John Stanko

"Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, 'Shout! For the Lord has given you the city'" - Joshua 6:15-16.

Joshua and his army marched around Jericho 13 times, once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. As bizarre as it sounds, it was a sound (pardon the pun) strategy because the city was conquered and not a life was lost in the process. For this to work, many things had to happen. Joshua had to 'sell' it to the people. Then the people had to commit to the plan and stay together as a unit, not grumbling or second-guessing what was going on. Joshua needed everyone to be 'all in,' for they all had to shout to generate enough decibels so the wall would collapse. Finally, Joshua and the people had to have faith that God would do His part once they had obediently done theirs. When all that occurred, the strategy was effective.

LEADERSHIP WALK: Your Leadership Step today is to consider how well your strategies compare to the one Joshua deployed to take down Jericho. Are you clear about what needs to happen? Have you clearly and simply communicated that to those involved? Is everyone speaking one thing with one voice or is there division on the team? Does everyone have faith in leadership and the strategy? If not, then what changes - to personnel or strategy steps - do you need to make?