Last week we discussed boldness in leadership, but does exercising leadership mean that you “the leader” never make a mistake or never change your mind?  Is that part of boldness?  The real leader that leads with confidence is not afraid to admit a mistake or alter course when new information requires a change.  Only a stubborn, egocentric leader will persist when further study reveals that alterations are needed.  It doesn’t mean that you “the leader” study every situation forever before selecting a course of action, but the wise leader will reconsider when you see that you may have made a poor decision.

Time and conditions can be everything and you “the leader” must be willing to make changes when either you just flat got it wrong the first time, or new information requires a change of direction.  A good military example occurred many years ago during our intervention in Grenada, a small Caribbean Island nation just to the north of Venezuela.  The immediate mission, to insert Army Rangers onto the Point Salinas Airfield to gain the foothold needed to rescue 750 American medical students.  The original plan was to drop a runway clearing team from two MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft followed by the13 additional C-130s landing, all at night using night vision goggles.  Shortly before H-hour, the lead Talons had to air abort because of navigation problems so we had to change to plan “B,” airdrop all the Rangers.  This was very hard for the Rangers who had to don their parachutes and equipment in flight, not to mention antiaircraft fire we had not expected.  But the Taskforce Commander made the decision to change, and while not the smoothest of operations, it was a success.

Another example is from the business world.  A company had a very promising and creative solar power product; there was none other like it on the market.  The problem was that the CEO was way more optimistic with respect to customers and investors than was realistic.  He had a broad and aggressive marketing strategy with an accompanying manufacturing effort, but the engineering development of the product hadn’t matured. The price of oil began to drop, and the window of opportunity for what was an economically viable solar generator was lost.  Despite the best counsel of the board of directors, the CEO persisted with this strategy until investors could no longer support the effort, a mature product never made it to market, and the company failed.  All this because “the leader” wouldn’t take counsel and turn to a different strategy.

The most telling example for me was personal while Executive Director of Officers’ Christian Fellowship.  We were at the beginning stages of an effort to rebuild both OCF conference centers and this required the Lord’s blessing with a large amount of money.  I had contracted with a fund-raising organization to help us along.  This company made their presentation to the OCF Council (board of directors) and they completely discouraged us with an assessment of our capability that didn’t match other organizations with which we worked nor was their proposed methodology compatible with our core values.  After a sleepless night of prayer, I returned to the Council and told them that this fund-raising organization could not serve OCF as I had hoped and proposed that we go no further with them.  The Council supported my recommendation, but it cost us two years in our GROWING AND BUILDING program.  But in God’s timing, His plan succeeded as can be witnessed today at OCF’s two conference centers, White Sulphur Springs in Pennsylvania and Spring Canyon in Colorado.

So how do you “the leader” determine when you’ve seemingly taken a path that appeared to not be the best?  Hopefully, you had at your disposal sound counsel the “still small voice” that encouraged you to face the new situation and change your mind. For me, I always had plans, but I was always open to the Lord’s 90-degree course corrections or even a stop action.  Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”  If you know Him, you’ll be able to hear that “still small voice,” if you’ll just listen.

1. OCF picture file.