Bayonet Leadership

At the end of Beyond Band of Brothers, Dick Winters lists ten leadership points he calls “Leadership at the Point of the Bayonet: Ten Principles for Success.”

Strive to be a leader of character, competence, and courage.

Lead from the front. Say, “Follow me!” and then lead the way.

Stay in top physical shape—physical stamina is the root of mental toughness.

Develop your team. If you know your people, and are fair in setting realistic goals you will develop teamwork.

Delegate responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their jobs. You can’t do a good job if you don’t have a chance to use your imagination or your creativity.

Anticipate problems and prepare to overcome obstacles. Don’t wait until you get to the top of the ridge and then make up your mind.

Remain humble. Don’t worry about who receives the credit. Never let power or authority go to your head.

Take a moment of self-reflection. Look at yourself in the mirror every night and ask yourself if you did your best.

True satisfaction comes from getting the job done. The key to a successful leader is to earn respect—not because of rank or position, but because you are a leader of character.

Hang Tough!—Never, ever, give up.

Major Dick Winters
Easy Company
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Band of Brothers

Winters, Major Dick and Colonel Cole C. Kingseed. Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. Large Print. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning, 2006.

Sisu Winters

This week I’ve been exploring readings for a new English 350 themes class—the course is really about covenant relationships: love, family, and God. Nothing better than that, is there?

I read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 classic novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Werther falls in love with someone he knows is engaged, but he can’t get over her. He’s even friends with her fiancé, yet he just can’t get on with his life. He is miserable, and he doesn’t think he has any future, so he kills himself.

I next read Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth written in 1905 about a young Lily Bart who knows she must marry but gets caught up in expensive tastes and begins to gamble and loses over $9000. She continues to get herself into more and more trouble, and it gets bleaker and bleaker. People, some of them good but others not so kind, offer to help her, yet she refuses. Then at the last pages of the novel, she kills herself because she can’t see any other alternative.

These two individuals just gave up and couldn’t see beyond the moment. Goethe wrote his novel when he was 24 years old soon after falling in love with someone who was engaged. He was heartbroken, yet he fought and moved on. He questioned what would have happened if he had given in, and that became his novel. That novel made him incredibly famous—even Napoleon thought it was great and often took it with him into battles. Unfortunately, the book is also famous because it’s one of the first pieces of literature that produced other copycat suicides from love-lost men. Goethe always regretted writing the book.

But also this week, I started reading Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters. I really like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, and I’m still trying to talk myself into buying the DVD collection.

Winters was the commander of Easy Company that paratrooped behind enemy lines during the Normandy Invasion. Winters is incredible. Winters was just a normal guy from Pennsylvania who graduated from college and joined the military in 1941. He loved his family, and attributes any leadership skills he ever got were from his mother. He never smoked or drank. He attended church nearly every Sunday. When he was stationed for nine months in England before the Invasion, he only missed three Sundays, and that was because of duties. The other men could just sense his goodness, and they gravitated towards him.

Here’s an example of one of his quiet leadership qualities. Once he noticed one of his junior officers gambling with the men. Winters pulled him aside, and told him never to gamble with the men—not because it was wrong, but a leader should never take anything away from others; he should give and strengthen. He would be the last one in at night and the first one up in the morning, and he watched for the person who seemed to be having a hard time. He would then quietly get to know the individual and encourage and direct. He just wanted to make people better.

During the Normandy Invasion, when he was dropped behind enemy lines, he saw the plane ahead of them shot down, and in it was their commander, so once Winters’ men dropped down, people just started following him, and he became their commander. As they jumped from the plane that was going too fast, he and the others lost the bags strapped to their legs because of the force of the wind. Those bags contained their weapons and supplies. In the middle of the night, he and others landed behind enemy lines with weapons, and they were under machine gun fire attack.

Now if Winters had been like Young Werther and Lily Bart, he could have dug into a hole and given up—it’s night, he’s behind enemy lines, he has no weapons, his leader is dead, someone is shooting right at him. But he doesn’t give up. He gathers his men together, they search for weapons among the dead, and they attack and destroy the machine gun nest. Because of their actions at that moment, they save other lives. That night he kneels in the mud and offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Winters has what the Finns call sisu—the determination to never give, to keep fighting.

