Joshua's lessons on leadership - Inner Strength

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, I discussed the importance of “See the truth; but not for worse than it is”.  In this post, Joshua shows us “Inner Strength”.

The story of Joshua’s “Inner Strength” occurs at the end of his mentor’s life.  Joshua had been #2 to Moses for almost 40 years.  Together they had led the tribes on a nomadic journey that lasted an entire generation.  At the end of the journey, when they are just about to cross the Jordan River and change from being nomads into their permanent residence, Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of everyone else, "Be strong and courageous, for you must lead these people to their future home, the home we have discussed this entire journey and you must divide it among them as their inheritance”.

There is no great time to take over for a legend.  There is no perfect moment to step into a giant’s shoes.  However there are some moments more difficult than others.  Imagine Joshua, “What Moses?  Where are you going?  Just wait a few more miles, get the tribe to their new home and then I can take it from there.  And can you go ahead and divide the land before you leave?  You have a lot more credibility than me.  What if they do not listen to me?”

I had a similar (albeit substantially less dramatic and important) moment in my work life.  I was at a company and had just been asked to take over the leadership of a large organization.  My task was to take over from someone who had been at the company for a long time, was well liked, fire about 20% of the organization and then restore morale.

Gulp.

The day after we let a several hundred people go we had an all-hands meeting.  The meeting was in a large building with bleachers along one wall.  I came in the back of the building and had to walk down the bleachers to the floor and turn around and address the team.  As I walked down the bleachers, I could feel the fear, distrust, frustration, anticipation and worry emitting like raw electricity from the hundreds of people in the room.  Alone, walking down the stairs, all I could see was a solitary microphone like a lost child in the middle of the room.  I realized at that moment, the people in the room did not really care about me personally; they cared about themselves, their future and what was going to happen next.  They really just wanted and needed to know that whoever walked up to that microphone and opened their mouth had their hands on the wheel and was willing to drive.  I was alone.  Fortunately I had a mentor just moments before tell me, “Alex – be strong and courageous, you can do this”

Moses tells Joshua he believes in him, he tells him to be strong and courageous in front of the entire gathering of people.  We learn from the story that Joshua was filled with wisdom when Moses transferred power to him.  Then Moses climbed the 3,300 foot Mount Nebo on the northwest edge of the Dead Sea just across the Jordan River from Jericho, looked into the future home of the tribe, and died.

At that moment Joshua is by himself.  He is the picture of leadership and loneliness.  Joshua is isolated and the only thing he can rely upon is “Inner Strength”.  He looks to that which gives him inner strength.  For Joshua it was his creator and he heard, “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people, be strong and very courageous.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged”.  Three times he heard these words, the same words he heard from Moses and this provided him “Inner Strength”

In our journey there will be moments when we are alone.  The great philosopher Dr. Seuss tells us this in his seminal work, Oh The Places You’ll Go!

All Alone!  Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.  There are some, down the road between hither and yon that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

In those moments, you will need to determine what gives you “Inner Strength”.  For me in my lonely moment, it was having the one person I needed to believe in me, believe in me.  A person who knew well the words of Thomas Carlyle, “Tell a person they are brave and you help them become so”.  For Joshua it was the belief that his creator was supporting his next steps. 

What is it for you?   Whatever it is, you must find it and have it, because you will need it.  In those moments, if you do not have “Inner Strength” you will not be prepared to lead.  You will be defined by these crucible events where the only thing that gets you and the team to move forward is your “Inner Strength”

Joshua's lessons on leadership - See the truth: but not for worse than it is

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, we dug into a lesson about obedience, when Joshua “fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered”.  In this post, we learn the importance of “See the truth: but not for worse than it is”. 

After the battle with the Amalekites, Joshua becomes Moses’ aid de camp.  Moses took him everywhere, even up the mountain when Moses got the first set of famous stone tablets.  A little over two years after the battle where Joshua showed obedience, came the event that Joshua showed the importance of “See the truth, but not for worse than it is”

Moses selects twelve men to go explore Canaan, the land that the Israelites were supposed to settle in.  These twelve men were each selected as leaders from the original twelve tribes of Israel.  Joshua was among the men.  Moses gave fairly broad instructions to the men, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.  See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.  What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they un-walled or fortified?  How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land."  Essentially these twelve leaders were sent out on a reconnaissance mission; they were spies.

The twelve men spent time gathering information about Canaan, even bringing back examples of the fruit that existed.  Moses gathered advisors to listen to the reports, "We went into the land to which you sent us, and you were right, it would be a great place for us, however, the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”  A man named Caleb, who would become a key partner of Joshua said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

Then all hell breaks loose, the rest of the men, except for Joshua start shouting over each other in the assembly meeting, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." Worse, they walked among the rest of the people telling them, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."  They created a truth that was worse than it really was.

Have you noticed there is always a group of people, when confronted with a challenge, who choose to see the worst of all the outcomes? Moreover, it is insufficient for them to be worried by themselves; they must bring people along with them.  This infection of worrying is actually easy to accomplish; worry can be more contagious than hope.  So their definition of “lead” is to get others to worry with them.  When it happens, they think they have followers.  In reality people are just following their fears not the person who speaks to the fear. 

