By Brigadier General Arnvid Brage Løvbukten, Norwegian Air Force
Speech at Oerland Main Air Station, During KBS Weekend Program for International Delegates
Saturday, 27 November 1999
General
My experience in leadership: Father in a family of 6 (most important, if you really want to learn about leadership I would recommend that you get yourself a wife that wants a lot of children!), leader of relief aid ops in Bosnia, missions leader in the biggest local church in Norway, base commander on the most operational base in Norway, responsible for a NATO F-16 reaction force.
Most leaders have some leadership principles that they either learned at school or developed by themselves. Today I want to share mine with you, the reason being I have derived my principles from a somewhat unusual place. My leadership principles are taken from the leadership of a famous man that walked on earth 2000 years ago, his name is Jesus Christ. His principles seem to work in general, they certainly have worked for me over the last years when I have used them (I am not at all perfect, either). I will just give you a couple of examples on how I derived the leadership principles from his life.
God has called many to be leaders, but like all the gifts in Rom 12:6-8, they have to be exercised, matured and developed in order to bear much fruit and become really useful in the Kingdom of God. I believe that when we are leading people, we should be comfortable with the situation, able to relax and know that we are at the right place in life. I have learned that it takes time to develop my leadership skills, that's why I would like to share some of my experience with you today so that may be you can pick up these skills faster than me. I would like to learn more, and hopefully we can have a fruitful dialog afterwards.
I will touch upon all together 12 leadership principles which means I will not go into great details, but I will emphasise some points that could encourage discussions afterwards.
Visions and Goals
I use the word vision about a small statement that gives you direction, but it cannot be measured precisely, for instance a strong family, a Biblical church or a successful military unit. The vision may give direction to the formulation of goals. Goals are statements that can be measured, you know it when you have reached a goal. Examples on goal statements: A life without dept, one person saved every day or all positions in the military unit filled with qualified people.
Jesus had clear visions/goals, reached all of them. His vision is given in Luke 4:18, some goals are described in Mark 1:38, Luke 18:31-33. He finished the work the Father gave him to do (John 17:4,6, 19:30), when he ascended to heaven he had completed everything he was going to do on earth while he walk down here.
Without vision the people go astray (Proverbs 29:18)
Why are visions and goals so important to me as a military leader? Because there are many things that tries to get me off track as a leader, and if I don't have a track to follow it will be the blind leading the blind " and we all fall into the ditch. There are many distractions: leaders above me, politicians, media, various people in my unit that want my time, circumstances, families".
So I try to take the time with my advisers/command group to establish visions and get a direction for myself and for the people I try to lead. I should also develop a strategy or a plan that ensures that we reach those goals that make up the vision.
Then comes the next step: to explain my visions, goals and strategy to my unit. Leadership is much about the transference of vision and the capacity to translate vision into reality.
Sometimes I admit I lack direction because I have not gone through the procedure I just described. I then transmit insecurity, I feel it right away. I should really believe in what I am doing at all times. I believe that real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination about visions and goals they want to reach.
Example on situations where you really need vision and goals to keep you on track:
Leader Team
Jesus: spent all night in prayer before God to make sure that he chose the right disciples even being the Son of God, always having a perfect communication with God. To me it's a signal that I should spent a lot of effort on selecting the right leader team.
Jesus took his advice directly from heaven. We can do the same if we believe in Jesus as our Saviour. In addition, there is a general advice that applies to everybody in Proverbs: we need advicers in order to succeed (Prov 11:14, 15:22, 19:20).
Ideally I would like to pick my advisers as necessary that can contribute significantly to improve the solutions in a quick way. It does not mean that I should pick advisers that always agree to what I am saying, on the contrary, I am seeking to have at least one who is not afraid of asking the critical questions. Otherwise I will soon be alone in an ivory tower, having lost contact with the real world. Your advicers/leaders should cover your weak areas, and they should not be a "men-only"-group if you can avoid it. Women always add another dimension to things that you would otherwise have overlooked.
Again, ideally, I would like to use every mean to get the right people. Not nodders, not leaders with the same gifts/background as me, but preferably men and women that are able to counsel me, that can take our plans into action and that are able to lead in my absence.
I have seen that when I have gathered the right people around me, I very seldom go wrong when listening to them before taking the proper decisions. When I have the wrong people, I have a serious problem. If you are not able to get rid of them due to peacetime regulations, I would then suggest not using them fully, but establish an informal network of advisers that you trust.
He that won't be counselled can't be helped (Benjamin Franklin).
You and I do not have all the answers. Most leaders realise this, but not all take proper action and listen to good advice.
Establishing Authority
Jesus taught with authority, not just words as the scribes did ( Matth 7:28). Authority was an important element of the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth. He spent much time to teach his disciples how we have authority over Satan and also that this authority has been given to the church (Matth 8:5-10, Matth 16:18-19, Eph 1:17-23)
I have discovered that authority is very necessary in order to be efficient as a leader. If we as leaders water out the principle of authority, we are left with a weak life, weak church and a weak unit. But authority has two components: firstly, the authority I have been given by my position and rank (Base Cdr/BG). Secondly, the authority the people I command actually give me as a person. The last component is absolutely the most important one, and I should be working on it at all times.
