Where Have All The Leaders Gone? ...shaking things up

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Where Have All The Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca.
Lee Iacocca made history when he persuaded congress to support American Free Enterprise by bailing out Chrysler. His abilities of influence and business ingenuity are unquestionable. In Where Have All The Leaders Gone?, Iacocca shows a lot of his business leadership toughness.

When things aren't right you don't stay the course, he proclaims. He covers many issues that need dwelt with in the United States that aren't being dwelt with. Iacocca challenges what Leadership should be. Here's his take on qualities of leadership.

Iacocca's "nine Cs of Leadership" which he also uses as a gauge to test the strengths and weaknesses of the leaders we have now.

Curiosity
You need to be curious, listen to people and consider what all people are saying... not just your inner circle. Great leaders are voracious readers and consider many ideas. They are constantly exploring new information and its potential merit.

Creative
Go out on the limb, try something different and think outside the box. Leadership is about managing change. Things change and you got to be creative.

Communicate
Face reality and tell the truth. Don't always be selling something to convince others, but let people know the reality of what it is. Tell the truth even if it is painful.

Character
Know the difference between right and wrong. Have the guts to do the right thing. "If you want to test a man's character, give him power," said Abraham Lincoln.

Courage
Courage is not posturing and bravado. It's courage to sit down at the table and talk. Courage takes a position even when it can cost you.

Conviction
A fire in your belly, having passion wanting to really get something done... that's conviction. Do you vote yourself a raise when you have done nothing for it? That's not leadership.

Charisma
It's the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. It's following a leader because you trust him.

Competent
You got to know what you're doing and surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. A leader is a problem solver, who is good at it.

Common Sense
In Iacocca's early career his regional manager once told him,"The only thing you got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense."

"Here's what management is about:
Pick good people and set right priorities. It's that simple."
Iacocca speaks his voice about the way our country works now and what he sees as solutions. He takes time to compare his leadership principles to today's political candidates.The way to solve problems and differences is to sit down and talk about them... not be reclusive with your own little group and yell put downs to those who see it differently.

Pay for performance is missing in top-level pay. Stacking your deck by just having hand picked board members around you is another problem. What's missing in leadership... they should be asking the hard questions, making others accountable, instead of having directors selling the CEO's ideas for him and not representing the stockholders.

Innovation can be much more important than size. Big companies get sluggish. It takes constant infusion of ideas and leadership to prevent that.

Leadership to Rebuild (Iacocca's signature ability)
Create a sense of urgency. It takes everyone. Communication is the lubricant that makes things run.
Assemble a team. The quality of the team will make or break you... top talent in key positions.
Share the sacrifice. You must demonstrate equality of sacrifice. Iacocca when rebuilding Chrysler, asked everyone to pitch in and help. He took a salary of $1 (was paid based on stock performance).
Simplify! Make your products simple and distinctive enough so others see their value and distinguishing differences. You can have too many models.
Shuck the losers. What you poured tons of money in, you may have to give up. If it's not right (when it may have been at one time) shuck it.
Follow the market. Who are they. What will suit them. Build what they want.
Lighten up. The gas prices are dictating for smaller cars. Detroit is slow on hybrid development. If we don't come up with some real creativity here, Toyota and Honda will take this market.
Lock the big three in a room... companies, the union, and the government. There must be across-the-board collaboration to make this comeback work.

Changes are needed in America. Iacocca takes a look at what he sees as major areas... the war, oil, free trade, cars, the middle class, blame game and no one taking responsible to change it. We are too fat for our own good. All must sacrifice to save and rebuild America. We are lagging on math and science skills.The countries of South Korea, Japan, Singapore own this scholarship.

Teachers should be more valued in America, and developed more. They have too many other things distracting them from the teaching skill.

Be a reader. We all need to grow, begin learning more by reading more. It is an informational based world. Stay reading to keep up. It takes brain power by many to lead well. It takes reading a lot to fuel our brain power.

