We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines.
Meaning
Mattis spoke at a 2010 Joint Forces Command conference about leaders who must bridge services, nations and agencies working together. Harmony here means building trust across differences, not erasing them. At work, introduce people from different teams to one another early, before a crisis forces them to cooperate.
Source: JFCOM Conference (2010), reported in Aviation Week's Ares blog (June 2010)
About the author
James Mattis is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as commander of U.S. Central Command and as the 26th U.S. Secretary of Defense. He is also the co-author of the leadership memoir Call Sign Chaos.
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