General Gary Brito on Leadership, Motivation, and Leading Through Change

Episode Summary

General Gary Brito, a retired four-star general who most recently led the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, says his guidepost as a leader came from a master sergeant who told him, when he was a second lieutenant, to take care of his troops and not his evaluation. He says he probably did not understand it at the time, but it resonated throughout his career and became his true north in every assignment. It fits a path he never mapped out. His minimum obligation was four years, he committed to staying until twenty at around the ten-year mark, and he says he never once planned or dreamed of becoming a general.

His final command was one he inactivated himself, part of a major restructure of the Army, and he describes it as a lesson in communication. He gathered everyone in a conference room for a town hall and told them what was going on, what he knew, what he did not know, and the goal. Only after that was accepted did planning begin. General Brito says a leader has to believe in the mission personally, because the team will notice if the leader does not. He relied on a red team of four to six people to expose blind spots, and his planning team sorted the work into three bins: what the organization must do, what would be nice to have, and what it could not do. Through all of it, he says, people mattered most, including several thousand civilians whose job descriptions had to be reviewed.

When building a team, General Brito starts with honesty and strong character, which he defines as being a decent person whose values and morals mean something and who treats people with dignity and respect. He did not like arrogance, would not show it from his level, and did not want it on his team. He also wanted people who would not tolerate behavior that decays an organization, from poor language to harassment, regardless of rank. As a leader, he tries to give credit to others when they have earned it, whether through a pat on the back, a certificate, or telling people that a sergeant developed something that is working.

On recruiting, General Brito says leadership mattered most. Policies that took care of people, talent management, and recruiter placement all helped, but he credits putting the entire Army behind the solution, from battalion commanders and squad leaders to generals and recruiters. The Army also created the Future Soldier Prep Course, which gives people who want to join but need help with academics or physical fitness a chance to get ready before basic training. He gives the credit to the current leader of the organization and notes that the Army had just announced it met this year’s recruiting goals four months early.

What You’ll Learn

A Harvard Business Review article on authentic leadership, read at an airport, shaped General Brito’s view that people will see through a leader who is not genuine in 10 nanoseconds, especially when times are hard.

General Brito pairs the case for being a trustworthy leader from the beginning with an old staff sergeant’s warning: you don’t want to turn around, and nobody’s there.

There is no substitute for hard, standards-based training, General Brito says, and the same applies to a tech organization as it does to a combat unit.

A mentor’s rule that leaders aren’t allowed to have a bad day, because if the person at the top is having one, everybody is going to know it.

Think before you hit send: General Brito notes that language that reads as team building in one setting can come across as offensive in another, and, as a friend warned him, once an email is sent, it is gone and not coming back.

General Brito’s closing advice is to know your why, such as making your organization the best it can be every day and ready for change, because that purpose is what keeps a leader motivated.

About General Gary Brito

General Gary Brito is a retired four-star general who served 38 years in the United States Army. His roles included Commanding General of the Army Training and Doctrine Command and Deputy Chief of Staff G-1 of the Army, and he was responsible for recruitment, retention, and training across the Army. He grew up in a blue-collar family in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and came to the Army through ROTC at Penn State’s Altoona campus. After Advanced Camp at Fort Bragg, he chose to pursue infantry. His first assignment as a lieutenant was in Germany, and he later led an organization of about 40,000 people.

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