Joshua's lessons on leadership - Leaders Protect the Truth

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 need to remember “Leaders Eat Last”.  In this post, Joshua reminds us “Leaders Protect the Truth”.

I want to use a mechanism created under Joshua’s rule as a proxy for the level to which we need to seek out and protect the truth in the organizations we lead.  The back-story for this analogy is the concept of the Cities of Refuge.

In the Israelite society Joshua led, there was no police force to investigate crimes. If someone was killed, it was the moral responsibility of the family member who was closest to the victim to investigate and avenge the murder.  This person became the avenger of blood – the kinsman redeemer.

However, a human redeemer’s subjectivity, passion, and anger at the loss of their family member just might cloud their judgment.  They might end up avenging the death by killing someone who wasn't guilty of a capital crime.

Joshua, as the leader of his people had to set up a system to protect the innocent and provide time to sort out the truth of a situation.  The system was ‘Cities of Refuge’.  What we know from tradition is that any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.

Here are some interesting facts about these Cities of Refuge:

• They were strategically located so there would be easy access to them for anybody seeking refuge.
• Highways were built to increase the ability for someone to get to these cities of refuge.
• These highways were maintained so that nobody was ever hindered in getting to these cities.
• Bridges were built across every ravine, so that the person running for refuge wouldn't have to waste time climbing to the bottom of the ravine and then up the other side.
• The highways were rebuilt every spring after the heavy winter rains so that the road surface would be smooth and easy to run on.
• At every crossroads or intersection on these highways, there were big, bold signs pointing the way with the word ‘Refuge’ in large letters.
• The gates of the cities of refuge were never locked.
• The city was well stocked to provide for any fugitives who came to stay for however long they might need to be there.
• The cities were designated for all the people of Israel, including the stranger.
• The same justice, the same protection and provision, were free to all.

How effectively are you setting up ‘Cities of Refuge’ in the organization you lead or are a part of?  Are you building and maintaining roads for the truth to get to you?  Are you building bridges?  Are there signposts in your organization with ‘Truth’ in large letters?  Are all people able to bring the truth or just a selected few of your favorites? Do you do anything unconsciously that locks out the truth?

I know people are not getting physically killed on our teams.  Yet conflict occurs all the time.  An error happens.  A mistake is made.  A deal is lost.  A customer gets mad.  A decision costs the organization time and money.  Then people start defending and justifying.  This sets off acts of accusation and retribution that get increasingly personal.  These acts disintegrate into permanently scarred team members, colleagues who become incapable of trusting each other.  Nine times out of ten, the event was less egregious and purposeful than assumed.  There is an innocent person involved that needs refuge.  There is a truth that needs to be protected.  When your folks see you reliably seek out the truth of a situation by taking the time to discover and understand all perspectives they will stop making personal accusations and trust will reign.

Look back at the effort that was necessary to insure safe passage of a person to a City of Refuge.  You and I must take a page from Joshua’s book and go through the same level of effort as Joshua creating routes for the truth to get to us, protecting, defending and highlighting those routes. 

Winston Churchill said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”  We have to give the truth a chance to get its pants on and pass all the fiction that gets created.  Or as it is written on the main tower of my alma mater, The University of Texas “Ye Shall Know the Truth, And the Truth Shall Make You Free.”

You are the guardian of the truth.  Leaders Protect the Truth.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Leaders Eat Last

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 reality that “Results Matter”.  In this post, Joshua reminds us “Leaders Eat Last”.

The setting for this lesson comes after Joshua has led Israel through many victories.  Tradition has it that he is close to 100 years old when he completes the battles that returned a people group to a land they had left 400 years earlier.  By this time Joshua had rolled up a pretty good record, 31& 0, decent results for a wandering people who had just crossed the Jordan.  Although Joshua did not obtain a total victory over the territory (he did not defeat the Philistines and others inhabiting the seacoast, and he did not capture the northern lands between Mt. Hermon and the Euphrates River, which would not be totally captured for another 300 years) he completed enough to shift from warrior to administrator.

After the victories, Joshua led an effort to divide the land between the various tribes that had wandered with Moses and fought with Joshua.  We read that, “Joshua took the entire land and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war”.  It is in the act of dividing the land that Joshua sets an expectation of leadership.  After all of the land had been divided, we find out that “when they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance.  They gave him the town he asked for - Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there”.

Let me get this straight; Joshua leads an army in a multi-year battle with 31 different kings, gives all the land away and then merely asks for a city to live in?  Was Joshua a Marine?  Forgive a little literary license.  I know Joshua was not a Marine, but I can see the Marine code in the way that Joshua led.  The code includes, in order: 

1. Accomplish the mission
2. Look after the welfare of your people
3. Look after your own needs 

With this code in mind, Marines take care of Marines first. This is where one of the more well known aspects of the Marines gets its’ origin…when Marines eat, the lowest ranking eat first, the highest ranking eat last.  It is an action observable by all, which occurs each day and is a visible sign of the culture of the organization. 

I just finished reading a book I highly recommend called “The Unforgiving Minute” by Craig Mullaney.  Craig grew up in a blue-collar, Irish-Catholic family and went to the U.S. Military Academy.  He graduated West Point in 2000 and was commissioned in the United States Army. After completing Ranger School, Craig continued to the University of Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. In 2003, Craig led an infantry rifle platoon along the hostile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the 10th Mountain Division as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Here is what General David Petraeus said about Craig’s book, “The Unforgiving Minute is a wonderful, beautifully written story of the education and development of a young soldier-scholar, the coming of age of an infantry officer, and the exercise of a small unit leader's responsibilities in a tough, complex, and frustrating situation in Afghanistan. It captures particularly eloquently and movingly the relationships among those who walk point for our nation as part of that most elite of fraternities, the brotherhood of the close fight.” 