So often in our lives, everything is coming down on us, and we don’t know what to do or where to turn. We feel the loneliness, darkness, and fear.

But we can’t give up—we’ve got to fight—we have to have sisu. This morning I read Elder Jay Jensen’s November 2008 conference talk “Arms of Safety.” He’s quoting from Alma 34:16 where Amulek is speaking about the Savior’s Atonement which “encircle [us] in the arms of safety.”

Some of the most meaningful moments in my life are when as a father I’m able to put my arms around any of my sons when they’re terrified, threatened, afraid, or discouraged. How wonderful it is to hold them and to tell them that it’ll be all right, that they’re not alone, that I’ll be with them, and that I’ll hold them.

But these earthly arms can only encircle so much, but those Heavenly Arms of the Savior can encircle us and keep us safe. If the Savior can hold the world in His palm, then He can certainly wrap his arms around us and hold us.

In Elder Jensen’s talk, he also quotes President Boyd K. Packer: “For some reason, we think the Atonement of Christ applies only at the end of mortal life to redemption from the Fall, from spiritual death. It is much more than that. It is an ever-present power to call upon in everyday life. When we are racked or harrowed up or tormented by guilt or burdened with grief, He can heal us. While we do not fully understand how the Atonement of Christ was made, we can experience ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.’”

Remember that someone and Someone love us—we’re not alone.

Storytelling and Interviews

I've been thinking about stories, the stories that make up our lives. Part of the reason my business writing students create their own leadership journals is to articulate their experiences into stories--both for themselves and for others.

Not only does storytelling recreate the experience, but storytelling adds to memory, especially the memory of others who hear the story. The stories we articluate in an interview become memorable to the employer first as shared experience and second as meaningful representations of the storytellers' being and qualities.

A helpful book on storytelling is Stephen Denning's The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the At and Discipline of Business Narrative. In future postings, we'll incorporate storytelling more, but for now, here is an excerpt from Denning:

"You tell a story to show people who you are—to stop being a stranger. Once upon a time, several eons ago, a stranger was a rare phenomenon. In a calmer, slower, more intimate time, people knew who you were. By reputation. They knew your family. They knew your upbringing. They knew your history. They knew what you had done. You had lived together. You had grown up in the same village. You were already known.

"Now in these turbulent, fragmented, rapidly morphing times, it’s hard to know who anyone is. People don’t have the background about one another that they once had. And they are often asked to trust others about whom they know very little. They come from different backgrounds, different education, different religions, different races, different countries.

"How do you communicate who you are? People want to know what makes you tick, what gets you excited, what is driving you, what values you espouse, or what goals you have in life. How will you act in a crisis? Will you level with people? Will you save yourself while stabbing others in the back? Are you someone who goes whichever way the wind blows? Or are you someone of character who stands up for what is good and true and right?

"Thus if the audience can understand the critical experiences that have formed you as an individual, they can begin not only to understand the unique individual that you have become but also to infer how you may act in the future. Giving them an account of one or more turning points in your existence can enable listeners to get insider your life, to share your life, to go through what you have been through so that they can themselves experience what sort of a person you are" (pp. 80, 82).

William W. Phelps and Self-Forgiveness

I’m touched by the Savior’s example of long-suffering, patience, and forgiveness for each of us, and we must certainly emulate those Christ-like qualities. Yet when we think of long-suffering and patience and forgiveness, we naturally think of our relationships with others. But we also need to exercise long-suffering, patience, and forgiveness towards ourselves, especially when we feel we have failed to measure up or we have intentionally or unintentionally hurt others.

We beat ourselves mercilessly. Remember John Donne’s sonnet, “Batter My Heart”? Donne pleads to God to batter, beat, burn, and bruise him—rarely does God do that to us—we do it to ourselves.

