Ep: 111: Guy Snodgrass: Former naval aviator, TOPGUN instructor, and speechwriter for Secretary of Defense James Mattis

Guy Snodgrass recently served as director of communications and chief speechwriter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. A former naval aviator, he served as commanding officer of a fighter squadron based in Japan, A TOPGUN instructor, and a combat pilot over the skies of Iraq.  Today he is the founder and CEO of Defense Analytics, a strategic consulting and advisory firm. He is the author of Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis and his latest book is titled: TOPGUN’s Top 10: Leadership Lessons from the Cockpit.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • To succeed a TOPGUN, you have to possess three traits: talent, passion, and personality.
  • Competence is when you have an excellent capability but you operate below that level. Arrogance is when your competence is lower than you anticipate but you act like you’re better.
  • You can achieve anything you put your mind to so long as you’re willing to break down the problem and put the resources against it to solve it.
  • After every simulated dogfight there would be a debrief comparing your recollection of the events with the actual video footage. This created a continual feedback loop to accelerate learning.
  • President Eisenhower once said: “Plans are worthless but planning is indispensable.”
  • TOPGUN has a flat organizational structure whereby junior officers are calling a lot of the shots. Decisions are made based on capability and knowledge base, not based on rank. This allows them to get to the best tactical end result.

 

Show Notes:

TOPGUN’S TOP 10: Leadership Lessons from the Cockpit

Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis

Ep. 18: Anders Ericsson: The Expert on Experts

Anders is a professor of psychology at Florida State University where he specializes in the science of peak performance.  His groundbreaking research has been featured in many publications including Scientific American, Time, Fortune, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.  His most recent book is called Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode:

  • The Malcolm Gladwell “10,000 hour rule” (i.e. it takes 10,000 hours to become world class at something) stems from Anders’ research. But it’s not necessarily 10,000 hours and it’s not any kind of practice.
  • Learn what is meant by “deliberate practice”.
  • The success of the Navy’s Topgun (fighter pilot training program) largely stemmed from the methodology behind deliberate practice.
  • The brain can be rewired to extend its capabilities at any age.
  • There is no such thing as natural talent.
  • Learn how building mental representations can dramatically improve performance.
  • For many fields, the workday is far too long. It is very hard to maintain intense focus and concentration for more than 3 or 4 hours a day.