What does the Unforgiving Minute have to do with Joshua?  During Ranger training Craig writes, “There is a chain of command, but there also is a chain of influence…I had to lead by example.  If I wanted them to march faster, I had to march twice as fast with a smile on my face.  If I wanted them to extend their threshold of pain, I had to push myself even harder and under no circumstance could I afford to whine.  The only way to gain my squad’s loyalty was to show loyalty to them.  I served them, not the other way around.” 

At one point Craig is standing on Omaha beach in Normandy with a Lieutenant Colonel who is a combat veteran and a Ranger.  Craig asks the Colonel, “How do you know you’ll handle combat?”  The Colonel replies, “You don’t, you’ll never know until you are there.  What you will know for certain is that it will be chaotic and loud, and you’ll be ready to piss in your own boots.  You’ll be more scared of letting your men down than anything the enemy is going to do to you.  And then you’ll lead from instinct and judgment.  That is the price of a salute” 

The price of a salute.  Leaders are human, there is a tendency at least for me to say in my mind, “I have done this for 25 years, I deserve a little (fill in the blank – glory, luxury, rest, stuff, nice hotel room, bigger seat on the airplane).”  Basically saying, “What are the rewards of a salute?”  Joshua divides the land and gives it away first.  He gets his inheritance after the people he has led.  Joshua reminds us to eat last.  To show others through action the level at which you care about their welfare. To serve and not to take.  To wake up in the morning and think,"What will I do for my team today?" not "What will my team do for me today?"

The price of a salute? Eat last.

Joshua's lessons on leadership - Results Matter

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 30 March, 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 “Inner Strength”.  In this post, Joshua shows us “Results Matter”.

Winston Churchill said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”  Results matter and for the leader, the ability to demonstrate results is a force multiplier.  People trust a leader that gets it done.  Joshua illuminates this principal during one of the more famous stories in his life - the Battle at Jericho.

Ancient Jericho is located at Tell es-Sultan, next to an abundant spring on the western edge of the Jordan Valley, just north of the Dead Sea. The site’s water supply and climate have made it a desirable place to live from the very beginning of settled habitation. A Neolithic settlement at the site goes back to about 8000 BC, making Jericho the world’s oldest city.

The site is strategically located. From Jericho you have access to the heartland of Canaan.  Any military force attempting to penetrate the central hill country from the east would first have to capture Jericho.  Therefore, Joshua must conquer and hold Jericho for the tribes of Israel to move into their new home. 

Joshua comes into the battle with a great track record.  Recall from the post on 13 April that he lead an important victory early in his career.  Then he was picked by the legendary leader of the tribes to bring the wandering population into their new homes.  He had also just led important victories against the King of Heshbon and the King of Bashan; these two cities lay just east of the Jordan river and their capture allowed the tribes to have a protected launching point for crossing into their desired homeland. Finally, right before the battle, he led the people to cross the Jordan River during a time of year when it should have been at flood stage, yet all got across safely. 

Joshua would need this track record because he asked his army to do something unexpected.  Joshua had in inspiration of how the Battle of Jericho would be fought.  “We will march around the city once with all the armed men and do this for six days.  Then on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."

Let me put this in perspective.  The Siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade from October 21, 1097, to June 2, 1098.  During those eight months battle engines were created, raised up against the walls and destroyed, hundreds of sorties were attempted; the crusaders were under continuous surprise attack.  In the winter months, they ran out of food and ate bark, drank the blood of their animals, suffered disease and famine.  In general, a siege of a walled city was really hard work and it lasted a long time with intense suffering on both the besieged and the attackers.

So I can only imagine the reaction of Joshua’s generals when he laid out his plan, “Guys, you will not have to fight and the siege will only last seven days – seriously”.  The generals look at Joshua and then look up at the walls of Jericho.

An earthen barricade surrounded Jericho with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was 12–15 feet high. On top of that was a wall six feet thick and about 20–26 feet high. At the crest of the barricade was a similar wall whose base was roughly 46 feet above the ground level outside the retaining wall. This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the impregnable stronghold of Jericho.

They looked back at Joshua, “Seriously guys, I am just saying that if we do this and then blow a horn and shout the walls will come down”.  Without a track record of results, I imagine Joshua’s generals looking at each other and raising their eyebrows.  Maybe one or two who are complete sycophants say, “Yes!! That is a great plan”.  Then the rest grumble to each other, “OK, the river is one thing, but shout at the walls and they fall down?  Let’s humor poor Joshua for seven days and then we can build our real siege plan”

Yet, the army followed his command; they were following a man who had delivered increasingly difficult results.  For six days marching and not attacking or even threatening the city probably lulled the defenders.  A change in pattern on the seventh day should have alerted the defenders. The silent marchers appeared as before, but this time marched around the city seven times. This completed, they turned toward the walls and the priests leading the column each blew a ram's horn and the multitude shouted. At this, the walls fell.   This created an easy slope up the earthen embankment between the inner and outer city walls, allowing the army easy access to an impenetrable city.  No description is given of resistance, only of results, “every man charged straight in, and they took the city and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it”

Joshua had an inspiration and asked his army to follow.  Without a track record of results would they have followed the plan he outlined?  Maybe or maybe not.  However it was far easier for them to follow with confidence and energy knowing their leader usually got it done.  Results matter - not just for the mission today, but also for the mission tomorrow.