Ask Dr. E: What can leaders do to distinguish their organizations from the competition?

OPINION:

Dear Dr. E, I have recently accepted a job as the headmaster of a small private school in suburban Texas. Could you give me some leadership advice as I take on this new challenge? What do you think leaders need to do in today’s environment to distinguish their organizations from all the competition? — SINCERELY, YOUNG ADMINISTRATOR FROM THE LONE STAR STATE 

Dear Lone Star: Seeing that you’re from Texas, I can’t help but use a country western joke as the pretext for my answer. You know how the joke goes: Play a country western song backward, and what do you get? You get your dog back, your job back, your girlfriend back, and your money back. 

All joking aside, a country song released in the early 1990s has a message that gets to the heart of your question. 

Aaron Tippin’s “You’ve Got to Stand for Something” reached number six on the country western charts in 1991. The song was an anthem about being true to yourself, standing for what you believe in, and never wavering. The chorus explained that if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. Throughout the long, hot summer of 1991, this ballad became a theme song for those fighting in the Gulf War, reinforcing the need to stand for something in life and choose the things we are willing to fight for.

So, the answer to your question is another question. What do you stand for? What is it that you believe so deeply that you’ll remain standing regardless of the consequences? Another way to say it is – What convictions do you hold that you will never compromise?

I love the story of John Wesley and his strength and immovable conviction, which led him to influence not only the Church of England and Great Britain but also America and the broader church around the world. 

Wesley was a man of action, not just words. He believed in the “methods of holy living.” To paraphrase him in today’s parlance, Wesley’s message to his church and the Christian community at large was basically this: “You may still have orthodoxy, but you no longer have orthopraxy. Your behavior is inconsistent with what you say you believe.”

Wesley condemned the hypocrisy of separating head from heart, fact from faith, and belief from behavior. He called the church to obedience. Wesley believed in practicing what you preach, and on this priority, he was willing to stand in the face of countless adversaries and shout the words of Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.”

Wesley knew the church would only succeed if it dared to stand for what mattered. He knew leaders must run into the storm and not away from it. Wesley waved the banner of scriptural truth and had confidence that if he won, waving that banner was God’s grace, but if he lost, it was still the right banner to wave. He knew the battle was paramount, and we must be willing to go down fighting. Selling his soul for the sake of society’s approval was of no interest to him. Wesley understood that if he became nothing but a pale copy of the world around him, then no one would want to buy what he was selling.

John Wesley understood that our compromise always leads to our demise. If we don’t stand unmoved and resolute for what matters most, we will be “thrown out and trampled underfoot” by a culture that laughs at our irrelevance. We are supposed to preserve our neighbors and our nation, not take part in their rot. We are supposed to shine a light on evil, not have a conversation about it. We are supposed to confront sin, not capitulate to it. 

From his own experience, Wesley understood that compromise never leads to salvation. He knew only too well that a true leader never bends the knee to the raging mob. He knew, as Winston Churchill would famously say some 150 years later, that the only way to inspire confidence is to “never give in; never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give.” Wesley understood that recanting didn’t save Cranmer from the fire and that, in the end, he still burned. 

My simple advice as you take on this new leadership role is this: Decide right now what you stand for. Then raise your flag high and let everyone know! Tell anyone who will listen that you will never give up. March forward with determination. Never compromise what matters most. When others are in flight, show everyone that you are willing to fight, and you will be surprised to turn around and see how many people are following you. 

Here’s another John Wesley quote that, although likely spurious, is perhaps the best answer to your question: “Set yourself afire, and people will come from miles around just to watch you burn.” 

If you are seeking guidance in today’s changing world, Higher Ground is there for you. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, takes your questions in his weekly ’Ask Dr. E’ column. If you have moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com and he may include it in a future column.