I like this quotation from President Howard W. Hunter: “It has always struck me as being sad that those among us who would not think of reprimanding our neighbor, much less a total stranger, for mistakes that have been made or weaknesses that might be evident, will nevertheless be cruel and unforgiving to themselves. When the scriptures say to judge righteously, that means with fairness and compassion and charity. That’s how we must judge ourselves. We need to be patient and forgiving of ourselves, just as we must be patient and forgiving of others.”

I know that is much easier said than done. I know most of us have a strong, solid testimony and we know our Heavenly Father and the Savior love us. Even though our view of eternity is relatively clear, our view for the next mile, our view of ourselves, and even our next step is cloudy and obscured. We need a little more clear perspective, and the Holy Ghost can help us discern things as they “really are,” including discerning ourselves.

I’ve been studying the Doctrine and Covenants, and what I learn about William W. Phelps gives me hope. Phelps has written the lyrics for fifteen hymns in our hymn book including “The Spirit of God,” “Now Let Us Rejoice,” “Redeemer of Israel,” and “Oh God, the Eternal Father.” Phelps had wonderful, powerful experiences with the Prophet Joseph. Phelps had such a strong, vibrant testimony. However, he became very bitter in Far West, left the church, but most importantly turned on the Prophet, even becoming involved with Governor Bogg’s extermination order which sought the Prophet’s life. Here is a man who turned on his best friend.

But, William W. Phelps returned to the church in 1840 and wrote a letter asking the Prophet for his forgiveness. Joseph Smith wrote back forgiving Phelps, and concluded his letter with this great couplet: “Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, / For friends at first, are friends again at last.”

Here’s the rest of this experience. Phelps was devastated when he heard of the Prophet’s and Hyrum’s deaths. He then wrote that powerful “Praise to the Man.” Not only had he received the Prophet’s forgiveness, but he had been able to forgive himself for what he had done earlier in his life. Phelps continued faithful throughout the rest of his life.

I don’t know details of all your pains I just know you’re hurting and you blame yourselves. Try to get a more clear perspective through the Holy Ghost. Try to see farther down the road. Keep moving forward and upward. Remember that the Savior can calm your stormy seas as well as the Sea of Galilee. And remember there are those who love you--you’re not alone.

The Joads and Sugar Beets

I finished reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath this week. From the very first page, I have sensed the heavy, oppressive circumstances the Joad family experiences. What adds to this feeling is the current economic conditions that have a powerful impact on so many lives—I keep questioning the connections the Joads have with us today.

The Joads have done absolutely nothing wrong—they just experience the consequences of many interconnected events, each leading to their crop failure, to the destruction of their home and loss of their farm, their hopeful forced migration to California to look for work, to no job opportunities, prejudice, humiliation, despair, and even death. No chapter gets better; no chapter gives the Joads or us a breather. Yet, I couldn’t put the novel down.

I also keep seeing my grandparents through this novel. My grandparents were also sharecroppers here in Idaho. For much of my grandparents early marriage, they sharecropped sugar beets for U&I Sugar Company. While one set of my grandparents raised the sugar beet crops in Osgood, my other grandfather worked in the sugar factories in Rigby and Lincoln. My grandparents both began their marriages a few years before the Great Depression, and they raised their families during that unbelievably, difficult time.

But what keeps me reading The Grapes of Wrath are the characters, especially Ma Joad—I don’t think we ever get her name—she’s just Ma. This woman takes her family who is tearing apart, and she actively leads the battle to unite them and to encourage them. She steps in and becomes the woman and leader that others don’t expect. When her son Tom suggests splitting the family, she threatens to hit him with a tire jack to prevent that split. She takes action in the government Weedpatch camp and gives her husband Pa a reason to fight. She demands that they leave their secure boxcar home to find higher ground and food. Her chief desire is “to keep the fambly whole.”

Ma doesn’t give up; she’s tired; she continues to move forward, day by day, even when all appears hopeless. She raises and teaches her family. She places all needs above her own. Even though the family sees no future in the end of the novel, we readers do get a glimmer of hope because of Ma’s influence on her daughter Rose of Sharon.

