As I write this article, we are 24 hours into the newest democracy in the world. Millions of votes have been cast with an estimated 60% turn-out in Iraq’s first election for 60 years.

The violence on the day did not reach the feared levels, though the journey to democracy has indeed been a truly bloody one. Our hopes must be for a positive ending. Although these last couple of years have been filled with largely bleak stories, I recently heard a story from Iraq that was most inspiring and a real challenge for those of us in leadership.¹

CNN captured the live scenes of this remarkable incident. A group of young US marines were patrolling in the city of Najaf during the early days of the Iraq war. All of a sudden, hundreds of Iraqis ran out from the buildings on either side of the street and began to press in on the soldiers (and the camera man) in a very intimidating manner. At the top of their voices, they were shouting, screaming and bellowing their angst and anger at the foreign troops being on their native soil. At any moment it seemed a shot would ring out from the crowd triggering a return of fire from the under-pressure soldiers.

Unexpectedly, one of the officers stepped through the crowd with his rifle held high above his head, with the gun barrel pointing to the ground. The crowd, though still aggressive, began to look quizzically at the gesture and then were obviously quite shocked by what followed. The officer bellowed above the noise of the crowd to the soldiers to ‘take a knee’. The camera showed the confusion of the face of the young soldiers which was a mixture of fear and incredulity. But, one by one, in the midst of this seething mass of humanity that appeared bent on nothing other than attack, each of the soldiers did likewise with their rifles and knelt in front of the crowd. At this point, the protestors fell silent, their anger subdued and a few moments later the same officer ordered his men to stand and withdraw from the area without a shot being fired.

What a powerful image of leadership. What amazing creativity that was found in the heat of the moment! What a fantastic model of a leader who had the grace and the courage to embrace humility on his knees and thus avoid a catastrophic escalation.

This story has much to teach us. This was no ‘by the book’ military protocol, nor was it the expected response by either the crowd or the soldiers. Rather, it was the behaviour of a leader who took a big-picture view and was able to dig deep within himself to find the resources necessary to make a very risky and challenging call.

Too often, those of us who spend our lives coaching and working with leaders, find very different examples. We meet leaders who are so bound up in a culture of compliance and bureaucracy that they could never possibly think outside of the box and come up with such a creative response. This limits an organisation’s possibilities and often ends up damaging or frustrating team members. We often find leaders whose arrogant sense of self import and deep seated insecurity means that they can never ‘kneel’ before adversaries, direct reports, peers or anybody. They find themselves with the only choice to walk the predictable path to greater escalation and confrontation.

We often work with leaders who, deep down, know what they should do but lack the moral fibre and courage to take a risk; do something different and put their own neck on the line for the sake of their cause or for those they lead.

No doubt, some cynics would say that the US Officer acted out of fear and made a submissive and panicked response. Others would say that he was unaware of the power at his disposal through the barrel of the automatic weapon in his hands and others he could call on. This was a man, they would say, who didn’t properly know how to use the power that was his. However, the end of the story tells us something different.

The author of the article in the New Yorker, Dan Baum, spent two months tracking down this officer, a Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Hughes, who by this time was back in America. In conversation with him, it became apparent that Hughes had deliberately ignored the protocol of firing warning shots in the air when under such imminent threat. Hughes’ explanation reveals the kind of man and leader he actually is: ‘The problem with the protocol is, the next thing you have to do is shoot them in the chest’.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes, we salute your wisdom and creativity. We are inspired by your grace and humility. We hope that in some of the challenges we face we would have the courage to lead on our knees.

Phil Wall
CEO

¹ Story from ‘The New Yorker’ Jan 17th 2005, ‘Battle Lessons – What the generals don’t know’ by Dan Baum.