Happy New Year and blessings in 2018.

Listen?  Listen to what? During the past year, we’ve covered issues dealing with heroes, humility, service, communications, leading change, a leader’s character, and several others.  We’ll continue to expand on leadership topics in 2018, but in this blog, let’s discuss what you the “leader” does when everything appears bad.

Have you the “leader” ever encountered times when you just didn’t know what to do?  Have you been faced with difficult choices, those where all the options were bad?  Anyone who has exercised leadership has been in those positions; no good choices and time is running out.

George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army faced exactly that situation when he entered Valley Forge to rest and refit his troops for the winter.  Congress wanted him to attack Philadelphia (our capital at the time) which the British occupied.  There were voices demanding that Washington be replaced.  His men were without shoes and equipment and were facing famine that very cold winter.  The Continental Army was on the brink of collapse. i

I never faced conditions like George Washington, but there were difficulties as I exercised leadership.  In a previous Blog, I mentioned my reliance upon prayer just prior to our special operations forces entry into the very confusing Grenada operation in 1983.  A few years later I was the second commander of Air Force Special Operations Command and the challenges were many.  Tom Eggers, my Air Force Academy classmate, did a masterful job of getting the command started.  But now I had to get AFSOC established and recognized by our Air Force and by the greater special operations community.  Just how does one go about putting a new command on the map where there was resistance to its very existence?

These were challenges that I faced.  Other leaders at different levels will have different challenges, but they are equally important and require some help from that “still small voice.”  Next week we’ll discuss those challenges from the perspective of national leadership or a warehouse supervisor.  They are there.

I’ve mentioned previously that my wife and I relied on prayer extensively; upon THE ONE, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Almost without knowing or even hearing that “still small voice,” I was guided through challenge after challenge—the loss of aircraft and people, establishment of a strategy recognized by the Air Force, acquiring ownership of Hurlburt Field for the 1^st Special Operations Wing so they could have complete control of all the necessary war fighting support functions, finalizing requirements for the CV-22 (a radically new aircraft at the time), and many others.  As I progressed through the daily challenges I was buoyed by two assurances; that I had the best airmen in the Department of Defense working toward success and for the national interest, and that “still small voice” that laid out the path for me and the Command to follow, even without realizing what was happening but always going in the right direction.

George Washington must have felt the same way only more so.  The picture of him kneeling in prayer is a testimony of where he found his strength and the direction THE ONE had chosen for the birth of our nation.

You the “leader” may think that you don’t face such significant challenges, but you do.  If you are a follower of Jesus, seek His guidance, and He will never let you down. Even Jesus, God incarnate, prayed to the Father and He always did the right thing.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5-6.  Listen for that “still small voice.”

[1] https://www.google.com/search?biw=1024&bih=662&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=ob5LWqeaJcrmjwPc4Z-ACg&q=george+washington+painting+at+Valley+Forge&oq=george+washington+painting+at+Valley+Forge&gs_l=psy-ab.3…91767.100106.0.101792.23.17.0.6.6.0.202.1823.8j8j1.17.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.11.557…0j0i24k1.0.KRV3hcnXE6Y#imgrc=El2gtBbuGSe8IM: