Leadership: A Simple Perspective

One of Aesop’s Fables tells of a community of frogs who wanted a leader. They bothered Jupiter so much that he finally dropped a log into a pond and told them this was their leader. They loved the log- they could jump on it and bounce up and down and it never complained. Pretty soon, however, they got tired of their leader because it didn’t do anything except float back and forth on the pond. So they once again complained to Jupiter that they wanted stronger leadership. So Jupiter replaced the log with a stork. It was stately and tall, and strutted back and forth making all kinds of noise. The frogs loved it, but were horrified when the stork began eating them.

Leadership is often viewed in terms of one of these two extremes—wishy-washy or tyrant, with the ideal being somewhere in the middle. However, my understanding of leadership is much simpler. A leader is someone who has followers and has an influence over them (for good or ill). By that definition, just about everyone is a leader. This might sound crazy, but while I was changing my little granddaughter’s diapers one day, the  thought came to me, “I’m a leader and my granddaughter is a follower, and I am having a significant influence over her for good.” Believe it or not, the thought dignified an undignified task.

However, I have had  a few other leadership positions over the years (other than diaper-changing) and thought I would distill a few simple things that I have learned about developing as a person of influence:

• Continue to develop a healthy and godly interior life. Just as most of an iceberg is submerged, so most of what makes a person of influence lies beneath the surface. Daily times in prayer and in God’s Word, keeping short accounts by confession and repentance, and being a person of character. Persona is what you look like on Facebook and in your resume, but character is what you are in private as well as in public. To put it in the words of Will Rogers, “Live your life in such a way that when you die they can give your pet parrot to the town gossip.”
• Surround yourself with strong and gifted associates. As Captain Dick Winters of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Band of Brothers) said, “Delegate real responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their jobs.” Some of them will do so well that you might feel intimidated and even struggle a bit with jealously, but your leadership will be demonstrated by forming these gifted individuals into a great team and making them into better leaders than you. Andrew Carnegie wanted his epitaph to read: “Here lies a man who attracted better people into his service than he was himself.”  I have had some incredible associates on my staff teams over the years and have had pangs of jealousy. However, there was also a deeper commitment in my heart to making these younger folks better pastors than me.
• See yourself as a servant- not a log or a stork, but someone who wants to help others grow and accomplish certain goals. When Jesus heard his disciples arguing which of them was the greatest and in Luke 22 he said, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over the people…but you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves.” Haven’t you been influenced most by people who have taken an interest in you, cared for you, and imparted vision to you? These are people who have humbled themselves to listen to you, affirm you, and encourage you. These are also the kind of people who lead and motivate others.  Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer who led 3 expeditions to the Antarctic. While he was never successful at being the first to reach the South Pole, his reputation as a leader of teams which overcame unimaginable odds became the major contribution of his life. His leadership focused on relationship and not power, and he was able to take the greatest malcontent and make him a valuable team member by spending time with him and encouraging him.
• Practice MBWA- a term coined way back in 1982, in a book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence. It means “Manage By Wandering Around.” It was one of the key leadership principles of Abe Lincoln. It was said he spent 75% of his time meeting with people; he has visibility and availability. Lincoln once relieved Gen. John Fremont from his command because, “his cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him, and does not know what is going on around him.” This is essential to being a person of influence- you must be around your people and know them.

One final thought: care for yourself spiritually (as we have already stated), but also physically. Since my cancer diagnosis in April 2017 and resultant surgery to remove the tumor in October 2017, I have been dramatically reminded how important it is to exercise regularly and to be careful what I eat. It is also important to take time away, to read widely, to build a Sabbath rest into your schedule, and to establish spiritual disciplines in your life that nurture your own spirit. As they always say on the airplane—”put the oxygen mask on yourself first and then on your loved one.” It sounds selfish, but it is a necessity if you want to be around long enough to serve others.

Robert Murray McCheyne, a very famous and powerful Scottish preacher lay dying at the age of 29. He confided to a friend, “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse (referring to his physical health) and now I cannot deliver the message.” No one is irreplaceable, but God has made us instruments of his influence. The more in tune the instrument, the more profound and lasting the influence. But that is just my opinion.

May God bless you as you lead today!

Leadership: Being a Person of Influence

One of Aesop’s Fables tells of a community of frogs who wanted a leader. They bothered Jupiter so much that he finally dropped a log into a pond and told them this was their leader. They loved the log- they could jump on it and bounce up and down and it never complained. Pretty soon, however, they got tired of their leader because it didn’t do anything except float back and forth on the pond. So they once again complained to Jupiter that they wanted stronger leadership. So Jupiter replaced the log with a stork. It was stately and tall, and strutted back and forth making all kinds of noise. The frogs loved it, but were horrified when the stork began eating its subordinates.

Leadership is often viewed in terms of one of these two extremes—wishy-washy or tyrant, with the ideal being somewhere in the middle. However, my understanding of leadership is much simpler. A leader is someone who has followers and has an influence over them (for good or ill). By that definition, just about everyone is a leader. I thought about that a few days ago when I was changing my little granddaughter’s diapers. “I’m a leader,” I thought, “and my granddaughter is a follower, and I am having a significant influence over her for good.” Believe it or not, the thought dignified an undignified task.

