One of My Heroes.

Major Richard Winters from the HBO series Band of Brothers is one of my heroes. His leadership and inspiration of his men as told in both the TV series and the book by Stephen Ambrose has influenced me in my own view of leadership and ministry.

There is a scene in the TV series that takes place just before the men boarded the planes that would take them across the English Chanel and to Normandy, Winters is depicted helping each individual trooper in his stick to his feet. I don't know if that was fictional or not but it illustrates the attitude with which he approached his position and the men under his command.

Richard Winters said this about leadership in an August 2004 interview:

"The qualities you are looking for in a leader include: Does the individual have the respect of the men? How do you get the respect of the men? By living with them, being a part of it, being able to understand what they are going through and not to separate yourself from them. You have to know your men. You have to gain their confidence. And the way to gain the confidence of anybody, whether it's in war or civilian life or whatever, you must be honest. Be honest, be fair and be consistent. You can't be honest and fair one day, and the next give your people the short end of the stick. Once you can achieve that, you will be a leader.

It's a matter of adjusting to the individual, and you do this every day. You don't have just one way of treating people; you adjust yourself to who you are talking to. I might talk to one person one way, someone else another. Ambrose had spent a good deal of time thinking about leaders and leadership. He had it about right. If you have character, that means the guy you are dealing with can trust you. So when you get into combat, and you get in a situation such as we were in along the dike in Holland, when I gave the orders, "Ready, aim," and this cook who had been in the unit only a short time but was experiencing his first combat action interrupted and said, "Don't talk so loud!" nobody else there was thinking about anything except what he had been told to do. They trust in you, have faith in you and they obey right now, no questions asked."

In my mind this speaks to a fundamental Christian Doctrine. We are all bearers of the image of God. Winters speaks of respect and character and confidence. These are all characteristics of one who has in mind the idea that those we lead are created in the image of God. Whether we are leading volunteer Youth workers, our employees, or whether we are leading someone to faith in Christ. One must lead with respect for the other as a creature made in the image of God.