Hardball Leadership

When I was in my first pastorate, there were a lot of things to learn and many pitfalls to avoid. The Book of Proverbs, of course, was my #1 leadership manual. In addition, other chapters of Scripture on shepherding the sheep—an unfailing metaphor—helped immensely.

Oddly enough, in those years, I also ran across two popular books that taught some lessons which I’ve seldom seen in typical pastoral training classes. While far short of infallible Scripture, these two books contained aphorisms that made sense, especially if you’re ever in a rough-and-tumble church.

The first of those unusual sources was The Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts. In this creative approach to management, the author used the ultimate bad guy, Attila the Hun (who supposedly was persuaded not to sack Rome by Pope Leo I), as a guide to realpolitik, whether in business or a public office. These chapters were supposedly the campfire talks of the Vandal leader as he mentored the next generation

After a little historical background, Roberts takes us back to the Dark Ages to learn how to Make Goths Great Again. Dying in the mid-fifth century, Atilla was a powerful ruler of Eastern and Central Europe, who came out of nowhere and was close to taking over the world.

Among his colorful lessons were the following: How to keep morale and discipline up, the role of customs, and how to curtail internal divisions among the warriors. In proto-Trumpian fashion, Atilla told his young warriors that they needed a “Lust for Leadership: You’ve got to Want to be in Charge.” While that may not sound like today’s sweety-pie servant leadership, it is more often true than not.

One time in my early years, I was shaving before heading off to a large assembly. For some reason—go figure—I had ticked off quite a few of the founding fathers of the group. I comforted myself with Atilla’s aphorism borrowed from Aetius: to “choose your enemies wisely.” In a real world, if one has to have opposition, why not do a little of the enemy-picking for oneself?

Atilla was also an early advocate of “Dress for Success,” when he spoke of the value of armaments, saying: “Chieftains Are as They Appear to Their Huns.” Huns are also taught early on to pay and receive deference. This is a responsibility-based culture, in which one of the essentials is decisiveness. Atilla also valued “the art of delegation,” or “horse holders” as he called them.

There is, yes, a chapter on Atilla and the Pope that teaches “the art of negotiation.” It is also important to survive defeat and live to fight another day. This book that makes leadership fun concludes with choice summaries of Hun-thought or “Atillaisms.”

If you can find an old copy, snap it up, and enjoy. Even the barbarians can teach a few lessons.

The other leadership book that shaped me during the 1990s was Hardball Politics by Chris Matthews. Make no mistake, TV host Matthews is a modern barbarian to the right wing. He grew up in Boston and was a top aide and speechwriter to Tip O’Neil in the 1980s. Matthews has been an outspoken critic of the Right in general and Republicans in particular. Still, he was one of the earliest crossover talents, who went from being a House speechwriter-aide to having his own show: Hardball.

He divides his book into four parts: (1) Alliances; (2) Enemies; (3) Deals; and (4) Reputations. Among his proverbs, he reports that “It’s Not Who You Know; It’s Who You Get to know.” He borrows from Speaker O’Neill who made famous: “All Politics is Local.” Turning an old Southern phrase, he stresses loyalty in “Dance with the One that Brung Ya,” an all-too forgotten maxim.

He advises to “Keep your enemies in front of you.” And one of his slogans that I’ve used over most others is an improvement on “Don’t get mad; Get even.” Matthews goes a step forward with “Don’t get mad; Don’t Get even; Get Ahead.” That is actually helpful in many ecclesiastical situations, and he ends Part 2 with “Leave No Shot Unanswered.” While Jesus calls us to turn the other cheek, in a world of depravity, if the good guys don’t respond, they get creamed.

A great tip for young pastors is “Only Talk When It Improves the Silence.”

Even if not quite in Atilla’s league for barbarism, the Machiavellian Matthews calls for nonstop “spin”—he practically invented it—and wrote that the Press is always the enemy. He also presaged some of the political parries of today by calling for politicians, once discovered with a weakness or scandal to “Hang a Lantern on Your Problem.”

So can a fine, young pastor learn any leadership lessons from these mongrels, Goths, and hardballers? You bet: learn them the hard way or the easy way.