Leadership

 Do you receive Modem Maturity? It's published by AARP and is America's largest circulation magazine. For the benefit of those who, by reason of age, don't qualify for a subscription, I pass along the gist of an article by Oren Harari on Colin Powell's seven laws of power. I was intrigued, because Colin Powell has commanded armies, headed government agencies, and is now U.S. Secretary of State. Surely this man must know something about leadership. Here are his seven laws: 

I. Dare To Be the Skunk. "Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes." I see, according to the news reports of January 27, 2002, that Powell practices what he preaches. He has split with other Cabinet members and asked President Bush to reverse himself by declaring the captives being held in Afghanistan and Cuba as prisoners of war and entitled to protection by the Geneva Convention. Powell sees such unpopular stands as a part of responsible leadership. 

2. To Get the Real Dirt, Head for the Trenches. "The people in the field are closest to the problem." He states that leaders must graciously accept information and diverse opinions, even ideas they don't want to hear. 

3. Share the Power. Powell points out, "Plans don't accomplish work. It is people who get things done." That makes the work of everyone important. 

4. Know When To Ignore Your Advisers. Eventually a leader must make the final decisions, and he should never ignore his own hard-won experience. 

5. Develop Selective Amnesia. Don't get trapped in fixed ways of seeing things. "Never let ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it." 

6. Come Up For Air. Leaders need time for themselves and their families. He says, "Anybody who is logging hours to impress me, you are wasting time." 

7. Declare Victory and Quit. Powell is convinced that not every leader makes the decision to withdraw from the position of authority soon enough. "Leadership," he says, "is not rank, privilege, titles, or money. It's responsibility."

I've read the article. Now I sit musing over how much of this applies to the church. What do you think? 

JOHN GIPSON