If it wasn’t for people . . . and crisis . . . who would take the point?
When we first talked about the character of leaders, that is; leading from a position of humility and as a servant, I mentioned that leading from this prospective did not imply timidly, but if anything, required the greater amount of character, courage, and faith. I also said that when the survival of the organization and the success of the mission was at great risk, the servant leader would be expected to get off the balcony and down on the dance floor and lead from the front. These are the times when only the experience and courage of a true leader will suffice. This doesn’t at all mean that for the Sunday afternoon championship game everyone else is pushed to the side; no, it means that you the leader are shoulder to shoulder with those accomplishing the task at hand. It is this servant leader concept that I would like to explain more in detail.
Just a few days ago a great military leader, Lieutenant General Hal Moore, Commander 1st Battalion, 7th Calvary (Air Assault) during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965, in Vietnam, passed away. I recall then Lieutenant Colonel Moore’s speech to his troops before deploying for Vietnam with the first air assault unit in the Army from the movie, “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young.” At the end of his remarks Colonel Moore (as played by Mel Gibson) stated that they were going into a very difficult fight against a very well-trained enemy. He also stated that not everyone would survive. His parting words were that he would be the first man to step off the helicopter onto the landing zone to engage the enemy. He also said that he would be the last to leave and that he would leave no man behind, dead or alive. Colonel Moore was leading from the front as this situation demanded.
This concept of leading from the front when all the chips are on the table is most identifiable with a military organization going into battle. But the idea is equally applicable to a business, a church, other government organizations, or a nonprofit humanitarian organization. In a business for example; a product that turns hazardous and must be recalled, a major airline crash, or a fuel spill, demand the CEO’s undivided attention. The survival of the organization and peoples’ lives are at stake. The CEO must lead from the front.
There are a couple of prerequisites concerning leading from the front. The first, taken from General Eric Shinseki’s book, Be, Know, Do. The leader must have the “Be,” that is character to lead; the “Know,” the required skills and knowledge; and then the courage to “Do,” to take the lead and accomplish the mission.
The second prerequisite, is that the leader has been leading as a servant with a sense of humility all along knowing WHO IS REALLY IMPORTANT in the organization and who is actually going to accomplish the work to achieve success. This positions the leader for others to follow. People will have the confidence that the leader loves them, has the appropriate skill, and is willing to shoulder the same risks and discomforts that those followers will experience and that he or she will skillfully guide them through to success.
The leader must realize that there are some things that only he or she can do during very challenging times. These tasks are always critical and may not be directly on the objective, like positioning people where they will have the greatest impact for achieving unit success, or gaining needed external support that will allow the organization to accomplish the mission.
Much of this discussion applies to leadership in a crisis, and for military organizations many tactical missions take on the characteristics of a crisis almost routinely. In the air, on the ground, or at sea, when contact is made with the enemy, at the tactical level there isn’t time for long discussions; decision, action, and discipline are the watch words. At the higher levels of an organization (corporate), there should be discussion and an appropriate decision-making process that has been previously rehearsed so lower levels of the organization can succeed. This leads back to exercising leadership as a servant and with humility and having the presence to train, rehearse, drill, correct, and train some more so crisis almost become routine (but they never are).
I can think of another crisis; it occurred on Calvary over 2000 years ago and ended in victory. That Leader, the ONE, is always available to you when you are leading your team through a crisis. It just might take a little faith and prayer.
In my book, Growing and Building, I tell stories of times like this; an aircraft accident or the mission to Panama. Take a look; you might like it.