Get this great quotation. Elder George Q. Cannon in 1863 reminds us that “God sees not as man sees; that he does not willingly afflict his children, and that if he requires them to endure present privation and trial, it is that they may escape greater tribulations which would otherwise inevitably overtake them. If he deprives them of any present blessing, it is that he may bestow upon them greater and more glorious ones by and by.”

Just think about that quotation and the difficult things we work through day after day. I also like this quotation I read yesterday from an Ethan Canin short story “The Palace Thief”: “A man’s character is his character.” These trials, burdens, heartaches make us who we are.

Now back to my Grampa and Gramma Jensen. During the terrible Great Depression as sharecroppers there was an early freeze that froze all the beets in the field, so the workers weren’t able to harvest the beets and make their obligations to the sugar company. Nearly all gave up. But Grampa and Gramma went to the supervisor and gave him all the money they had been saving for their own farm and paid off their debt. The supervisor told them that they were the only family who paid in full, and most of the others just packed up and moved out in the night. My grandparents, although with no money, left sharecropping with their integrity.

You have integrity, and you are made up of your own challenges. Don’t give up—keep looking to the future while you daily make the best of whatever you do. Remember those real promises that glorious blessings are available both for you now and by and by.

Bless you, pup.

Question Marks

For the last few days I’ve been thinking about Jesus asking questions. I haven’t studied this out much yet, but some questions that have come to mind seem to be directed towards me. As a teacher, I’m used to asking questions, but it occurs to me that the questions Jesus asks others require an answer from me as well.

As leaders, we need to ask questions, but we need to answer them as well.

Here are a few questions I’ve been asking myself.

“Lovest Thou Me?” Three times the Savior asks Peter, “Lovest thou me?” (John 21:15). Do I love the Savior? How do I manifest it? How do I put Him first in my life? How do I help my family put Him first in our lives?

“Where are the Other Nine?” When Jesus asks the lone, returning leper, “Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:17), He asks about our gratitude. Why am I grateful to the Savior? How do I show that gratitude? Does my family know and see my gratitude to the Savior? Am I grateful in times of difficulty and frustration?

“Why Persecutest Thou Me?” When the Savior asks Saul on the road to Damascus, “Why persecutes thou me?” (Acts 9:4), He asks why does Saul rebel? When am I hesitant to serve the Savior? When am I less than willing to build or sever in the Kingdom? When am I not as kind to others, or even mean to others which makes me unkind or mean to the Savior? When do I cause sorrow to the Savior because of what I’ve done or because of what I have not done?

“Wist Ye Not, That I Must be about My Father’s Business?” At an early age when the Boy Jesus as in the temple, He sensed then that He was doing the Lord’s work when he asks his parents, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). How am I about the Father’s and the Son’s business? How do I strengthen others and lift the heavy hearted and overburdened? When do I place more emphasis and time on activities that are less important and meaningful than being an instrument in Father’s hands? When do I magnify my callings in the priesthood and at church to serve others?

“Could Ye Not Watch with Me One Hour?” Jesus asks His sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Until recently, I’ve read this as a rebuke or a sign that His disciples lacked discipline. However, I’m reading it more to reveal the strength of the Savior who does exercise control over his body, who can stay awake to do the tremendous work that He has to do, while the rest of us sometimes nod off? I can I endure just a little longer by the Savior’s side? How can I exert just a little more effort, a little more desire, and little more perseverance to accomplish the work He has given me? How can I take care of my physical needs so that they don’t overpower me when I need extra energy and determination?

“How be It That Ye Have Not Written?” Jesus asks the Nephites during his brief visit at the Bountiful temple, “How be it that you have not written?” the prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite (3 Nephi 23:11). Have I recorded the Lord’s tender mercies in my life? Have I written the Savior’s goodness, guidance, strength, charity, and forgiveness in my life? Have I kept of record that demonstrates my willingness to serve Him and others? Sure I kept consistent journals years ago, but what effort do I put into this commandment now?

These questions and others are developing, and hopefully the answers will continue to be a source of strength and growth. We have a Heavenly Father and his Precious Son who love us, and they are with us. As we read the scriptures, especially the Savior’s words to us, may we continue apply their His teachings and questions to our lives.

Chariots

It’s been gorgeous weather here with brilliantly blue skies and temperatures in the 40s—just wonderful. A nice reprieve from a cold winter—the sun feels good on the face.

No matter how beautiful the weather is, we know that it won’t always stay that way, will it? Those clouds come in, and we begin to feel the colder temperatures and experience that darkness.

Maybe that is why that unexpected sun seems so good—because we’ve missed it so much. In life, it is easy to focus on the cloud cover, those feelings of leaden clouds weighing down on us, and often it seems that that oppression gets heavier and heavier, day after day. We forget the warmth of that sun or even question whether the sun is still there. All we feel is that cold and dark.

Today I stumbled on a Neal A. Maxwell quotation from another context: “In times of darkness, remember there is a difference between passing local cloud cover and general darkness.”

During our cold, dark times, we need to realize it’s probably not quite that dark, that this cloud cover will pass one day. I’m not minimizing those horrible black times of illness or sin or sorrow, but even at those bleak times, there is still a sun shining, and in time, it will break through, and we’ll feel its warmth on our faces again.

One of my favorite scripture accounts is of the young man who accompanies Elisha on the mount to see their city completely surrounded by the terrifying enemy and fearing that the next day their beloved city and inhabitants will be destroyed. The young man pleads, “What shall we do?” Then that wonderful Elisha, simply reassures, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Elisha prays and the young man’s eyes are opened to see the mountain full of horses and chariots and fire around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17).

Talk about the sun breaking through! The same happens to us. We're not alone.

We just have to keep a look out for those chariots!

Peter--A Leader Who Lifts

I’ve been thinking about Peter lately. I know he hasn’t lost his way, but he did have a moment that tortured him. There are a couple of paintings of Peter that touch me in different ways. They’re both painted by the great religious painter Carl Bloch. The first is called Peter’s Denial of Christ. That’s the one I’m sure you’ve seen where Peter is outside the palace walls with a rooster nearby. His head is bowed with shame and horror at what he’s done, and in the distant background through the marble pillars is the Savior with the plaited thorn crown looking at Peter—there’s a sadness in His expression. For the longest time, I’ve thought Christ was sad because Peter denied Him, yet lately I’m seeing this differently. I now see that sadness because the Savior loves Peter so much that He knows how deeply troubled and ashamed Peter is for a moment’s weakness. I now see the Savior feeling Peter’s pain despite His own humiliation—the Savior seems to want to come to Peter’s rescue and to comfort him.

The second painting is called Peter’s Remorse. Peter is so bowed down with anguish he has slipped down to the base of the column, and is curled in pain. He is so alone and lost.

There’s something about this Peter that is so human—a man who is frail alone, but when he is with the Savior, he is so strong, powerful, and all things are possible. Here is the man who is strong enough that right before he is called to be a “fisher of men,” he is pulling near-breaking nets of thrashing fish from the water. Here is the man who witnesses the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead, the man who does walk on water, and the man who is in the midst of a Transfiguration. Then when he receives the Holy Ghost and realizes the power of the Holy Priesthood, he blesses lives of all within his reach, and even those who are healed when his shadow passes on them.

One of my favorite accounts is when he and John are at the temple and a man who has been “lame from his mother’s womb” was begging for money. Peter doesn’t move along; instead he “fastening his eyes on him” and seeing the goodness of that seemingly forsaken man, Peter says so deliberately, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:1-6).

Now here’s where the real Peter shows through—Luke continues to tell us in this account, that Peter didn’t just content himself by commanding the man to walk, but he “took him by the right hand, and lifted him up. . . .” Here is that strong fisherman, who probably puts his arms around this stunned beggar helps and lifts the man. Peter probably steadies him while he takes his first few steps. And then, there must be that embrace.

One of my favorite President Harold B. Lee quotations is, “You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is. . . . You must be sure, if you would rescue the man, that you yourself are setting the example of what you would have him be. You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own.

A example of a true leader is one who lifts and steadies another who has falter or who is weak. I have no doubt that you are that type of leader in your own, private way.

