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Leadership Lessons from Gilligan’s Island

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Gilligan's Island - 1If you were stranded on a deserted island…

Have your children ever asked you this? I think that they think it is some sort of a riddle.

“Daddy what are the three things you would take with you if you had to be stranded on a desert island?”

They are always surprised when I tell them that it would be a boat, fuel and food.  What I find interesting is that they are always surprised at my way of thinking.  My daughters would apparently have the best wardrobe and electronics stores on this uninhabited inhabited island, but who knows.  So as I ponder this, this weekend, I think true leadership is sometimes like being on an island.  Sometimes you are the only one with the plan, you are the only one who knows the mission and at some point you may be the only one committed to the journey.

So growing up in the era I did, the only “real” deserted island I ever had any knowledge of was Gilligan’s Island. Now as you think of the players on this award winning “documentary” you realize that there could not have been a better team assembled to deal with the rigors of being stranded on an island. This is really not where this was headed, but lets go with it for a minute, I only want to address the two obvious leaders from the island, The Skipper and The Professor.

Gilligan's Island - 2As the captain of the SS Minnow when the group set sail on the infamous 3-hour tour out of Honolulu, it would stand to reason that the Skipper would emerge as the group’s leader. After all, the captain of any ship should serve as the positional leader of the team.  However in this case, I don’t believe he wanted to be the leader.  I do think he felt responsible for their “predicament”.  When truly he was the one that saved them from dying in the storm. And a feeling of responsibility is a great place to start.

Gilligan's Island - 4The Professor turns out to be the cerebral member of the group with an advanced education and an overall serious-natured intelligence. The Professor might be perceived as a likely leadership candidate for the group. However, book smarts and leadership savvy are not one in the same.  Just because he used his intelligence to make their life on the island easier, he was not necessarily the leader.  But he was a great resource to the team and the leader.

The problem with much of what happened on Gilligan’s Island is

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Wanted: Full-Time Fathers

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Wanted Full-Time Fathers - 1Early this week I was able to reflect on the impact of a Godly mother on children and on their development into adulthood and hopefully she is impacting them to become leaders who are molders of the culture and not simply being squeezed into the mold (culture) that society holds out for us.  That is a long sentence.  But it is necessary because it sets up my thoughts as we begin now to look toward Father’s Day in just a few weeks.

I have this picture in my mind of men who are out of work during the Great Depression who are holding signs saying “Job Wanted”.  Those must have been terrible times.  To want something so bad, to need something so bad, and yet not be able to get it must be damaging to the soul.

Wanted Full-Time Fathers - 2And that image makes me think of what must go on inside of the little heads of children who do not have a father.  Or maybe they have a biological father.  But he is not a real father.

I have too many thoughts inside my own head and some of them are so raw that I will not burden you with them today.  But we are approaching Father’s day.  And fathers are wanted.  Fathers are needed more than ever.  And they are as scarce as jobs during the Great Depression.

What are your children thinking when they see you?  Are they looking for a “full-time” father?  Are you content to be just a “part-time” one?

Photo credit: austinevan / Foter / (CC BY 2.0)
Photo credit: Don Hankins / Foter / (CC BY 2.0)
Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales collection / Foter / No known copyright restrictions

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The Rt. Hon. Sir Leander Starr Jameson

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LS Jameson - 1My guess is that many of you may have no idea who Leander Starr Jameson is or was.  And, to be honest, I did not know much about him until recently.  He was born on the 9th of February in 1853 and he died on the 26th of November in 1917.  He was a British colonial politician and was best known for his involvement in what became known as the Jameson Raid. 

The Jameson Raid was a botched raid on the Transvaal Republic carried out by Leander Starr Jameson and his Company mercenaries and policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. It was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in what is present day South Africa, but it failed to do so. These expat workers were called the Johannesburg conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection. The raid was failed and no uprising took place.

All of this is backstory and meant to impress you with my ability to Google things faster than a speeding bullet.  It is also to set the background for a man who, despite a resounding failure, seems to have inspired a degree of devotion from his contemporaries. Elizabeth Longford writes of him, “Whatever one felt about him or his projects when he was not there, one could not help falling for the man in his presence”. 

LS Jameson - 3Longford also notes that Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem “If—“ with Leander Starr Jameson in mind as an inspiration for the characteristics by which he recommended young people to live.  This is notably so for Kipling’s son, to whom the poem is addressed in the last lines.  Direct evidence that the poem “If—“ was written about Jameson is available also in Rudyard Kipling’s autobiography in which Kipling writes that “If—“ was “drawn from Jameson’s character.”  Kipling indicates that it was written in celebration of Leander Starr Jameson’s personal qualities at overcoming the difficulties of the Raid, for which he largely took the blame, although Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary of the day, was, according to some historians, implicated in the events of the raid.

