The Art of Leadership By Dag Heward-Mills
The British Army teaches how “concentration of forces involves the decisive, synchronised application of superior fighting power to realise intended effects.” The Russian Armed Forces simply describes this as the decisive concentration of the essential force at the needed moment and in the most important direction to achieve the main mission.
A good leader leads his people the way a good general leads an army! When a leader faces an intractable enemy, he does not give up hope. When a good leader faces a wicked enemy, he concentrates his forces and overcomes the enemy!
…THIS ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Philippians 3:13
Concentrating on church growth can make your church grow into a mega church. Most pastors do not concentrate on conquering the mystery of church growth.
Concentrating on ministry as a job can lead to it becoming something great and important for you. Concentrating on the ministry as a career can bring you into full-time ministry. This is the principle of concentration!
The principle of concentration can be applied in many spheres of life. Concentrating your love on one person can give you a life-long relationship of happiness.
Concentrating your forces on your marital problems and applying all efforts can make your marriage work out and help you avoid a divorce.
D-Day and the Concentration of Forces
To overcome a strong enemy, you will have to concentrate your forces on a single target until it is well and truly overcome. This is exactly what the British and Americans did to remove the German tyrant, Adolf Hitler. They concentrated all their forces on one purpose: to enter the mainland of Europe and get to Germany with enough military force to remove Hitler from his place of power.
Hitler was no ordinary enemy. He had an iron grip on the European nations because he had spent many years building up the German army. The only way to remove the strong man from Europe was to concentrate all forces on that objective. This is what led to what is known as ‘D-day’. D-day was the day that all the enemies of Germany concentrated their efforts at crossing the sea and placing a huge army in France that could march into Germany.
You know that it is not easy to swim across the sea. Neither is it a small feat to have a boat that can take a hundred people across the sea. So imagine the number of boats and ships that are needed to carry thousands and thousands of soldiers across the sea.
These soldiers needed to go across the sea with all their equipment, their food and their clothes. They also needed to go across the sea with cars, jeeps, buses, armoured tanks, heavy guns, fuel tankers and many other things.
D-day was the day all the forces concentrated on making an actual landing in Normandy, France. First of all, 24,000 British, American, Canadian and French troops were parachuted into the area at midnight. Early in the morning, 5,000 heavily loaded ships sailed in bringing troops and armoured divisions to France. Over 160,000 soldiers landed on June 6, 1944, comprising 73,000 Americans, 61,715 British and 21,400 Canadians.
The principle of concentration was fully deployed as this invasion involved the use of air power and naval support for the transportation of soldiers and material from the United Kingdom.
This invasion of Europe marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany. As the British army was following the principle of concentration, Adolf Hitler was doing the opposite by dividing his forces into two major fronts. Half of his army was busy invading Russia whilst the other half had to face the concentrated forces of the British, the Americans and the Canadians.
Often, many leaders do not concentrate on what they should be doing. Sometimes this may not give the best results. But every war is won by concentrating on one thing at a time until it is conquered. Remember that there is a price to pay for victory and perhaps the price you have to pay is to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Philippians 3:13
Paul, as an amazing leader, encouraged us to concentrate on one thing at a time. There is power in concentration! Let us make the effort to make the best of zeroing in on one thing at a time, in such a way as to give it our best shot.
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