Mission Ready Leadership Essentials from the "Ol' Gunner"
Just a few leadership reminders I picked up along my 42 years 5 months and 12 days (but who's counting...) of Marine Corps service. I hope they serve you as well as they have served to remind me just what my responsibilities really are.
As we bring this leadership tutorial to a close, there are
some things that I want you to pay special attention to as an up-and-coming
leader. First I want you to always bear in mind that while you can in
fact learn from your successes, more often than not they will be more
effective in helping you teach others while you will learn much more from
your mistakes. When you are successful in an endeavor, it is by and
large because you already know what to do and how to do it. On the other hand
you will learn mountains from your mistakes, when you accept the responsibility
for making them that is. Second never forget that that same maxim
also holds true for those subordinates you lead. If you want to foster
leadership in those around you then develop a nurturing style of leadership and
do the world a favor, leave your road of life littered with germinating neophyte
leaders, not their corpses.
In our last discussion the initiating text will come from II
Chronicles 34:3 - 35:19 where we are going to learn our lesson from
Josiah who is remembered by most people who know about him as a triumphant
leader.
Before a leader can ever achieve any degree of real success,
he or she must first win his or her internal battles. Similarly the victorious
leader must guide their team to victory by helping it to resolve any internal
dissension or inter-personal rivalries that may exist.
What is it that keeps a person from reaching
their full potential? Many things can block or distract the still maturing
leader and from II
Samuel 5:1-4 we are going to learn about one of those things,
called dealing with personal limitations, from the team of David and Saul. They
were both Kings whose leadership abilities determined their ultimate
effectiveness. We will find that these two Kings held different perspectives on
what they felt they could and could not do. A person can let their perceived boundaries
put a manhole cover on their dreams or provide them with an opportunity to take
that often self imposed manhole cover and turn it into a Frisbee.
Personal
Accountabilityis a
lesson that cannot be overlooked... so in I Chronicles 11:10 - 12:40
we are going to learn something I hope about the importance of seeking and
listening to wise counsel, from David who was a leader who was known to many by
the company he kept.
Our lesson this time comes from The Book of I Kings
2:1 where we can learn another lesson about leadership from King Solomon
who was a leader who made things happen and kept them happening.
Momentum is critical for successful leaders because it is a
dynamic force that has a life of its own, followers are infected with it,
managers control it, but it takes sound leaders to create it. There is an old
adage that states, "If you can't stand the heat you need to get out of the
kitchen." You have more than likely heard that saying before but now you are
going to learn that it has a close military relative in the leadership field.
That relative goes like this "If you can't make some heat then get out of the
kitchen." You see, Solomon, like all good Captains, realized that you can't
steer a ship unless it is moving."
Blog Format 
