What makes a good leader? How does a leader emerge, grow, and become better at leading? Lessons in leading can be found in so many areas of life. I truly enjoy opportunities to learn about leadership in a variety of settings. Perhaps, for me, the most fruitful ways I have grown have been through observations of the lessons others can teach from their own lives.
Historic Fiction, when based on verifiable facts and events, is chief among the ways I have learned about leadership. In Killing Rommel, Steven Pressfield has taken the written account of R. Lawrence Chapman “Chap” and turned it into a masterpiece. Chap was a mentor to Pressfield. Their friendship and care for each other spanned decades and continents.
Many of the characters and all of the events described in this book are real. Chap’s journaling of the events turned into a book for us to read, helps reveal the realities of war. Chap was thrust into a leadership role, with lives on the line, even though he did not seem like he was the most experienced among the warriors. There were certain decisions made, in the heat of battle that Chap questioned for the rest of his life. In the middle of a situation where lives are on the line, these men did not have time to think about the long-term psychological effects of what they were doing.
Reading the progression in personal growth and character of Chap, conveyed in this book, shows that the trust others put in a leader is not built on the battlefield. Trust is about relationships, connections, and hard work done while training, resting, recovering, and living out lives in the daily grind. Chap intentionally stayed connected in his intimate, personal, and warrior relationships. His compassion for others…friend and foe, grew through his experiences in the desert of North Africa during WW2.
The mutual admiration and respect of warriors on opposite sides of the battle are well portrayed through the pages of this book. There are times when they are face-to-face with the enemy, even in the heat of battle, where decisions are made to save lives override all other emotions. These are clear conveyances of the dichotomy of leadership.
In the end, Chap is just a man who was trying to be what was needed for those around him. I have heard many war veterans proclaiming that a primary lesson they learned from war was love. To love others in a way far deeper than they previously understood. Maybe this is a lesson I can learn by proxy through this book…love more deeply than I thought possible. Love…not like “rainbows and roses” love which can be easily crushed. A deep abiding, protective, caring, mentoring love that happens when you are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder alongside those closest to you, to win the battles…when lives are on the line. Maybe some would call it tough love when needed. This is something that looks beyond the surface of an argument or disagreement. A love that through the mire and muck of life will reach a hand out to help through the pain and struggle.
Can I be that man? Can I share that kind of love? Can I lead and love those I intimately, familial, professionally, and/or personally care about? That is a goal for me. Lead and love, not as the superficial eyes see it, but rather with a deep care that is informed by getting below the surface of the relationships in my life and understanding the hearts and minds of those in my care.