Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead Hardcover – Illustrated, September 3, 2019

This book was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s essentially a combination of great leadership advice and an enjoyable narrative. Bing West has a writing style that is easy to follow and moves quickly.The overall book is segregated into three parts; Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. As a memoir, the book first covers General Mattis’ time in Iraq to include insights drawn from his combat experience. The latter half of the book focuses on his time in more senior leadership assignments, such as Central Command. His fights with the bureaucracy are as fascinating as his combat stories.Probably the most appealing part of this book is that it is full of quotes by famous people throughout history. General Mattis frequently quotes them to make a point. I actually wrote down many of these quotes for my own reference. The result is that this book is chock full of leadership pearls of wisdom. The author also drives home the point that one should never stop reading or learning. Reading allows one to learn from someone else’s mistakes.Bottom line: this is a powerful combination of Mr. West’s easy to read narrative and the priceless, practical, and inspiration leadership advice of General Mattis. This is a must read for every leader.

Here's the short version of this review. I expected great things from Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead and it exceeded my expectations. Details follow.Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you know who Jim Mattis is. He's the Marine general with the nicknames "Mad Dog" and "The Warrior Monk." He's known for his blunt statements and his extensive reading. You may not know who Bing West is. He’s a Marine combat veteran who has written several books. I've read two, The March Up and The Village. They were both excellent. The two men make a great team. Call Sign Chaos isn't a leadership textbook or a treatise on leadership development. It's the story of Jim Mattis developing from a “carefree” young man to a seasoned and savvy leader. Here’s his statement of the book’s purpose. "My purpose in writing this book is to convey the lessons I learned for those who might benefit, whether in the military or in civilian life."The book is divided into three parts. The first is called "Direct Leadership." Next is "Executive Leadership." And, finally, there is "Strategic Leadership."Direct Leadership is about leading face-to-face. It's the kind of leadership where you know all the people you're leading. In business direct leadership is first-line supervision and most of middle-management. The second section is Executive Leadership. That's leadership when it's no longer possible to know every person under your leadership umbrella. For me, that occurred when I was promoted from being the manager of a regional service center to the manager of all my company's service centers. If you want to be an effective executive leader, you must change the way you lead. If I'd had a book like this, I would have known that I needed to make a transition and learned what I needed to do differently. You can't know every individual person under your umbrella. You must learn to lead them all through the limited number of leaders you encounter on a regular basis. You must also develop independent sources of information and stay in touch with the men and women on the front line. Business leaders make this transition when they move into general management.The third section is about strategic leadership. Mattis describes his challenges as a military leader with civilian bosses. He describes how political concerns are as important as operational ones. There's no real analogy to this for most business leaders. It's interesting to read. There are insights scattered throughout. But this will probably not be part of your learning environment until/unless you reach the top of a large corporation.Be prepared to make lots of notes. Make sure you're well-stocked with highlighters and sticky notes. There is a lot of wisdom scattered through the book, as well as pointers to other resources. Movie directors talk about "through-lines." This book has lots of "through-lessons." Here are three that stood out to me. Reading really is fundamental. Leaders really are readers. They don't call him the Warrior Monk for nothing. There are two things in the book about leadership and reading that will make a difference for you. First, there is the example. You will witness Mattis pulling books out of his rucksack to study, check a fact, or make a point.  You'll also get pointers to lots of individual reading resources that are relevant for you, even if you aren’t a military leader. One of the things I learned in the Marine Corps was the purpose and practice of the after-action review. That's another lesson that runs through the book. Jim Mattis describes his personal after-action reviews for situations that didn't work out as he'd hoped. Instead of blaming others, he focuses on his actions and what he could have done differently. The lesson is excellent, and it's repeated several times.It's all about the front line. My friend, Mel Kleiman, likes to say, "Without the front line, there is no bottom line." Mattis expresses the same thought in different words. He says that if you can't talk to the people at the very front line, you're out of touch. He stresses the importance of concentrating on doing things that will help those front-line folks. Here's how he puts it on one occasion. "Much of what I carried with me was summed up in a handwritten card that lay on my Pentagon desk these past few years, the desk where I signed deployment orders, sending troops overseas. It read, ‘Will this commitment contribute sufficiently to the wellbeing of the American people to justify putting our troops in a position to die?’”In A NutshellCall Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead is an excellent book about one man's leadership development. Whether you're in the military or in business, there are lots of lessons for you. You'll learn that direct leadership is different than executive leadership, what to do in each case, and how to adapt from one to the other. You'll come away with dozens of notes, pithy quotes about leadership and life, and pointers to a boatload of resources. If you are serious about leadership, you must read this book.

Just finished reading the first chapter and I am so into in as it defines what leadership is about and how we should be mindful about the situations we are in. Like making mistakes are the ways we learn to become stronger and successful. I will not go further but this is an excellent book so far.

My son served in the US Marines & wanted this book. The enlisted love Gen. Mattis because he loves them. He's called the warrior monk because he's fierce on the battlefield, but also fiercely intellectual & posesses a spiritual nature that sets him apart from most other military leaders. He's a national treasure.