LS Jameson - 2So, what characteristics did Kipling have in mind? 

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Leadership Lessons from a Godly Mother

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883790I was reminded in church this morning of the importance of a Godly mother and the development of leaders.  Today was special not only because it is Mother’s Day and I had the chance to be in church this morning with not only my mother, but my mother-in-law as well.  I was also able to be there with my daughter-in-law and our son as they dedicated their son.  It was a special day.  But it also was an opportunity to consider the importance of mothers and to consider the impact of a mother’s dedication to raising a leader.

We worshipped in a typical Texas small town First Baptist Church.  The people were warm and friendly and it was refreshing to my soul.  The pastor spoke simply but eloquently and caused me to think again about the important leadership role that a mother plays in the lives of her children.  And I have borrowed liberally from his message this morning in writing this piece.

Consider with me for a moment the Godly example of Hannah from the Old Testament book of First Samuel.  The first few chapters tell us the following things and they are an example of the impact a Godly mother can have on her child for now and for eternity.  Here is what I see from looking at these first few chapters in the book of First Samuel.

Hannah prayed desperately for God to give her the desire of her heart.  She prayed deeply and earnestly that she would have a child – a son.

Hannah prioritized the raising of her child.  She made sure that she taught him the things that would be important to him as an adult and that would prepare him for great things.

Hannah dedicated her child to God and to His service.  She saw herself as serving a greater purpose than just feeding and diapering.  She believed that she was a steward of the gift that God had given her.

Hannah was faithful to the responsibility to parent.  She was dedicated and she was steadfast in her sacred task.

12748So, what are the leadership implications of this story? 

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Leadership in Chaos

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Leadership in Chaos - 1I had the privilege of escorting my wife on a trip over the last few days to New York City.  Now those of you that know me, I am sure cannot imagine why I would want to go to New York City.  Well I’ll tell you, because my wife has always wanted to go there.  So I return to work today to relax a little bit and think about the pure and utter chaos that is NYC.  It caused me to remember a “Leadership In Chaos” workshop I attended while I was in the military.  The man that spoke during the workshop was a Colonel and an Airborne Ranger, and today as I write this, he is a leadership consultant at the Military Academy at West Point.

Last Thursday morning at 0530AM I found myself in Times Square standing outside of the Good Morning America studio preparing to be part of the audience that you see outside their window if you have ever watched the morning show.  As the majority of this was pretty slow, I found myself wandering and looking around in Times Square at 6-ish AM.  What did I see? That’s right you guessed it – chaos.

So I got to thinking how a leader would be able to maintain discipline and focus with surroundings like this? Leadership in Chaos - 2I thought our military leaders could offer some ideas.  If there is anything that today’s military leaders are comfortable with it is in being…uncomfortable.  In places like Afghanistan (and Iraq before it), spans of control are so broad, geographic distances are so immense, and challenges so diverse that leaders cannot possibly be everywhere or know everything that is happening.  The fog of war is an almost constant companion to our military heroes.  “VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity – is the new normal.”

Much of what we thought about organizational management is grounded in the “Command & Control” world, a paradigm that just doesn’t fit in today’s VUCA scenario.  Places like Afghanistan are causing us to think differently about some aspects of leadership.  “Decision cycles are too compressed to fit within the top-down Military Decision Making Process (MDMP).”  Things that were accepted norms like, “No more than 5-7 direct reports” are not necessarily true, and can’t be any longer.  Even leadership teachings about things like planning, risk, or scope of responsibility are being re-thought in light of what we are learning downrange.

So, with leadership as we thought we knew it in evolution, how do leaders provide clarity of purpose and thought and drive appropriate actions? 

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Leadership Lessons from Finding Nemo

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Entrance to WDWI am in Orlando, FL as I write this morning.  The kids are off at the playground and we are having a bit of a more calm day than the last few have been.  And I am looking for inspiration from our recent experiences.  And I found it at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the live performance of Finding Nemo.

Just like in the animated movie, the little fish named Nemo gets caught by some divers and is taken to live in a dentist’s aquarium. To Nemo, being stuck in the tank is pretty trivial compared to not ever seeing his father again. (This theme is just about right for Fatherhood Friday, wouldn’t you say?)