Continue to lift and steady others, and you will find that you will also stand taller and be more firm.

Joel's Prophecy and You

This week I've added another favorite prophet to my long list. It's the prophet Joel. Sunday I was doing this week's reading for Gospel Doctrine about Joseph Smith's marvelous experience with Moroni. In the Prophet's history, he shares the scriptures that Moroni repeats to him three times that night and once more the next day. Of course he quotes Malachi and Isaiah, but I hadn't really noticed the reference to Acts and to Joel. So, I also read those references, and Joel touched me.

We don't know much about Joel, but his prophecy is quoted by Peter at the time of the Pentecost as well as by Moroni. Here it is:

"I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids of those days will I pour out my spirit" (Joel 2:28-29).

I know that this speaks specifically of the Restoration and continuing revelation, but what strikes me this time is that through Joel we are promised that we in the last days are promised personal revelation in our own lives.

That becomes so significant for us, especially for young people who have meaningful decisions to make about their lives in this troubled time--decisions about missions, marriage, family, education, careers, church service, and just life. We have been promised that if we are faithful, we will be guided, we will receive divine direction through that spirit that can be poured out upon us.

So, that's why I like Joel. He reminds me that if I am faithful, diligent, and seeking divine help, I will be guided--and so can you.

Leadership in a Combat Zone

I was thinking about you while reading an article called “Leadership in a Combat Zone.” It’s an article my advanced business writing students read written by the lieutenant general William G. Pagonis —I have them read a number of articles from Harvard Business Review. He’s writing about what he learned about leadership while in the Gulf War.

He boils it down to two essential qualities of effective leadership: expertise and empathy. I like that combination. He sites a number of personal experiences in his life and in the military illustrating those points. He also claims that true leaders are not only shaped by their own environment, but they also remake their environments.

That got me to thinking about how our personal experiences in life, especially those that come to us through trials and challenges when tempered by the Holy Ghost give us both expertise and empathy and can prepare us for later events.

For instance, I’ve been thinking about Nephi and how we see him grow as a leader. We’re introduced to him when he’s just a kid, in awe of his father and his father’s visions. But his experiences which most often are tremendous trials help him gain expertise, but he always reaches out with empathy.

I’ve also considered that all of his experiences are necessary and prepare him for who he actually becomes. Take the experience of building the ship. We’re familiar with the struggle with his brothers, but think about the difficulty of building the ship. He’s clear that he’s never built anything before, and as a merchant’s son he really doesn’t have the skills. The scripture account does tell us he goes to God frequently in prayer to receive direction, but here is a land-locked son of an affluent family struggling to build a sea-worthy ship to take their families to a new land.

Now, fast forward to a later time in Nephi’s life. In 2 Nephi 5:16, Nephi says simply, “And I, Nephi, did build a temple.” What Nephi learned during that terribly trying time for him was essential for him later in life became a blessing—a builder of temples, the builder of people.

Your difficult, dark times are giving you both expertise and empathy in ways that you can’t even imagine now, but they will work out for your own good. You will see yourself, others, and the world differently because of them. They will make you strong as you stay close to your Heavenly Father.

I am touched by the power of the Savior to say, “Let there be light,” and then there is light—light overpowering darkness. The same happened to the Prophet Joseph when he goes to the grove to pray—he too is overpowered by darkness until he prays and that Pillar of Light descends upon him. It also happens to Lehi when he has his vision of the Tree of Life—he is wandering in darkness and a dreary waste until he prays and the tender mercies of God save him.

In the dark times of our lives, we must have the Savior light our lives and our way. He will always dispel the darkness, even if we don’t feel it or acknowledge it. He will turn that darkness and adversity into light and good if we continue to reach out to Him.

He is so aware of you. Stay close to Him. You are His. You have a work to do, and you’re preparing yourself right now with expertise and empathy. He is blessing you.

Continue to fight—you’re not alone. Force yourself to make it to your classes, to get to church, to read your scriptures, and to get out with people—don’t withdraw, even if it seems to bring the only comfort.