PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

October 31, 2021

HUSBAND, FATHER, GRANDFATHER

Colin Powell died on Monday, October 18, at the age of 84.  He had served his nation as a four star general, national security advisor to President Reagan, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff under President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State under President George W. Bush.  When asked what he considered his most important role he said husband, father and grandfather.  Others in paying tribute to his many years of service would add friend.

In his memoir, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, he shares the following thirteen rules for leadership.  In our troubled times they are well worth considering.

1. It ain’t as bad as you think! It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position fails, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done.
5. Be careful what you choose: you may get it.
6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things. Leaders have to have a feel for small things – a feel for what is going on in the depths of an organization where small things reside.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Powell’s thirteen rules of leadership resonate with the Christian understanding of what it means to be a servant leader. “But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28) Jesus put His words into action when he washed the feet of the disciples in the Upper Room.

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 talks about the leadership roles of husband, father and master.  In his Institute Of Basic Youth Conflicts Bill Gothard has interpreted these roles as follows: husbands should be willing to sacrifice for their wives, fathers should not provoke their children to anger and employers should provide a good working environment for their employees and help them to succeed.  From Gothard’s perspective one might say that Powell approached his many roles of leadership from the perspective of a husband, father and friend.

In today’s political climate persons of Colin Powell’s temperament and character are hard to find.  The dominate driving force for most politicians and political parties is power, how to get it and how to keep it.  Colin Powell’s life of servant leadership exemplifies the kind of leader for whom many of us long.