My real authority at any time is the resultant of many vectors, like my leadership skills, my credibility, my duty background, how I treat people, my ability to transmit visions to all levels etc. Actually all the principles I mention here today are components in this puzzle. This is why it takes time to become a real good leader with the proper authority.
Proper authority gives me the ability to exercise my leadership strongly and efficiently, I am able to give orders, knowing that they will be followed. Authority is also very necessary upwards, because higher authorities need to recognise my authority and my advise. And when I have to take some type of action because higher authorities (mil or political) delay their decisions, they will have to understand why I had to do it as I explain the scenario with great conviction. And if they are not convinced, I may get replaced. So exercising authority without foundation down or up is risky business.
There should always be an established and well known chain of command at any point in time, and this is my responsibility as a leader. Thus the authority should not go fishing when I am gone fishing.
Delegate or die
A good leader knows how to delegate. Jesus has delegated all his tasks to the church after he left the earth nearly 2000 years ago. So I try to make sure that I have a good team of leaders around me that I can delegate to. If I succeed in this, I can delegate almost all tasks, and I am free to do my real job. To delegate is an art that Moses also had to learn the hard way (Ex 18:14-27). We all see so many examples of failure to delegate leads to failure.
I also experienced during crisis management that it is very tempting to take full control over everything as a crisis starts since the whole country may be looking at me, and I may be personally responsible for success or failure. I feel the pressure rising as the crisis develops and the task gets more and more impossible as the time goes, and I become less and less effective as a leader: I am not able to manage the crisis, my own life, my family or my normal job. On this tangent I will never succeed in anything but destroying my own body, mind, family and so on and barring the way for other leaders that could have done a better job than me or at least given me the proper advice.
So I have to trust my leaders, I try to delegate all I can as soon as possible. If I don't, I know that I will never be able to handle a real crisis satisfactorily. My normal excuse when I don't delegate is that the people around me are too busy or too lazy or they don't have the proper skill.
My experience: if I trust people in a crisis, they rise above their normal performance/ability and do much more than I normally expect. Why? They are suddenly highly motivated because it is a real world task and they actually are given more responsibility than normal - and they want to do their utmost to show that they will do their part.
Ideally, I would put it like this: I should be doing only what only I can do.
Examples
The press invasion, not leaving it to the press officers, not informing the press officers. Leaving little time to consider the more important operational questions. Result: 24hour a day press conference, my wife all upset.
A Fruit Inspector
Jesus said that he was the wine and we were the branches. As we believe in him we also bear much fruit. If we don't believe, there's no fruit, and the branch wither away, it's useless and thrown on the fire by God. As leaders we also should be looking for good fruit in our organisation or unit. Do everybody actually produce fruit or don't they? If they don't, what is the reason? If the reason is actually me, then I should be honest and admit it and do something about it. If I don't admit it's my fault, but hang somebody else, my authority and respect gets a real wound.
It is vital that I have a temperature probe down in my unit that catches any decisions I make or don't make that causes friction. If it's real bad, people may start working slower or sabotaging my orders. This friction may be caused by some stupid decision I made in a hurry as I listened to bad advice or did not take the time to listen to anybody at all. But if I have this fruit inspection routine I will hopefully catch it before it develops beyond repair.
An Encourager
Jesus tried all the time to encourage those who believed in him. He reminds us that he has created us beautifully, he has given us salvation, peace of mind, love, care, healing, he does not condemn us but tries to motivate us receiving these gifts, etc. He also washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:14) as an example for us to follow. I have noticed that as I become more and more successful as a leader and reach my goals, this principle of feetwashing becomes more and more important for me. Too many leaders become too selfish and create distance to the people, physically or mentally.
As a leader I try to have the time for my most important people, to encourage them, to get their best abilities up and functioning. In order to do that, I have to know them, their total situation and show genuine care. This takes time.
One important thing we should be watching is that they get sufficient rest and time off so that the work that I give them doesn't wear them out. As leaders we have that responsibility, and we have to stay on top of the situation in order to plan our use of leadership resources. We as leaders must be close enough to relate to our key people, but far enough ahead to motivate them.
You are a big leader if you make others feel bigger when they are with you. Why? Because you radiate something, even without words: direction, security, care, motivation, peace of mind, integrity etc or the opposite. So when you spend time with your key people, you will either encourage them or the opposite. If we are not able or willing to encourage our people, we should really find another job that is more suitable for us, a staff job or something else.
A Teacher and a Coach
Jesus was always teaching and he selected 12 disciples to train them every day for 3 years. Why? Because in this way he was very effective as a leader (2.Tim 2:2) and spread the Gospel all over the world. I am also trying to use every opportunity I have to teach and train my people, because they are looking at me for wisdom. If they don't find it in me, they will not stand still - they will go somewhere else or go backwards. We should be examples by our own conduct. I manage things; I lead people. And I try do it with enthusiasm, because nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. A leader is a person who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. If there is a crisis, there will always be numerous opportunities to get depressed, off track, off balance, confused etc because things are not running as they normally do. As a leader I should be able to concentrate under difficult conditions - to keep my head when all around me are losing theirs. This is why the importance of proper leadership is rising sharply in a crisis.