In summary, Iacocca identifies three skills. "You need someone to teach you how to walk and talk and be one. You need a mentor." Iacocca's mentor taught him...
Optimism. No matter how bad things get find the silver lining.
"I never knew the meaning of the word impossible."
Common Sense. Good ideas are also common sense ideas. This is the test of great ideas.
Discipline. Got an idea, put it in writing. His motto is "put it in writing, put it in writing."

Love and courage. Women are the best teachers of this. Now get off the golf course, do something. Give back what you've gained and know-how to rebuild what can be so much greater. All hands on deck are needed now.

Iacocca is calling for re-building America. We need to shake a few things up, straighten a few things up. "It's a mess," he says. But he says we all need to sacrifice to do this. We need courage, optimism and to be disciplined in our actions... we can do it.

The Spirit of this is faith, hope, courage and love. As God told Haggai, we need to walk in His courage:

"Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! 4 But now the Lord says: Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak,the high priest. Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 5 My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid."
(Haggai 2: 3-5, NLT)

The Temple of God is in ruins. The Temple is the Body of Christ Today and our Spiritual Relationship as One in Spirit. As A. W. Tozer points out in The Pursuit of God, we have left out the important parts of Spirit in our lives and hold on to things. We worship the gifts God gives us more than Him and the Sacred nature of His Spirit in us (personally and as a group). His temple is in ruins because we are focusing, desiring Him for the wrong things. So He will shake things up until we come around.

"Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? 5 This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: Look at what's happening to you! 6 You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!"
(Haggai 1: 4-6, NLT)

We have left His House, the Temple, as the Scriptures point out we are His Temple, in ruins. We seek the good life of this world and not the Profound life of inner Spirit of God who desires to walk with us like Adam originally. And He sent Jesus to reinstate that blessing, the greatest blessing we can have.

Look at our society... we are rich but feel so dissatisfied with our lives, have a high depression level as a country. We are wealthy but think we have so little. We never seem to get satisfaction from anything we do. And we spend more than we make, regardless how much we make. It has been reported that many making over $100,000 a year live paycheck to paycheck. We just can't get enough and spend more.

The whole time our Temple is going into ruins as
we run after the "things" around us (as Tozer points out)
and not the inner Presence of God's Spirit in us.

Iacocca says it will take a major shake up... God through Haggai said that too...
"For this is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says theLord of Heaven's Armies. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 9 The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the L ord of Heaven's Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of Heaven's Armies, have spoken!"
(Haggai 2: 6-9, NLT)

The good news is after the shaking we can expect something so much better. Tozer continues to note that Abraham was asked to give up Isaac. But why? He worshiped his son more than God. He worshipped the blessing more than God who blessed him. So God again tested Abraham. He asked him to give up his son. Abrabram who had unmovable faith in God, trusted God, even in bringing Isaac back to life if needed. But what happened after He gave up all on earth for all of God... God fulfilled His promise with Abraham and made him father of many nations. Abraham still had all the cattle and land, but it was not his prize possession. Having the Spirit of God was his Prize possession.

God wants this of us too.
We don't sacrifice and give up what is not important. Building the Temple of God in us and Us as a group is what is important. These other things are there but we don't worship them, we may still have them, and God may give us many more. What we fear losing, we won't. When our heart's change in what we love and are connected to, we have the Spirit that guides us in the walk in Spirit.

With Him, with courage, we do what is right, because he guides the circumstance; faith walks with us and we love freely all around us. His peace permeates our whole being and we live genuinely fulfilled in true Righteousness. "I am with you, says the Lord!"

"So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God's people.They began to work on the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven's Armies."
(Haggai 1:13,14, NLT)

Here's our mission as business people. We are to get on to rebuilding the Temple. It's exciting and noteworthy. It's possible because The Spirit of God is with us. He is calling us to make it right again, for His Spirit and all His Glory to inhabit it.

That's us. That's our businesses. That's our homes. This is the Temple God is calling out for His Glory. Give up your stuff and the not so important things we hold on to... for His Glory. His Spirit wants to inhabit us gloriously, like never before. Get on to the work of Building the Kingdom of God in the Marketplace.

Jesus is with us... and it will be Done !