Why is it that some people seem to have success at everything they touch, while others never seem to quite reach the pinnacle of their journey? No, before you even speak what you were thinking, the answer is not, some people are lucky, while others are not. The simple answer is commitment. Commitment is the attitude and behavior of sticking with something until you achieve the goal you set out to achieve.
Let us consider the chicken and the pig. To produce an egg and bacon breakfast, which is more committed? The chicken is required to give an egg to the meal—he contributed. The pig is required to give his life—he sacrificed. That is the difference between the leader during a crisis and everyone else. Many consider themselves leaders, but it is the one who is not just willing to contribute or offer a possible solution, but who actually does stand in the middle of the crisis while remaining committed to and sacrificing for the vision. The chicken contributes one egg and moves on. The pig however is all in. The pig realizes that without him, there is no breakfast.
You must develop the mindset of the pig, as your organization enters the crisis. There is a story in the Bible where Jesus and his team are on a ship traveling to the other side of the sea. During the journey, they encountered a storm that threatened to destroy the ship and cause them all to perish. When the team went to Jesus for the answer to what they should do, he asked them why they lacked faith in the process. As a leader in the middle of a crisis, you must do two things. First, you must commit to your vision. Then you must commit to the process. The vision is not the reality of where you are today. It is the picture of what you look like once the vision is matured. During the process you will engage in a series of events and situations that move you toward the vision you see, as long as you continue to move toward the vision.
When I was in middle school, living in Germany, I knew that I would graduate from college and become an Air Force officer. No one in my family had been an officer in the military. My father was enlisted in the Army and with 8 kids, my parents were not going to pay for me to go to college. There was no roadmap in the family for getting to college or becoming an officer. But I knew that I was going to college and was going to be an officer. I didn’t apply for any scholarships until I was in college and the only thing my dad and I knew about being an officer was what we learned while I was in JROTC in high school. My grades were good enough to get into a state university and I ended my first semester in college on academic probation with a 1.9 GPA. The only thing I had working for me was that I saw myself as an officer in the Air Force. My academic counselor said I would be disenrolled from school if I didn’t pass all of my classes and get my GPA up to a 2.0. My parents’ answer to my situation was, if you get kicked out of school, you can enlist, but you can’t come back home. My ROTC instructors said, I would not be able to remain in the program, if I didn’t get my grades up and I didn’t qualify for a scholarship. They said if, I worked hard enough the next year and a half to get my grades up, I might be able to get a scholarship. I looked at the crisis that I created and at my vision and said I’m going to achieve this vision. I found a job that allowed me to study while at work and focused all of my efforts on correcting my course and staying true to the process.
The second commitment you must make is dying to the process. That requires you to sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed and embracing things that others consider abnormal or impossible. The process is how you get to your what. You must remain committed to the process even if you are the only person dedicated to it. I had to walk over a mile most mornings to catch the bus to my school which was 20-30 mins away to make it to class at 8:00 a.m. and walk from the bus to my job and do my assignments in between job tasks before walking home when I couldn’t get a ride. I followed this process for the entire spring semester of my freshman year and the fall of my sophomore year. At the end of my sophomore year my grades had recovered, and I earned a state ROTC scholarship. In 1987, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
I achieved this vision because I remained committed to the vision and the process. That’s not to say, I did this by myself. Many people were on Team George, but they were only as committed as they saw me. In your leadership journey, you are guaranteed to experience crises. Your team will always look to you for answers. Their faith in the vision and the process will only be as strong and committed as yours. Jesus said, “We’re going to the other side”. He defeated a storm and raging seas to convince his team that they would get there. I saw my future as an Air Force officer and had to create the trail for my family to see and follow. I was first. Now I have a son, a niece and a nephew who are officers in the Air Force and Army.
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