Leadership: Influence

"THE FACTS OF THE MATTER"
"A weekly letter of encouragement to business and professional men and women"
September 17, 2008

Good Morning!
Thus far in our series of Seven Key Elements of Leadership, we have discussed vision, integrity, perseverance, courage and innovation. In our final issue we will discuss influence.

RISK-TAKING is the willingness to incur injury, damage or loss. Risk is dangerous chance. Hazard. Jeopardy. It is to go out of one’s depth. Years ago a commercial jet plunged into the Potomac River in the dead of winter. A man on the shore risked his life by diving into the icy waters to rescue people who were facing certain death.

Risk-takers of epic proportions would include Charles Lindberg, flying solo across the Atlantic (1927); Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay ascending Mt. Everest (1953), Christiaan Barnard transplanting the first heart (1967), and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (1969). None of these precedent-breakers however were reckless daredevils. In their preparation, they over-studied their subject, going to extraordinary lengths to prudently minimize the danger. But they risked in the sense that the outcome was anything but certain; risked in the sense that they pushed the walls out and forged into the unknown. General George Patton rightly stated, “Take calculated risk. That is quite difference than being rash.”

Followers of Christ act on faith, not risk in the sense that they base their decisions on the unchanging character and promises of God. Yet they risk in the sense that the outcome is not always certain. Consider: Daniel’s three friends, before being thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to the golden image of the king said, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Dan. 3:16-18). Or Queen Esther who courageously entered the king’s presence unsummoned, to petition for the lives of her people. Such an act could have meant her death. Said she, “If I perish, I perish.” (Esth. 4:16)

In the Hebrews 11 account of men and women of faith, not everyone was delivered by God from harm’s way: “Others were tortured…faced jeers and flogging…were stoned…sawed in two...” (etc., etc.) (Heb. 11:35ff) God’s expectation for his children is certainly not that they step back from the edge, but that they step out in faith and trust God for the outcome, whatever it may be: “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going...My righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him…” (Heb. 11:8; 10:38) (See Matt. 25:14-30)

Helen Keller once stated, “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all… Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage.” If you are in business, you can identify with Charles Lindberg and The Babe when they stated, “Great achievements involve great risk.” “Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first base.”

Listen to 85 year old Nadine Stair, “If I had my life to live over I'd like to make more mistakes next time…I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers…You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have…I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall...I would ride more merry-go-rounds, I would pick more daisies.”

QUESTION: As Jesus’ follower, are you willing to grow past your comfort zone, to prayerfully and prudently attempt exploits for God that demand faith, and that may result in an uncertain outcome? If not, consider the abysmal alternative: “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” (Leo Buschagila)

My prayer is that you are having a great week!
R. Dwight Hill

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