However, I have had  a few other leadership positions over the years (other than diaper-changing) and thought I would distill just a few things for you that I have learned as essential to developing as a person of influence:

• Continue to develop a healthy and godly interior life. Just as most of an iceberg is submerged, so most of what makes a person of influence lies beneath the surface. Daily times in prayer and in God’s Word, keeping short accounts by confession and repentance, and being a loving person of influence within your own home. Remember you have people at home who see both above and beneath the surface of your life.
• Surround yourself with strong and gifted associates. As Captain Dick Winters of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Band of Brothers) said, “Delegate real responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their jobs.” Some of them will do so well that you might feel intimidated and even struggle a bit with jealously, but your leadership will be demonstrated by forming these gifted individuals into a great team and making them into better leaders than you. Andrew Carnegie wanted his epitaph to read: “Here lies a man who attracted better people into his service than he was himself.”  I have had some incredible associates on my staff teams over the years and have had pangs of jealousy. However, there was also a deeper commitment in my heart to making these younger folks better pastors than me.
• See yourself as a servant- not a log or a stork, but someone who wants to help others grow and accomplish certain goals. When Jesus heard his disciples arguing which of them was the greatest and in Luke 22 he said, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over the people…but you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves.” Haven’t you been influenced most by people who have taken an interest in you, cared for you, and imparted vision to you? These are people who have humbled themselves to listen to you, affirm you, and encourage you. It is such people who are the “myth-builders” and “story-tellers,” and can lead others and motivate them.  Ernest Shackleton was a British explorer who led 3 expeditions to the Antarctic. While he was never successful at being the first to reach the South Pole, his reputation as a leader of teams which overcame unimaginable odds became the major contribution of his life. His leadership focused on relationship and not power, and he was able to take the greatest malcontent and make him a valuable team member by spending time with him and encouraging him.
• Practice MBWA- a term coined way back in 1982, in a book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence. It means “Manage By Wandering Around.” It was one of the key leadership principles of Abe Lincoln. It was said he spent 75% of his time meeting with people; he has visibility and availability. Lincoln once relieved Gen. John Fremont from his command because, “his cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him, and does not know what is going on around him.” This is essential to being a person of influence- you must be around your people and know them.

One final thought: care for yourself spiritually (as we have stated), but also physically. Exercise regularly; be careful what you eat; take time away; read widely; build a Sabbath rest into your schedule. As they say on the airplane—”put the oxygen mask on yourself first and then your loved ones.” It sounds selfish, but it is a necessity if you want to be around to serve others. Robert Murray McCheyne, a very famous and powerful Scottish preacher lay dying at the age of 29. He confided to a friend, “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse (referring to his physical health) and now cannot deliver the message.” No one is irreplaceable, but God has made us instruments of his influence. The more in tune the instrument, the more profound and lasting the influence.

May God bless you as you lead today!

How The Mighty Have Fallen!

This is a quote from 2 Samuel 1:19 written by David upon the occasion of the death of King Saul and his son, Prince Jonathan: “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!”

In a more modern context, I think this expresses the sadness and foreboding that I have felt watching the “fall” of one of the most powerful political figures in the last 20 yrs. Dennis Hastert, a graduate of Wheaton College, an elected representative from Illinois, and the longest serving Speaker of the House (1999-2007)– second in line to the Presidency.

I got to know Denny when he was Mr. Speaker and used to make the trip every year from Washington to the Wheaton Invitational Wrestling Tournament held at the college. He had graduated the same year I started at Wheaton and I had replaced him as the Heavyweight on the wrestling team. (For those who are not familiar with wrestling jargon, each wrestler is matched with someone of his own weight, and Heavyweight is weight class of guys who [at that time] weighed over 190 lbs., and were usually the smartest and best looking guys on the team- just kidding about that last part.)

After Wheaton and a Masters in Education from Northern Illinois, Denny became a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville HS from 1965 to 1981. He entered politics in 1987. It was at Yorkville where he followed my wrestling career and would sometimes bring his team to our matches and tourneys. Sadly, it was also at Yorkville where he (by his own admission) sexually abused 3 of his wrestlers.

The last time I saw him at Wheaton was in February of 2015, just a few months before his indictment on federal charges of “structuring” bank withdrawals in order to pay off certain of these individuals in return for their silence. He was charged with a felony because of his paying of the hush money (1.7 million), not for sexual abuse, because of the statute of limitation. However, he admitted to the abuse and the judge referred to him as a “serial child molester.”

On Wednesday Denny was sentenced to 15 months in jail. The Washington Post reported, For his part, Hastert told the judge that he was ‘deeply ashamed’ to be in court and was still ‘struggling to come to terms with events that occurred four decades ago.’ He said that he ‘mistreated some of my athletes that I coached. ‘The thing I want to do today is say I’m sorry to those I have hurt and misled,’ he said. ‘They looked to me, and I took advantage of them.’”