This is a good memoir about a lot of various aspects of thought, adaptation, psychology, human interaction, etc. It's a book about modern American history that most are unaware of - unless you study such topics. Well worth the time. There is a lot to learn. Reads like a novel. Highly recommended.

An American Icon. A fascinating compilation of memoirs and leadership lessons. Enthusiastically recommend.

I am a big admirer of The General

The book takes us through his rise from enlisted man to General, explaining the lessons he learned along the way in clear, firm prose. Mattis shows us how he learned to lead -- whether it was leading men into battle, or leading them into the halls of Congress. Mattis is careful not to oversell his exploits or to under-estimate how much he has gained from others (including the countless books he has read and mastered). As Mattis says, if you only learn from your own experience, rather than learning from others by reading their books, you and the people with whom you are a unit will pay a very heavy price. Mattis is aware of his limitations and frankly admits them; in fact, he uses them to force himself to learn from others. He says: "My aim was to create a restlessness in my commanders and make the learning environment contagious. I wanted them all to be asking, every day, 'What have I overlooked?'" Mattis also remarks, "It was already my habit, at the close of staff meetings and even chance encounters, to push my Marines by insisting they put me on the spot with one hard question before we finished our conversation. I wanted to know what bothered them at night." (p. 81) Who wouldn't fight hard for a leader like Mattis? (By the way, if you are interested in how Osama bin Laden managed to escape Tora Bora in 2001, read Chapter 5, where Mattis shows how the Marines might have concluded the Afghanistan battle successfully, if they had not been impeded by some foolish decisions by Army General Tommy Franks.)

I served in a British unit attached to the 1st Marine Division in Iraq in 2003, and our ultimate boss was Mattis. He was a man who demanded respect, and his aggressive competence and attitudes had the Marines around us comparing his to Chesty Puller of WW2 and Korea fame. I could not help but compare him to our very colourless and unaggressive generals. His doctrine and ideals are still insiring to me today - when I heard he was to become the Secretary of State for Defence, I had real hopes for that government.Mattis misses out his junior officer career, starting at battalion command. I would like to have heard the funny anecdotes and training mishaps of the great man, but after I got over that disappointment I followed with great interest his description of the time I served under his command, and his later career up to but not including the politics.He remains to me, a Brit, one of the most outstanding Generals of the American forces. And in particular I like the take of Lt Nathaniel Fick (of Generation Kill fame), who describes Mattis walking around trenches raising morale in the initial deployment to Afghanistan.

I have read scores of military books in the last few years and hundreds of articles and papers on International Security, this is by far the best account of a life and military career as I can remember. It is written with pace, a powerful simplicity and clarity, conviction and as far as I can ever know: honesty. There are several recurring themes running through the book: the love of his time in the Marine Corps; a patriotic love of country; the need for open societies to have lethal means; the absolute need for lethal means to blend into political ends; the enduring need for nations to work together in long term beneficial alliances and for military commanders to ensure that the training and provision of their troops is such that minimal direction is required on active operations.General Mattis draws on a well spring of personal experience and a hinterland of many military writers, theorists and practitioners: from Marcus Aurelius to Clausewitz to Colin S. Gray. General Mattis reads like a skilled surgeon who could recite Grey’s Anatomy. From Grand Strategy to developing synthetic training for private soldiers to the importance of mental and physical rehearsals General Mattis consistently conveys a sense of mastery of his art. All great military leaders sense turning moments and he outlines this several times and not just on active operations but in peacetime military planning. His ability to take complex issues and communicate them to soldiers at the same time as enthusing them to give their best is a rare gift. Simple concepts like "No better friend, no worse enemy" is what grand strategists do, they say simple things that connect the soldier, citizen and the aims of the state, and encapsulates neatly US foreign policy not just the US Marine Corps. The descriptions of his part in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq are compelling as are his thoughts on the subsequent operations and attempts at drawing down force levels. The process of withdrawal and the implications for steadfast allies was his eventual reason for leaving high office. And yet as a mark of his integrity and love of country he consistently refuses to criticize or diminish the office of the sitting President. The inclusion of a Robert Burns quote in perfect context was outstanding. This book should be mandatory reading for senior military leaders and their civilian colleagues. “It would fae mony a blunder free us.”

In writing this book, it is clear that General Mattis is somewhat constrained by the current US political scene. There are no salacious criticisms of the Trump or previous administrations. However, we are taken through each of the formative leadership experiences of his life and can share in both his frustrations and moments of success. The accounts have clear takeaways for leaders and aspiring leaders in both military and civil domains. A refreshing read that reminds us of the need for clear intent and trust when we work with others.

Good book overall,but weak as a Bio.Barely scratches the surface of his beginning in the USMC.Weak as a Bio of the man.He in my opinion is holding back his opinions of the lousy way Bush and Obama ran Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns.A lot of the material about his recommended reading list is available online.He spends a great deal of time going into books/authors and quotes-I have no problem with that as I am a historian myself.

A very honest account of a career soldier's thoughts and motivation. Can't say I'm Mattis' biggest fan but found his honest account of his actions and thought processes very enlightening and it shed a light on some of the world-changing events in our recent past.