As we share our wisdom (which we hopefully have) and demonstrate proper leadership, our leaders below us will after a while be able to do the same. And they should be given the opportunity to try with some careful coaching. Take care of yourself/priorities
Jesus had enormous pressure on himself for three years from a crowd of people. He showed his disciples several times that it was necessary to rest, to get away - often up in the mountains. He was also crystal clear in his priorities: He always made sure he heard from his Father before he acted (The woman caught in sin), himself, then Peter/Jacob/John, then the rest of the disciples, then the Jews, his family in the flesh and finally other people.
My job as a leader can always absorb my time and life completely if I don't watch it. I try to get away, and do something completely different now and then.
I really need to prioritise my own resources: my time and my mental and physical fitness. Otherwise: I will just last for a short time and/or I will not perform as I should as a leader. And in addition it may seriously effect the result and my own body and mind.
I have found that even in crisis management there are very seldom tasks that are more important than my own family. If I risk my marriage, my children because I "need" to be gone for some months to solve a crisis somewhere, I would say it's not worth it! As leaders we should be examples also in this area, and also show genuine care for the total man, including his/her family as well as my own.
This is also what the Bible teaches about a leader. If I cannot lead my own family, I should not be leading a church or anything else because where is my authority? My family is therefor my primary training ground as a leader.
Integrity
Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever. He never changes. He has perfect integrity. As a leader he is truly my frontfigure.
Laws/rules/regulations will be broken in a crisis or when times are getting rough (budget cuts etc). So who is setting the standard? We. We are drawing the lines. Everybody will be looking at us, and the units will immediately adapt to new rules as soon as we make up new unwritten ones.
It is tempting and convenient not to inform my authorities about my dispositions because the money flows easily in times of crises. So there are numerous opportunities to show my integrity or lack of it during a crisis. My leadership will in the long run be strengthened or weakened by it.
In an extended crisis, the moral will fall if we don't work on it. Then our own integrity will inevitably be looked at by our own people to find any excuse to break rules, laws, use of alcohol, prostitutes etc. Credibility is a very important possession of a leader.
I always say that I am never perfect, but I should be working on myself constantly. I believe that when I'm through improving, I'm through. I also discovered that there are traps around success as well. When everything in the crisis is going well, it is not the time to relax. Ability may get me to the top - but it takes character to keep me there.
Weak Point handling
Jesus knew exactly the weak points of his disciples. So he paid special attention to this to counter the enemy's condemnation of Peter after he betrayed Jesus 3 times, when Thomas doubted that he had risen from the dead and so on.
In a big unit or organisation there will always be people that are in positions they really cannot fulfil. They get frustrated because they never succeed and the people around them are frustrated because they depend upon a better performance in order to produce properly. This weak point is my responsibility to handle. In my unit I have many weak points like this, but I don't always have the ability or sufficient state regulations in order to move people around. So I try instead to convince people that it's always best to do the things that we are good at.
Be prepared, also for the storms
Jesus was prepared for most situations. And if he wasn't, he often took the time to pray and think it over before he acted. He also prepared his disciples on the coming events, both in the near future (his death and resurrection, the ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit) and the more distant future (the church growth, the persecution of the apostles etc).
I also try to prepare myself as a leader for any situation/meeting/speech etc whenever I have that possibility. A nice way to put it is to say that proper prior planning prevents pitifully poor performance or failure to prepare is preparing to fail. In addition, for me it helps making a small risk analysis on what can go wrong and which steps I need to take in order to prevent it to happen, and if it happens - what control measures to take to prevent the wrong outcome. In a crisis this is a daily exercise because the scenario may be changing all the time.
Examples: Body bag exercises, terrorist exercises, aircraft snag problems etc
Communication
Jesus was able to communicate to the fishermen and the scribes, to poor and rich because he could speak their language. He often used parables from their daily life to make sure that the power of the parable was not lost in communication problems.
Time is often a factor in a military crisis, so ability to communicate quick and efficiently is important. I have never been more misunderstood before as I was in a crisis earlier this year, not having the time to explain every action/decision I took. Communication is much more than words. Media is a very effective way of communicating some messages, especially TV because I inevitably radiate credibility or the opposite. And during a crisis, everybody is watching, my unit, their families, relatives and so on. So I always try to be prepared and keep my goal in sight while I give my interviews etc.
I am trying to talk to the real people, about things that they are occupied with. I am also trying to put myself into their position and see what they are seeing. This is a leader's job. Communication is an area I have been working on for many years, for me it is a difficult arena. But I deeply believe that it is vital for a leader to be able to both transmit to and receive from soldiers as well as generals or politicians in a language that they recognise. I have seen that this strongly affects my ability to lead, both in peacetime and during crisis.
Conclusion
This was my way of expressing my leadership principles. Like I said, I have not seen everything yet, and I don't even practise everything I have seen, either. But I do one thing, I stretch for the things ahead and keep my ability to change up, at the same time trying to do the best out of every hour right now and also learning from my mistakes in the past without letting them condemn me because I am free in Jesus.
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