"You can’t get out there and touch people on the shoulder that much anymore—you have to use digital means,” McChrystal says. That said, McChrystal, even at the height of conflict, says he made time to hand-write letters of praise or thanks. “I used to get thank-you notes for my thank-you notes,” he says. “I’d find them framed in [the troops’ bunk] areas."

Case in point: A handwritten letter by McChrystal to our Inc.com Editor, Eric.

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