Nemo 1But little does Nemo know that his father is the kind of father who will go to any length to try and find his son so that he can bring him home again.  Up to this point his father has been timid and afraid to let his son go out into the world and experience life.  Tragedy has touched their family and it has scarred the father deeply.  But adversity has caused him to rise up and be willing to go through rough waters, sharks, jellyfish, and unknown territory to find his son.

So what is the point for Fatherhood Friday?

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Can you help me?

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Can you help me - 1“Can you help me?”

Those are not words that flow easily from our mouths as leaders.  But maybe they should be.

I recently took an international business trip.  It involved 6 flights, 4 trams, 4 shuttle busses and 2 taxi cabs in order to get to where we needed to be.  I have taken many international flights in my line of work.  And I am accustomed to many of the rigors of travel.  But, for the first time in 13 years of international business travel, I had to ask for help to get from one gate to the next to make my final connecting flight on the way home.

Can you help me - 2I arrived at Liberty in Newark, NJ late last Thursday afternoon and by the time I cleared customs and boarded the tram and got to my gate at the next terminal they were already boarding the flight.  Imagine my surprise to see a nearly empty gate.  What I discovered at the gate was that United had decided to change the departure gate to the other side of the terminal.  My gate was no longer Gate 125.  It was Gate 75.  I was not going to make it.

But at my age and after already flying for almost 10 hours I made the tactical decision to seek assistance in reaching my goal.  My goal was to get home and see my family.  And I did not have enough strength to get from Gate 125 to 75 in time to make my flight.  So I approached the counter and requested one of those electric carts that you see in airports.  You know, the ones that annoy you as you are trying to walk to your gate!

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Encouraging Leaders

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Encouraging Leaders - 1The English language is tricky.  You can read the title of today’s article in two ways.  You can read it as an admonition that we should encourage our leaders.  And that would be a great admonition and a great article.

But my purpose today is to view it from the obverse perspective.  I want to admonish leaders that we should be “encouragers” to those around us.  And who doesn’t need a little encouragement?

Encouraging Leaders - 3One of the most important tasks of a leader is to encourage his followers.  Leaders often have to lead in the midst of difficult times and through tough circumstances.  These times and circumstances weigh heavily on our team.  And one of the things to which they will look to their leaders is encouragement.

Are you an encourager?  Do you build your team up?  Do you take pro-active steps to speak positive words to your team as they struggle with the tasks that you have given them?  Or are you demeaning and demanding?  When your team sees you approaching are they looking forward to what you are about to say?  Or do they feel a sense of dread and foreboding in your presence?

Encouraging Leaders - 2If I were to make a list of those who need encouragement from me, as a father, I need to look no farther than my own home. 

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Throwback Thursday: Constantine

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Constantine - 1Constantine the Great: (February 27, 272 – May 22, 337), was also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine.  He was the 57th Roman Emperor and reigned as Emperor from 306 to 337. Constantine was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman army officer, and his consort Helena. His father became Caesar, the deputy emperor in the west in 293. Constantine was sent to eastern portion of the empire where he succeeded militarily and rose through the ranks to become a military tribune under several. In 305, his father, Constantius was raised to the rank of Augustus, the senior western emperor and Constantine was recalled west to campaign under his father in what is now the British Isles.

He was acclaimed as emperor by the army after his father’s death in 306, Constantine emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against several other emperors to become sole ruler of both the western and eastern empire in 324.

Constantine - 2As emperor, Constantine enacted many political, financial, social, and military reforms that strengthened the empire.

  • The government was restructured and civil and military authority separated which is key separation of powers that has been imitated in many political and governmental systems such as our own American system of government.

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A Leadership Formula

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A Leadership Formula - 2I often wonder what makes a good leader. I think back to some of the leaders I have experienced in my life and try to remember what they had in common. What I remember is, externally they were all different, there was a teacher, there was a coach, there was a boss, and there were a couple of commanding officers. However internally, or spiritually, I think they were very much alike.

I realized much later in life that someone would have to really want to teach or coach, and really love it, because there was no one getting rich from teaching or coaching on the local level. Secondly there was a boss at my first job, he really helped set the work ethic and began laying the ground work for how a leader should treat their team members, and was a great example of how to treat others. Lastly there were some officers in charge while I was in the military. These men taught me about a chain of command, and respect, and how important being a member of a team really was.A Leadership Formula - 3

So what is the formula that makes these people great leaders? I think they all shared some similar spiritual traits, if you will. Consider these:

  • They wanted to lead
  • They had the ability to lead
  • They felt a need to lead
  • They just had to lead

So I would like to discuss each of these things briefly to see the “make up” of a leader.

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