However, the quote that is so deeply disturbing to me was the one by U.S. District Attorney Zachary T. Fardon. He said, We followed the case where it led. We brought the charges we could bring, And through that, Mr. Hastert’s legend and legacy are gone, and in its place, are a broken, humiliated man. That is as it should be.

While it confuses me, I do not question Denny’s faith in Jesus. As a pastor, it never ceases to grieve me that so many of us Christians are still capable of such great sin and the ability to dishonor the gospel. I will continue to pray for my friend, Denny; that his repentance will run deep and he will continue to cast himself on the mercy and forgiveness of the cross. I will also pray for his family, his victims and their families; that they would find God’s comfort and strength in their pain and suffering.

I will also take away these lessons: Those who are most “mighty” fall the hardest. “To whom much is given, much will be required.” No one can atone for his own sin. And once that sin is committed, no amount of “legend and legacy” can make up for it. They are gone, just as if they never existed. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The gospel will not save our reputations, but it will save our souls!

 

 

The Illusion of Character

I recently read a quote by British writer and politician Thomas Macauly (1800-1859) who said, “The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.” In Leadership From The Inside Out,  Kevin Cashman provides a helpful distinction between character, the essence of who we are, and persona, the external personality we have created. In fact, the very definition of the word character contains both of these thoughts: 1. the mental and moral qualities of an individual; the essence of a person, 2. the persona, role, part in a play.

Thus when it comes to leadership, we want a person of the first definition. Someone who is guided by authenticity and not one who is playing a role. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” My public persona is what I project and what others think of me (my carefully crafted Facebook or Linked-In profile), which may or may not be true, but my character is who I really am.  This is why we stress integrity; a person who is integrated is the same on the inside as on the outside. Who I am in private should be the same person I am in public. To put it in the words of Will Rogers, “Live your life in such a way that when you die they can give your pet parrot to the town gossip.”

And so, as we evaluate people who are leading our churches, corporations, or running for political office, we must discern as well as demand that they do not act one way when the security camera is on and another way when they have moved out of range. Like the minister, who after giving a wonderful children’s sermon en mufti (ordinary clothes) went back stage to change and forgot to turn off his lapel mic. He was heard by the entire congregation saying, “I hate those little brats!” Humorous perhaps, but sad and dangerous at the same time. What if the pastor felt that way about the whole congregation? Could you trust him? What if a political candidate had a public persona that created questions as to what he/she was really like or really believed?

How many stories have we heard (after the fact) about the private lives of pastors and presidents that make us shudder to think we trusted them with our lives and our country? We might dismiss these things as peccadillos or idiosyncrasies, but at the very heart they were character issues brought as baggage into their sacred office.  The leader who leads through character will be characterized by a clear set of values (not the shifting sand of public sentiment), will always speak the truth (not just what people want to hear), will not take short-cuts to get the job done (Henry Ford said, “quality means doing the right thing when no one is looking”), will be consistent (not a flip-flopper), and will be a leader who will regularly take inventory of his motives and actions. Such a leader will engender trust and compassion (not fear and self-interest), and will create an atmosphere of openness and inclusion (not control and exclusion).

In the Old Testament, Boaz, speaking about Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, said she was a woman of “noble character” (Ruth 3:11). We learn many character lessons from Ruth’s relationship with her mother-in-law. Ruth shows herself to be faithful, kind, merciful, steadfast, industrious, and humble. Ruth for President!

On the other hand, Saul, although he looked like the right choice as a king had some serious character flaws. He had the image but not the substance. He was driven by fear. In one of the first accounts about him “…he did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship” and then later “…he has hidden himself among the baggage” (1 Sam. 10:16 and 22). Saul’s failure to address this deep issue of fear continued to show up throughout his royal career, resulting in numerous acts of disobedience, murder, deceit, and pride.

One of the great lessons Jesus taught his followers is that our character is always a matter of the heart. This is why God tells us that we are to guard our hearts, to protect them with the greatest of care. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” Proverbs 4:23. When I lie, cheat, or steal, it is because these things have bubbled up from the inside. They are what I have fostered and nurtured in my heart. I may choose not to actually commit a wrong, but my external “purity” may only be because the evil in the heart lacks the opportunity to express itself. This is why Jesus told his disciples that adultery was defined by lust in the heart.

Jesus also said it this way, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” Matthew 15:18, 19. Jesus nailed the character issue here. Every action can be traced back beneath the surface to the character.

We may fool a lot of people most of the time in the process of getting what we want, but our character will ultimately be revealed. “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later” 1 Timothy 5:24.

So, what are the things you are nurturing in your heart that you would never want anyone to know about? These are issues of character. They will eventually affect those around you (your family, your congregation, your business) even though you feel you are keeping the lid on.  By the way, what are you looking for in a political candidate? Someone who mirrors your own character flaws and prejudice, or a person of character? Just thought I’d ask…