Positional Leadership

Episode 16:  The Ringbanger

Hawkeye:    We got us a real “ring banger” here.

Trapper:   A “what banger”?

Hawkeye:   Didn’t you see the way he kept banging his ring on 

           the chair?

Trapper:   Yeah.

Hawkeye:   A little reminder that he’s a quarterback and we’re 

           just the water boys.

Trapper:   I got a feeling he wouldn’t be so tall if he weren’t 

           standing on so many bodies.

An over zealous colonel comes to camp injured, exerting his authority and eagerness to return to the front line to kill more of the enemy.  Hawkeye and Trapper try and prevent him from returning to battle by convincing him he was suffering from ‘battle fatigue.’

There are many different styles of leadership; from task-oriented to people-focused, bureaucratic to servant, autocratic to participative, and many others in-between.  Regardless of the style or situation, it is commonly agreed that leadership is more about influence than position.  Position asserts the rights of a leader, whereas influence accents the responsibilities of a leader.  Position is self driven, influence is others driven. Position exerts power over others, influence empowers others. While positional leadership is a reality in most organizations, leaders have a choice about how they use their position.  In his book, The 360 Degree Leader, John Maxwell, who teaches that “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less,” defines the relationship between position and influence by stating, “Influencing others is a matter of disposition, not position.”

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Episode 14:  Love Story

Hawkeye:   Without love, what are we worth? 89 cents. 89 cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.

Henry:      That means my marriage is only worth $1.78?

Radar receives a “Dear John” recording from his fiancé causing him to slip into a state of depression, until a new nurse arrives at camp who captures his attention.  While Hawkeye and Trapper try to help Radar win her heart, Margaret tries to force Henry to break them up.

Tina Turner once asked, “What’s love got to do with it?”  Love is a fundamental quality that is foundational to all human relationships and an essential characteristic of leadership. Leadership expert John Maxwell identifies relationships as key to effectively leading people and asserts that “you can’t lead them if you don’t love them.”  In leadership, love cannot be written off as a secondary emotion when you are dealing with real people, with real feelings.  Love is a holistic expression of our humanity that enables us to value the people we lead beyond the purpose they fulfil.  Jesus identified love as the greatest commandment and manifested love in all it’s fullness by laying down his life for the salvation of humankind.  His sacrificial love provides us with a model of leadership that will radically impact the lives we lead and the world in which we live.