Leadership from the Military’s Elite. What can leaders learn from some of America’s most accomplished and elite Special Operations officers? A lot! Former Navy SEALs and Army Rangers work with executive leadership teams to infuse the principles the revolutionary leadership methodology known as CrossLead, which focuses on team-building and organizational transparency. Developed by four-star General Stanley McChrystal, these principles draw from decades of leadership experience in the most challenging command environments and were responsible for America’s troops becoming more adaptable, agile, and innovative than al-Qaeda. The McChrystal Group is now applying these lessons to American business and introducing CrossLead to corporations and major trade associations through executive training sessions, panels, and multi-day classes.

The Invention and Adoption of CrossLead. Led by retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, the McChrystal Group draws from decades of leadership experience in the most challenging command environments. The McChrystal Group uses lessons from Special Operations – the elite Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Green Berets – to align strategy, implement organizational change, and define what it means to win in today’s complex business environment.

When General McChrystal took over Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military’s most sensitive forces, he developed a transformational leadership philosophy that revolutionized the way that Special Operations operated. McChrystal had inherited an organization that was entrenched in a siloed, out-dated structure in which each agency communicated primarily with itself. This siloing led to self-loyal agencies that each had separate, rigid cultures. His goal was to create an environment that would allow his team to be more agile than the enemy.