Leadership Lessons from the Civil War

I am currently rereading "Leadership Lessons from the Civil War" by Tom Wheeler.  Mark Warner, senior pastor of Overland Park Vineyard, once said this was one of the best books on leadership he has read.

I want to share two lessons from it which I believe will encourage you.  The post just before this one was about an event that appeared to have failed but because I read books such as this one I saw it in a different light.

Lesson One - Dare to Fail

Don't confuse victory with avoiding a loss

The willingness to fail breeds success.  

Decisive victories require risking a loss.  A leader who fails to risk will fail to win.  Of course one must consider the risks involved and avoid risk for risk's sake.  But successful leaders are the leaders willing to embrace risk.

Union General George B. McClellan's fear of loss was so great that it prevented him from winning even though he commanded the most powerful force ever assembled.  His Confederate adversary, Robert E. Lee, although short of troops and supplies, won his major engagements with McClellan precisely because of his willingness to risk failure.

Lee focused on the victory he could achieve, while McClellan focused on the loss he must avoid.  The results demonstrated graphically that the fear of failure is too often self-fulfilling.

In a time of strategic imperative, if you don't take risks . . . you lose.

Lesson Two - If at First You Don't Succeed . . . So What?

Tenacity

Risks result in failures.  Every major decision is an invitation to defeat.  But how one responds when a risk doesn't pay off can be an even greater leadership challenge than deciding to take the risk in the first place.  Risk is the ante.  The greater test comes when the pot is lost.

Those with the leadership skill to persevere in the face of adversity are described as "tenacious" or "persistent."  Eventually, however they are called winners."

The Civil War produced one of the most tenacious leaders in history in Union General Ulysses S. Grant.  While the war gave Grant the opportunity to leave behind a personal life dotted by failure, adversity followed him onto the battlefield.

But U.S. Grant was persistence personified.  Because he refused to accept failure, he became the Civil War's most decisive--and successful--military leader.

Leadership requires the tenacity not to be undone by setbacks, coupled with the willingness to continue to take risks despite the setbacks.

For such leaders, failure is only an interim step on the path to success.

We can find several examples in the Bible of men and women who risked failure or who failed but did not give up.  We will look at only one who took a risk, failed and then turned failure into victory.  

In John 18 we find the account of Peter denying Jesus three times.  What a large failure on Peter's part! 

In Acts 2 we find the Apostles in an upper room on Pentecost and after receiving the Holy Spirit Peter went out and spoke boldly to the crowd and many were converted.  Another risk but this time victory!

What was the difference in the life of the Peter the night Jesus was betrayed and 50 days later? Besides Peter having seen the resurrected Jesus the only difference is he now had the Holy Spirit living in him.

That can be the same difference in the old you and the new you.  You can turn what appears to be failure into victory by using the Holy Spirit to guide you.  But first you have to step out and take the risk of doing something and then sticking with it even when it does not look good so that you can eventually have victory.  You must risk trusting someone when others have betrayed you.  You must take risks in serving when it has only brought you pain in the past.  You must get up and do something or life will pass you by.

Please encourage us by sharing with us the risks you have taken and how you eventually ended up in victory.