Managers - Part XXIV - You're Not Royalty

Lately I've been listening to a podcast about the history of Rome. The last few episodes have been about the early empire period and contrast has been drawn between the emperors who wanted power in order to accomplish something, run things more efficiently, build up the army, building projects, etc, and those who wanted power just so that they could be the guy who could tell everyone else what to do. It got me thinking how people who aspire to management positions could be likened to these two types of leaders in a superficial way. 

I remember when I was a store director for a local grocery store and having a discussion with one of my department managers about holiday scheduling. His position was that once you have attained a certain position you were entitled to certain perks, when it came to holidays, you had earned, due to your position, the best schedule, holidays off, etc. I took a different position. As a leader, you should be leading, and part of leading was being there during the busy times. As Uncle Ben said, with great power comes great responsibility. Now this didn't mean that I scheduled myself all the "bad" shifts, or worked all day, every holiday, but that I led by example. 

Store Directors with whom I worked over the years were all over the map on this. I worked with one boss who worked six 12-hours days and a half day on Sunday, and who never took a holiday off. I knew of other managers who would take every holiday off, leave early on busy days like Christmas Eve or the days before Independence Day or Thanksgiving, leaving it to subordinates to run the show. I tried to take a middle path, spreading out the tough shifts and late nights among not only the "new guys", but requiring that the veterans, including myself would share in the responsibility of covering the store during the busy times. Holidays like Thanksgiving Day or July Fourth, which were fairly slow on the holiday itself, generally saw all the managers working a quarter shift to allow everybody to enjoy at least part of the day. 

Those of you who have slogged through all two dozen of these blog posts know that I don't view "good management" as being "one of the boys" or "doing things" rather than "getting things done" by way of training, supervision and delegation, but that you can't be an effective leader if you are absent. 
 

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXV

The "Ministry Year" of 1980-81 that had just ended was a big one in Wayworld. Victor P Wierwille, the founder and leader of The Way International was retiring as President of the organization and a successor would need to be named. Around Christmas it was announced that Loy Martindale, usually known by his middle name, Craig, had been chosen as Wierwille's replacement as Way President and would be installed in that position during The Way's 40th Anniversary in 1982. 

A brief aside regarding the Way calendar: Victor Wierwille had been a minister in the Evangelical & Reformed Church in 1941 and served as a pastor in that denomination until 1957, although from early on he had what we would now call "side gigs: starting in 1942 when he hosted a weekly radio program. Although he didn't start teaching his "Power for Abundant Living" class until 1953, or incorporate his activities outside his denomination until 1955 as The Way, Inc., or separate from his denomination until 1957, at some point he began retroactively claiming October 1942 as the genesis of The Way. 

Craig Martindale, Wierwille's anointed heir, had been the director of The Way Corps, billed as The Way's leadership training program. Martindale had been an early participant in the program, enrolling in the Second Way Corps group. Virtually all of The Way's leaders at all levels were graduates of The Way Corps, so Martindale, as that program's overseer, had an influence upon a large percentage of Way leaders across the country. The early 1980s saw The Way at its peak numerically. Every U.S. state had a Way presence and several other countries rivalled the United States in the number of active PFAL grads. 

The Way had always eschewed Biblical-type titles like bishop or religious designations such as priest, preferring corporate/academic terms such as Board of Trustees, President or Secretary-Treasurer for the top tier, and coordinator for lower levels, but the installation of Martindale was to be a full-fledged religious experience. Wierwille had long been referred to as "The Man of God", or "The Man of God for our time", with unofficial speculation about which of the "gift ministries" of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher (probably all five!) that he exercised. Wierwille hagiography made much of the supernatural promises supposedly made to Wierwille that inaugurated his "ministry". Audible speech from God, snow on the gas pumps in the summer and other miraculous events all carried the suggestion that Wierwille wasn't just some guy who worked hard at studying the Bible, but someone who had been chosen by God to bring long-hidden light to our generation. The fact that everything Wierwille said had been previously published by others, some of it in the previous century, didn't deter the myth-making. Now, the wink and nod pretense that Wierwille had been chosen and sent by God was not hidden behind the corporate curtain, but out in the open as he passed the mantle in a very literal sense. 

When I say "literal" I mean that there was an actual, real, mantle that was passed from Wierwille to Martindale in a ceremony that rivalled any papal installation or monarchal coronation. The year leading up to the "passing of the mantle" was spent honoring Wierwille, presenting him with gifts, printing a collection of essays in his honor, building up Martindale, and outlining the highly symbolic ceremony that would take place anointing (also very literally) Martindale as the new Man of God. There was a mantle, there was anointing with oil, there was something called a covenant of salt, there was laying on of hands and prophecy. There were teachings ad nauseum about the Biblical symbolism of all of these things. While Wierwille had earned his adulation by presenting an alternative to mainstream Christianity that looked new and unique (and "accurate") to people who didn't know any better, Martindale was starting his new gig propped up by symbolism and spiritual mumbo jumbo. 

As I ended my year as a WOW and began my new year as a WOWvet and apprentice Way Corps, the upcoming inauguration of the new president, with all the attendant "spiritual significance" was in the air and influenced everything that we did in Wayworld.

Start from the beginning

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXVI

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/04/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxvi-sunk.html