How to be a Horizontal and Vertical Leader at the Same Time

Chris Fussell's new book is discussed in a Forbes article about what it means to be a horizontal versus vertical leader. 

So argues Chris Fussell's new book, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams. Fussell (assisted by C.W. Goodyear) sketches a compelling "both/and" approach, exhorting leaders to build "hybrid organizations” that blend networks and hierarchy in the same enterprise. The former Navy SEAL and now McChrystal Group business consultant writes that network-hierarchy fusion is not only doable, but even critical. And why not? Today’s global economy forces every leader to master the cognitive dissonance of granting freedom all around, while also continually seeking higher performance. One Mission is a blueprint for building a winning hybrid organization to support your business strategy.

Beyond A Team of Teams

A decade ago, Fussell was aide-de-camp to Stan McChrystal who was leading a global Counterterrorism Task Force in the Middle East. The two worked together, developing what McChrystal described in his own book as a “team of teams” — a high performance intelligence and commando operation across the region to meet the then unprecedented network terrorism of Al Qaeda.