The Best 

Leadership Model for a New Millenium--Final Part

4. Judgment encompasses all of the four virtues. This encompasses courage; this is a critical distinction because a leader must point the way for others, as to where to go.

Judgment takes time to develop. Jesus began his ministry when he was about thirty years old. This is significant because leaders need time to grow. A leader should mentor his followers to help them develop their judgment. The best example of the judgment of Jesus is when he was asked whether the people should pay taxes to the Romans. If he had answered no, the Romans would have arrested him for preaching rebellion against Caesar. If he had answered yes, then he would have been held to be a traitor to his own people. Yet Jesus answered by saying, whose face is on the coin? When they said that it was Caesar’s then he said give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s.

A leader must be capable of determining what is necessary and what resources must be applied to particular problems. For example, there is nothing worse than wasting people’s time by having them do things that are unnecessary or unimportant. Keep them busy for the sake of being busy. That is poor judgment.

I have met individuals who are empire builders: they want a large staff on hand to essentially reflect the fact that they merit a large staff. That most of those people are doing nothing is not important to the empire builder. To me it is a waste of time and money to say nothing of the feeling of worthlessness that the people who are not gainfully employed experience.

5. Vision and confidence, which encompasses prudence, courage and temperance. Jesus shows us that you should not be afraid of what you are, but at the same time you should not be so confident as to forget who you in fact are. Since he considered himself the Son of God, his confidence must have been certain, yet he never forgot that He was a man also; and dealing with men. For example, Saint Luke relates how Jesus and the Apostles were in a boat when a great squall arose. Jesus was sleeping while the Apostles became very afraid. They woke him and asked him to save them. Jesus calmed the storm and reproached them for their lack of faith. The lesson for leadership is that leaders must calm the various “storms” that arise in the course of their business. Leaders must be the calming influence and not add to the severity of the storm by not acting calm or by losing their nerve. If a person cannot act or deal with the various storms that periodically arise, whatever other good qualities that person may have, being an effective leader is not one of them.

A leader should also have a plan to teach, so that his followers will be able to teach others. This flows from practical considerations, which may best be considered by asking a simple question: why was Jesus a teacher and not an emperor like Alexander of Macedonia? The best answer to this question lies in the results of their lives. Alexander who was once the ruler of all the know world is now largely forgotten if known by most people. His empire lasted a mere 300 years or so. On the other hand, “Jesus of Nazareth is an immensely forceful and influential personality in the historic life of mankind and especially in that of Western man. He is the reason why members of Western civilization are so conscious of the Judeo-Christian heritage.” That is a powerful legacy!

6. Perseverance, which encompasses courage and prudence. Jesus shows us that because we don’t do things right at some point, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to strive to do them right. After all because we have not done something that we ought to do, it does not mean that it shouldn’t be done.
The greatest example of perseverance in Jesus’ life is his knowledge that he will suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders and the priests, and ultimately die because of his ministry yet he willingly continues the ministry. Having said this, yet it is acceptable or normal for leaders to at times despair or lose faith; Jesus was no exception. For example, according to Saint Matthew, while Jesus is on the cross he calls out to God “My God, My God. Why have you forsaken me?” Yet Saint Luke says that at the point of death Jesus said “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” These are important lessons because they teach that a leader may despair at times yet must always keep focused on the end goal, whether it is saving the world or manufacturing a new product.

Thus leaders may despair at times but the point is that they cannot allow their despair to overwhelm them and keep them from losing focus on their goals. This is where perseverance in the face of adversity is a key characteristic of leadership.

7. Respect for all and caring for your people. This characteristic encompasses the virtues of prudence, courage and justice. Jesus example shows that you should not overlook anyone and that a leader respects everyone and teaches everyone in his organization to respect each other as well. After all your best people may be the ones who you are least likely to imagine them being so. He picked fishermen, tax collectors and prostitutes to be his apostles and disciples. Also, do not exclude anyone because of preconceptions or titles. His rebuke of the Pharisees and priests reflect the modern notion that a leader should not rely solely on so-called experts and specialists. Jesus reached beyond the Hebrews and touched all gentiles as well. A leader should likewise, never exclude anyone on the basis of some preconception or bias. A leader finds opportunities in adversity—the leader must do with whatever resources he has at his disposal. The example is the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000. Jesus turned adversity into an advantage, thus did a lot, i.e., fed the multitudes with what little he had available.

A leader takes care of his followers. Mother Teresa noted that it is very compelling that before Jesus taught the masses during the sermon of the mount he fed them first. I remember a certain colonel who was the Operations Group Commander for a Strategic Air Command Bomb Wing to which I was assigned as a young officer. This colonel was very concerned about an upcoming operational readiness inspection. He decided to have a preparatory Operations Group Commanders’ Call for all his personnel on the group staff. The Commanders’ Call was scheduled for 1530 hours (3:30 PM). He later changed it to 1630 hours (4:30 PM) because of his schedule needs. The briefing began and droned on and on. At 1740 hours (5:40 PM) and with no end in sight, I was aware that the military mess hall—dining facility—closed at 1800 hours (6:00 PM) and that a number of our young single airmen would not eat if they were not dismissed in sufficient time to get there. Since nothing was being said about dinner, I raised my hand and pointed this out to the colonel. Personally, I was not worried about my dinner as my wife was used to me not coming home at time we both thought I would be. Regardless, the colonel became very flustered and yelled at me that this briefing was important. I pointed out to him that the airmen’s’ dinner was also important and sat down; the colonel ignored me. The meeting droned on for another 10 minutes or so until 1750 (5:50 PM), when the visibly angry colonel excused all of those who had to dine at the mess hall. The rest of us sat there until 1815 (6:15 PM) or so, at which point he abruptly terminated the Commanders’ Call. Needless to say, that was the first and the last of the Operations Group Commanders’ Call. Take care of your people for real and not through lip service.

Taking care of your followers does not refer only to material needs but intellectual and social needs as well. There is nothing more exhilarating than a leader who challenges you to reach to the highest and most distant stars. As Robert M. Hutchins observed, “The greatest human fun is that of discovery.” Don’t challenge your people in a formalistic sense but in a real sense. Jesus constantly asked questions thus challenging people to seek answers and thereby furthering his ministry.

8. Communications encompass all four of the virtues. Jesus teaches that leaders should communicate with their followers in language that they can readily understand and are able to communicate the message that the leader wishes them to communicate. I am reminded of the exercise in freshman psychology class where the professor will tell one student a short story. In turn this individual tells another student the story that changes a little bit with each telling. By the time five or so students have gone through this little exercise, the final story bears hardly any resemblance to the original story. If you don’t want your message to become skewed, tell it in simple straightforward language, in bite-sized nuggets, that are easily digestible.

9. Accountability encompasses all of the virtues. Finally, a leader is accountable for his actions. Previously, we mentioned Jesus prediction of his Passion as an example of perseverance. It is also an example of accountability for his actions. Jesus never denied in front of Caiphas and Pilate what he had said or done. He could have easily extricated himself by shifting the blame to the Apostles or by inferring that he had been misunderstood. But he did not. He willingly faced his accusers and held himself accountable. That they were stupid or not worthy was not his fault.
IV

In conclusion, it is apparent that we need to provide models because “This is what the writer Hanna Arendt was getting at when she observed that every generation of Western Civilization is invaded by barbarians, we just call them "children."