Our past Blogs have focused on leadership character and techniques.  Now I’d like to turn our attention to a subject that I thought was essential during my years of exercising leadership, PRAYER.  Why, because prayer makes the impossible possible.

Leaders must make a multitude of decisions, and many of them, the most difficult, concern people.  Oh, if it wasn’t for people . . . leaders could go their own merry way.  Not just the people in your organization for whom you the “leader” are responsible, but people who are your peers, people who compete with you, people who are your superiors, and people who are far off your reservation but who can intentionally, or unintentionally, complicate your life.

How many times in your business has a person in a regulatory agency changed something that caused you the “leader” to have to make a major decision?  Or how many times has your boss given you orders that greatly complicated the direction that you were taking with your organization?  Or how many times has a person in your organization done something that forced you into an incredibly difficult decision?

All of us would like to think that we can make our decisions methodically and logically.  That is rarely the case.  Where difficult business decisions are on the table, there are not only varying pressures from different corners, but the decisions that you the “leader” are being paid to make are those in which there is NO right answer—every option is a bad one. And to make it worse, where people are concerned there can be great emotion—it is just the way it is, and logic can take a back seat unless the “leader” can step back, slow things down, and evaluate.

And then there are decisions and circumstances that are accelerated in time and immersed in confusion; the information, despite of all our technology may be unclear, but a decision must be made if that decision is to have relevance.

During the early morning of 25 October 1983, I had such a situation, the worst of the worst.  I had to make a myriad of decisions under vary confusing and accelerated circumstances and only I had enough information to make those decisions.  I was the Air Component Commander for the Joint Task Force of around 1,000 people responsible for rescuing over 750 medical students from the Caribbean island of Grenada. This was one of the fastest paced and confusing operations in which I had ever been involved.

The lead up to this operation was time compression at its worst where during the planning cycle several major changes were directed from higher level command.  Intelligence was unclear; overhead imagery was dated, and my planners were working feverishly at putting together an air plan that involved 65 aircraft and helicopters with multiple targets for Navy SEALS, Army Special Forces, and the Army Rangers that were to seize Point Salines Airfield and rescue the students.  At 10:00 PM the night of the 24^th of October, I climbed aboard the EC-130 Airborne Command and Control Aircraft (ABCCC) to fly overhead Grenada and execute the plan.  I hadn’t even the time to completely review the plan.  This may have been a good thing, because it left me only one option for success—PRAY.  At my battle station aboard the ABCCC (my first time on this type aircraft) I just took a minute to tell the Lord that I had no real control over the outcome of this operation and if the day was to be won, it would only happen because He willed it.

At this point, one might ask, pray to who and for what?  Well the what was for success.  But to who?  Well, for me it has always been THE ONE—that person, Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  Why?  Because therein lies my relationship with a personal God whom I know.  No matter the circumstance, He will answer—maybe not as expected, but always with justice and to His glory.  So, for a few short moments aboard the ABCCC, pray I did.

The early morning hours of Operation Urgent Fury were full of unexpected situations– aircraft air aborts, poor weather, and unexpected antiaircraft fire.  I was on the radio constantly assessing information and redirecting the air flow and coordinating AC-130 fire support. Things looked doubtful for a while, but because the Lord intervened and spoke through me on the radio that day, the operation succeeded.  Prayer does make the impossible possible.

The story concluded 30 years later.  For some time, my wife and I were seeing Doctor Erica Saintilus.  She spoke with a very British accent, so one day I asked her where she went to medical school and her answer—St. Georges Medical School, Grenada.  I told her my story of the invasion. She related to me how difficult things had become under the Cuban influenced communist government (she must have been in grade school at the time).  Then she ended by say, “If you hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be here.”  The Lord blesses in many ways, and this spoke to my heart and was a tribute to all those “Grenada Raiders” who worked together to win the fight many years ago.  Prayer changes situations and people.  That morning over Grenada, the situation was changed, and I was changed as well.  While we lost four helicopters and several soldiers were killed or wounded, it could have been much worse had it not been for some extremely dedicated professionals and PRAYER.

See other stories like this on prayer in my book, Growing and Building.  And don’t forget that Growing and Building may be the perfect Christmas present for one of your up and coming leaders.

[1] https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-erica-george-saintilus-yf4d8

[1] https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-erica-george-saintilus-yf4d8