond.” Mattis when faced with adversity or impossible situations.
124 “Great nations don’t get angry; military action should be undertaken only to achieve strategic effects.” Mattis’ considerations prior to orders to attack into Fallujah.
132 “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.” Mattis during continuations with sheikhs.
141 “If there’s something you don’t want people to see, you ought to reconsider what you’re doing. The most compelling story for us should be the naked truth about the reality of our operations.” Mattis on openness with media.
144 “Be polite, be professional--but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” Mattis’ direction to his grunts as he charges them to thread the line and act ethically while being prepared to act lethally when shot at.
150 “Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition.” Mattis picked this up from chess matches and then wanted to teach his squad leaders how to pick up subtle cues in the same way in combat situations. So he started to use tactical simulators and a dedicated training program to go along with it. Despite aviation using simulators to great effect, this had never been done for infantry which shoulders the buk of the fatalities.
156 “Without credible military force, our diplomacy is toothless.”
156 “Operations occur at the speed of trust.” “Make your intent clear, and then encourage your subordinates to employ a bias for action.”
159 “Attitudes are caught, not taught.” An important tenet of successful leadership is maintaining morale amidst adversity.
177 “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” attributed to Winston Churchill but Mattis uses it in discussing the value of NATO.
182 “Powerpoint is the scourge of critical thinking.” It’s only good use is for displaying data.
212 “If a democracy does not trust its troops, then it shouldn’t go to war.” Mattis in pushing for better rules of engagement which would be “reflexive, not reflective, so that troops can react swiftly and legitimately when time is of the essence.”
237 “Living in history builds your own shock absorber, because you’ll learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems.”
237 “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate--you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”
Key Takeaways
46 Origin of Mattis’ call sign came from then LtCol John Toolan, who wrote CHAOS on the chalkboard and asked Mattis when he came in the room: “Does the Colonel Have Another Outstanding Solution.”
84 He acknowledges that he comes up with very few new ideas but that he takes the opportunity to integrate and learn from the lessons of others.
87-8 Without the creation and stoking of “vicious harmony” on the battlefield, one’s leadership is outdated and incomplete. This type of harmony requires coordination and most importantly TRUST across all sectors (military, diplomacy, service etc.)
88 Aide 1st LT Warren Cook comes up with the idea for the “mother of all sand tables” to rehearse the invasion of Iraq with the different combat leaders wearing colored and unit-labeled jersey to walk through the invasion of Iraq. Important here is that Mattis created an environment where his aide felt comfortable interrupting to offer a solution and that Mattis didn’t just blow him off. https://www.hoover.org/news/nsaf-profile-us-marine-corps-lt-colonel-warren-cook
90 his success in initial Iraq invasion was getting “inside the enemy’s OODA loop”--that is “not giving the enemy time to react and repeating the loop faster than they could.
101 Digital technology and instant communication don’t necessarily clear the fog of war--if the information is incorrect or incomplete to start with, then its instantaneous communication can make matters infinitely worse.
132 When faced with subpar guidance from headquarters or higher, you must suppress your frustration and deal with the situation at hand.
133 Mattis division lost 18 marines because the theater and national command’s couldn’t get their act together and tell them what to do...only what not to do.
143 Crazy story about this meeting he had with Junabi, head of the “moderate” Mujahideen Council. This was a man who had tried to kill him months earlier. If it had gone the wrong way, he was ready to kill Junabi.
146 Mattis takes issue with the notion of the mission being to “bring all my men home safely.” Instead he said it must be to “defeat the enemy” and do everything to keep your marines alive.
156 Military’s Achilles’ heel is overconfidence in uninterrupted communications. We need to consider and learn how to continue the fight when our networks fail. This hearkened back to the idea of commander’s intent which Admiral Nelson encapsulated perfectly before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805: “In case signals can neither be seen nor perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”
173 NATO transformation was stymied by a process-driven culture that lacked energy and which didn’t value initiative.
182 Powerpoint can only display data--it does nothing to enhance critical thinking. Instead we need our leaders to create a narrative that tells a story that cogently lays out the problem at hand so that solutions can be discovered and developed.
202 Sought to emulate George Washington’s brand of leadership which prompted him to
235 I’ll caveat my observations here by noting that the below wasn’t the point of Mattis’ section on “Lethality as the Metric”...it was only a glancing comment he made--but it still bothered me. The only fault that I found came in his reflections chapter where he asserts that our military is all about teamwork. That assertion would actually make a good question to pose to service members periodically: Is the military all about teamwork? I guess the first step would be to come up with the military’s accepted definition of teamwork. I hung up on this assertion because I believe it’s one of those broad statements that is too often unchallenged and simply accepted--as in, the military is a hierarchical organization with strong leaders therefore it’s a teamwork-based organization. There may be communities or units that are teamwork-centric, or teamwork-obsessed but certainly not the entire military. The second fault that I find comes in his next sentence: “Everyone enters the military at junior rank and rises according to merit.” Certainly, the first phrase is accurate as that is the current baseline--we all start at the bottom (although there are, of course, varying degrees of bottom) but does everyone rise according to merit? I mean, that is the general idea with our promotion system and that is generally how it happens but I think it’s worthwhile to return to the basic definitions. Word matter. So what does “merit” mean within the military promotion system? Because in reality, servicemembers rise according to a multitude of factors: merit, timing, time-in-rank, class rank, lineal number, personality conflicts with commanding officers, good commanding officers, horrible commanding officers. Purely anecdotally, given how quickly veterans rise within civilian organizations after their military service, it would seem that those organizations are more merit-based than the U.S. military.
238 Mattis’ leadership philosophy distilled to its essence is this: Have a bias for action. Set the tempo for that action and reward those who meet that tempo or exceed it. Speed is king because time can’t be recovered once it’s lost. Reward the initiative of those under you--even when they fail.
242 You want those under your leadership to think the following at all times: “What do I know? Who needs to know? Have I told them?”
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