My career when i was a fourstar admirals initiating up the us Southern Command, peterma in charge of all activities south of the United States as the commander of us Pacific Command a very traditionalos position for senior admiral my boss wonderful by secretary gates called me up to say forget about the pacific we will send you to nato. Was the first and as far the only admirable to be a lien supreme allied commander in nato. Is just an accident of timing and fate and secretary gates decision. From a nato perspective i was the accidental admiral who became the supreme allied commander. Host the naming was an accident as well . Someone. So lets go way back i grew up in the marine corps family my father fought in korea and vietnam. I grew up in the environment going to Quantico High School and went on to the Naval Academy thinking it would be a marine Corps Officer after my first year the navy sends everybody out on a cruise so you go out on a ship i went out on a beautiful cruise around sanan diego and i walked on the bridge of the ship in the evening late in the day and i got up there and the sun was setting. I looked out on all that ocean and light like st. Paul on the road to damascus i just wanted to be a sailor at that point and on the ship so i went home and told my dad and mom. They were hoping it would be a marine. But they got over it. Years later my dad said i think that came out okay. Host but you almost left the navy after five years . I did. I graduated from annapolis and went to see for five years three on a destroyer out of san diego and then went to florida where im coming to you from today my homeland my hometown. And at the end of the fiveyear period the Aircraft Carrier was my second ship. At the end of those five years i was a very capable mariner i can launch a missile but not an idea to save my life so the navy stepped in to make me an offer that i couldnt refuse and he ended up going to the Fletcher School of law at Tufts University which is a graduate school in international t relations. And that is where i began to shift the focus of my career from exclusively focusing on Maritime Operations and being a mariner which is a part of my life and career but also to be involved in the world of ideas that came out of fletcher in the early eighties. Host as Supreme Commander of nato 2009 through 2013, you say in the accidental admiral, 250,000 words mainly to teach yourself, not others. Indeed. I felt a big part of my job as supreme allied commander at nato is to take ideas and move them to this enormous command at the time there were 28 nations in nato. Today there are 30. 3million people, men and women almostst all active volunteers. 28000 military aircraft 800 oceangoing ships. You get the idea. A very big command. I felt it was part of my job with communication of the key ideas and the strategies. I spent a lot of time writing for my own benefit. I learn as i write and for the benefit. One of those is about the chateau what is that . That is the official residence of the supreme allied commander of nato. It is a beautiful french chateau on 26 acres. It is maintained by the belgian government it is located in belgium just south of brussels is not only a lovely place to live but a Strategic Communication platform where the supreme allied commander will host a dinner for all heads of state of government of the Nato Alliance the senior military officers s, host partners and allies and friends one of the most memorable dinners my wife lauren and i held there was the Russian Federation and the Supreme Commander of the russian military. He and i both are 5foot 5 inches tall and i used to joke to secretary gates he would call me after i would meet with him and say how did the meeting go . I would say sir it was great we saw everything i to i which we did. Add are towering 5foot 5inch height. But it is an example we need not to engage not only with those that are already on our team but to succeed in creating Real Security weth have to engage with those we disagree and this is a good example of that and all that occurred in the chateau. From that book you write throughout my time as the nato strategic commander, was often asked what kept me awake at night my simple one word answer to what really kept me awake may surprise you and that is convergence. Indeed. I am particularly concerned in those years, it was ten years ago, i was concerned about liby libya, the balkans, piracy, cybersecurity what increasingly concerned me was the increasing convergence between groups amenable to the United States and terrorist organizations if you will with the proliferation of Nuclear Weapons these were two streams of threats it was like ghostbusters and never let those costs. So i worry a lot in those years ofo al qaeda finding its way and continuing to be concerned about that not only that but the Islamic State and boko haram and ways to obtain weapons of mass destruction. And it has added to that concern because these groups more and more adept of cybercapability for infrastructure and medical establishment. And that context of ten years ago of extremist organizations todayne im equally concerned of cybertools. Host admiral stavridis can you be isolated as the Supreme Commander of nato . Of course. Every day in a job like that and that is true for any leader of any sizable organization your staff wants to take control and dictate the tempo of the organization of your day. To control that information coming in and going out. So that creates order where otherwise chaos might exist but as a commander i would argue you have to fight against that isolation and against the dying of the light. You have to fight on to get out of that cocoon sources of information coming in to you to find ways to communicate simply and truly to your organization and the demands that you have in your schedule and where your priorities are. Faceac