Here is the interesting thing about worry vs. fear.  Fear we will all feel.  Fear will enter our journey often.  Worry does not have to be our companion.  Worry is fear not healed by belief.  If I believe in the team, their talents, their preparation, their effort, their sponsorship and their attitude I need not worry.  My belief in any situation can heal my fear.  So these “leaders” who were walking around the tribes were not sowing fear; they were creating worry.  This is not the job of a leader.

Dwight Eisenhower wrote to his wife from Algiers on December 30^th, 1942, “As pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his; above all to conceal doubt, fear and distrust”.  Eisenhower understood the leader's job is to heal fear through belief and not let worry take hold in the gut of the team.

What about Joshua?  Let’s look back at the rest of the story.  The night that the spies came back with their report, after worry had been sown all the people of the community raised their voices, wept and grumbled, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Our wives and children will be taken as plunder.  We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."

 Joshua and his partner Caleb, stood strong in front of the entire community and said, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone…do not be afraid of them."

There was still conflict and argument, but this moment by Joshua, where he “saw the truth, but not for worse than it is” was a turning point in the Israelites history.

Or, in the words of Napoleon, “A leader is a dealer in hope”.  Joshua was dealing hope, not worry.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Obedience

In a series of posts, I want to discuss what we can learn about leadership from Joshua ben Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, which would become known as the most militaristic of the tribes of Israel through Joshua's campaigns.  If this is the first post in the series you have read, please do a quick review of the March 30, 2009 blog titled  “Joshua's lessons on leadership - Intro”; that post highlights why I am looking into Joshua’s life.

In the last entry, we dug into the backdrop for Joshua’s leadership lessons, in this entry, I want to look the very first time we hear about Joshua, when he “fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered”.  When Joshua arrives on the scene, he teaches us an unforgettable lesson about obedience. 

The battle with the Amalekites occurred right after events that have provided idioms in almost every culture.  Have you ever heard, “like manna from heaven” or “get water from rocks”?  Well, the Israelites had just been led out of Egypt and through the parting of the Red Sea.  They were about six weeks out of Egypt and they were complaining to their leader Moses that they had nothing to eat – this is when strange bread like substance called manna started appearing every day.  Manna is cross cultural, it is also identified in three different places in the Qur'an, each mentioning the divine supply of manna as one of the miracles with which the Israelites were favored.  Then the Israelites started whining that they were thirsty and wished they had never left slavery and according to the story, Moses struck the rock at Horeb with a stick and caused water to flow from it.

It is against this backdrop that Joshua is ordered into battle.  The entire tribe is whining for food, which they are given, then whining for water, which they receive.  I can only imagine that going in to combat was not high on the list of things folks wanted to do - much whining was going on for sure.  All we know about this battle is that the Amalekites, aboriginal people of Canaan and the Sinai Peninsula that waged constant warfare against the Hebrews started it.   The Amalekites attack and in response Moses tells Joshua, “Grab some men and go attack the enemy, I will be hanging out on the hill watching you”

Joshua does it.  I am not sure I would be as obedient as Joshua.  I am not sure it was real easy to find folks in the tribe willing to go fight.  My response might have been, “What, I am going to battle and you are going up on a hill with a stick in your hand?”  But Joshua does it, and check out what happens next.  This is the narrative we have of the battle, “So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.  As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

Wow, to me that is obedience to a leader.  Joshua is down on the field of battle sweating, bleeding, suffering and he looks up and watches the ebb and flow of the battle depend upon his leader's arms rising and falling.  “I am down here swinging a sword and you are up there waving your arms?”  He has to give it all he has got, obedient to the task and dependent upon his leader’s actions.  

When you read the work ‘obedient’ over and over again, does the hair on the back of your neck stand up?  Mine does, I am not sure I want to be ‘obedient’.  Why?

“The strongest is never strong enough always to be master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French writer whose novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution.

What is Rousseau saying?  Turn obedience into duty?  Rousseau understood the very nature of humans that we take pride in duty and see it as strength of character.  Yet we scorn obedience allowing the mental image of a dog and master creep into our minds.  Obedience is the act of complying with authority.  Duty is something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation, the respectful and obedient conduct due a parent, superior, elder, etc.

Duty and Obedience are essentially the same thing; one noble and one mocked.  Why do we feel different about the two?  It is because with duty, we feel that we have had some choice in the matter and by choosing created a voluntary compact that is honorable.  Obedience on the other hand feels like it is laid over us like chains, we had no say in the matter and we are treated like slaves.

Alcibiades, Athenian commander in the 1st Peloponnesian War, said, “If force must be employed with a subordinate, take care that it be minimal.  If I command you, "Pick up that bowl," and set a sword-point at your back, you will obey but no part will own the action.  You will exculpate yourself, accounting, "He made me do it, I had no choice."  But if I only suggest and you comply, then you must own your own compliance and, owning it, stand by it.”

Obedience must be taught and learned.  But to teach it, you must first submit to it and experience it, the good type of obedience and the bad, so that you know the right way to install obedience in an organization.  Not with a sword to the back.

We see the making of a leader start with the obedience of Joshua.  Joshua showed us a key truth, how can you ask others to obey, unless you have first learned what it means to obey?