leadership
I heard a great sea story once about an engineering problem given to a room full of Officer Candidate School students. Given a number of requirements, they had to calculate how to get the job done. Every pencil in the classroom was furiously calculating away but for one student. That student, a Navy Chief Petty Officer, had written, “Find a Chief Petty Officer. Tell him, “Chief, I need this flagpole erected. Today.”
One of the best leadership tools has been around four thousand years.
- Seek Advice:
- 22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed (Proverbs 15: 22)
- Don’t talk so much
- 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words (Matthew 6:7)
- Arrogance loses to humility every time
- 2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom (Proverbs 11:2)
- Set the example for others
- 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:13)
- Listen, and learn
- 5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— (Proverbs 1:5)
Leadership books are written by the thousands, to distill for others the principles and lessons of leadership. Some look for quick guidelines and surefire tricks. Others look for the “rules” to impress on others or for the means to skirt “around” them. Many realize that leadership is as much developing character as it is authority and taking action. Just as a military veteran understands that we are under authority, and those authorities are under authority, it is through the lessons of Scripture, ultimate authority desires us to seek Wisdom, and reverently follow our Creator.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 