it. Your greatest asset as a supreme allied commander and the ceo of exxon if you are the leader of a Large Organization your most precious asset is your time and how you allocate and prioritize has to be reflected in your tim time. One thing i would do was the practical points we made, we can often think our priorities are xyz a very good exercise every six months is to get out a calendar and look back at the previous six months and say tose yourself am i prioritizing my time with my priorities of xyz . I would find occasionally i would be prioritizing my time a bnc despite that my stated priorities were xyz. It is crucial for your own view of what your time should be and how that should be spent all of that means getting out of that isolation bubble. Host was that easier to do to get out of that bubble on the ship wandering around on your own . It was. I wrote a book about that years ago when i was in my thirties called destroyer captain. Its a short book simply a series of excerpts from the journals that i kept the first time i took command the captain of uss perry the new missile destroyer and i wanted desperately to connect with my crew and on a ship like that is longer than enough about feel with a considerable distance with a crew of 350 depending on the configuration of the small universe unto itself as a captain you can decide how you want to use e your time will you sit on your chair on the bridge to survey the view are locked in your cabin doing paperwork . That is a real option or do you get out on foot patrol and understand all of that is part of being a good captain its part of any Good Organization all of that contributes to mission accomplished. What is army class mean . For every type of ship destroyers or cruisers the first ship of that type is called the class. That is the class reader and the destroyer of that particular type built exactly the same as the first is called the class destroyer so for example i commanded whole number 52. My wife lawyer one laura is a proud sponsor she got the champagne bottle to christen the ship and is the sponsor of the 113 and so every one of those destroyers is called a destroyer built along the lines so its pretty wonderful to have a ship named after you but its a particular honor to be the leadership in the class to be stowed upon admiral burke the greatest of the destroyer officers the most impactful surface line for six years a naval figure so all the ships in that class are destroyers. So mine was named barry after john barry who is not terribly well known hes a revolutionary war and navy captain a contemporary of John Paul Jones and was a superb naval officer. Those who serve are proud of that just like my wife is proud to be a sponsor of 113 from the metal of honor at pearl harbor and to serve with any of those destroyers we are proud i and to serve in that burke class destroyer. All of your books contain leadership lessons. One of those or a combination of lessons are bold economy versus organizational fidelity. You have to have both. Another way to put this is the traditions and culture of his or her organization which can collide with innovation. A good leader knows you will hear me say this again over two hours wife is not an on and off switch to simply accept tradition or to innovate constantly that is a false choice. Instead of thinking it has on and off switch and needs to be a dial like a dimmer in yourdi dining room that you would just in a leader has to find that balance between respect with the organization against the innovation and that is necessary to keep that organization moving forward that is a key to leadership. And the practical example from Winston Churchill the equivalent of the secretary of the navy of the British Royal navy in the early part of the 2h century constantly wanting to innovate and drive change and therefore constantly with the admiral to say we cant do that. Its against the traditions of the navy and churchill exploded and said tradition . I will give you the tradition. In other words, there is time when we have to move forward. Luckily for churchill he finally found someone in early h century the british admiral. Host admiral your most recent book is called failing true north. What is true north . True north is the adherence to what we brought the conceive of as moral and ethical behavior. In my mind. You are trustworthy, honest. You care about others. You are kind to others. You have empathy to put yourself in the shoes of the other. Not just friends and family but of your opponents and those with whom you disagree you believe in things like democracy, freedom of speech , freedom of education, gender equality, race and equality. We have to keep those values imperfectly but they are the right values and when taken together that value set plus the personal qualities i mentioned a moment ago, that is what it means to fail true north. Host you write quote motivated by a growing sense were witnessing the slow death of character. We are. Asked to say in the book that i think we over share publicly and underperform thinking about character as an internal debate. Heres a point about failing true north. Is not a book about leadership the character. Leadership is a big door that influences hours. And that door swings for good or evil. Think of fdr one of our great president s certainly in the top five or top two or three with washington and lincoln. That door of leadership with the Great Depression to the Second World War that was enormous. On the other hand think of a leader like pol pot from cambodia, ruthless, thug, but he was an effective leader and could mobilize a society. It lead to an awful genocide and the killing fields of cambodia. Leadership is the door but the big door swinging on small hinges. That small hinge is human heart so where your door of leadership will swing i want to write a book that talks about character. Frankly we are awash in books leadership. He will see dozens of them in every bookstore. We are underway in books about character and the ideath to sail true north so i chose to write about that topic and what you actually know about i decided to write about character in the context of admirals in the sea and i chose ted admirals from history from 2500 years ago of a to the late 20th century. And then dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age those are stories of character hence the title of the book, book, that is the idea of the book. Host we will get into some of those admirals in a minute. But to go back to your quote about character, you said we over share and the Attention Span has shortened. Are those comments directed at anyone in particular . [laughter] no. They are directed at all of us but i think we can all point to public figures today who would benefit from doing a little more reading and thinking and in turn all contemplation and to take the example into the twitter sphere in the world of twitter recently twitter expanded from a maximum of 140 characters up at 270 and created a firestorm among twitter users who said now it will make them too long. Think about that for a minute. Thats 270 letters. You want to have a diet consisting of 50 shots of espresso before lunch thats not a healthyat diet. In short punchy. And newspaper with the daily cycle of news. And with the economist one of the great magazines of the world. And no ego involved and it is resolutely journalistic and detached from the daily news cycle read some books both nonfiction but ild would argue great novels. And like the physical fitness diet to have a pretty broadbased diet. Host what does the back of your Business Card say . It is blank. Perhaps i should think about putting something clever back there. One quotation i like a lot i would think about the greatest and on the tombstone which the quote i will put it is the same on his gravestone. I want nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. In our lives we need to do what we think its right without curry favor or fear and we need that perspective so to put something on the back of my Business Card there is a quotation from a modern greek writer. Host on the bookshelf you write Thomas Jefferson quotation is on the back of your Business Card. Front. Ally its on the but that one is a very famous quotation by her second president and jefferson said i cannot live withouto books. On the front of my Business Card is that on the bottom. Host we will play a video for 2015 honesty stand program. And in your book sailing true north lets see if you can recognize the voice. Whenn i command with a greater sense ofti satisfaction. Was sailors and marines and to make miracles happen. You can only be delighted as a leader to work through Mission Success and then to congratulate the individuals. Host admiral stavridis did you recognize the voice . How dare you give it away without asking. That is my very good friend admiral howard who is the first africanamerican to be a four star woman admiral in the United States navy. She is a little dynamo maybe 5foot tall is like being around her because and actually taller than shesh is. In that clip thoughtful and kind and i first met her believe it or not as a midshipman at the navaly academy. Went back to see a play it was midsummer nights dream and part of the cast. And really is quite a remarkable person. Just retired in charge of all naval forces and someone i have enormous respect for and part of the profile. Host in sailing true north you write love of country despite the menopause on manifest flaws it is a quality of service to others and for true patriots. Since you raised the idea of service thank you for your service. Thank you for your 37 years in the u. S. Navy. But heres my point. There so many ways to serve this country. One. Inly the military is how about firefighters and technicians and police and doctors and nurses on the front lines to fight covid . What about teachers . Elementary School Teacher in rural south carolina. As well as working in the School District teachers start their at 32000 a year teaching impact classrooms. Do you think she is serving the country . I do. I think we need to talk and think a lot more about service that is inextricably tied to character. I believe we should think all of the military that we just mentioned. What about our diplomats, peace corps volunteers. Cia officers. So many ways to serve the country how about media . And as the supreme allied commander with bulletproof attire and steel helmets and to see a journalist they are and Richard Engel is standing there with probably small not bulletproof vest and i am armed with a 45 caliber weapon that i will never use because im surrounded by special forces who will use there is very capably of push comes to shove. All those people serve the country in a wide variety of ways. And you say i appreciate that. Go find a teacher and thinking for her service in a firefighter. To find a diplomat thank you for working in a tough embassy overseas. There are a lot of ways to serve this country. Michelle howard is one form of that kind of service and there are many others. Host other leadership lessons that come through in your a book something larger than yourself. You have to be. I heard that phrase for the first time walking in the door of us Naval Academy 1972. Known as one. 2 million years ago. The class of 2024 and because of covid they are coming over several days actually to create social distancing and then imbued with a desire to take on a huge challenge to be a part of the class that walks through the door to be part of surveying the country to be a part of something bigger than justrs yourself. I saw that in the class of 2024 they got their heads shaved and that is yet another marvelous class. But certainly the air force academy in coloradosp