Lincoln on Leadership

Donald T. Phillips is a leadership consultant with a hobby in Abraham Lincoln. He decided to write a book about Lincoln's leadership when he realized that none existed. In our current times, Lincoln has received increased interest. Our current President has quoted him and held him up as a paragon of Presidential virture. The volume of books and movies about him have dramatically increased. The book, Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times, details Lincoln's approach to leading the country and draws comparisons to current leadership advice.

The book is broken into four parts: People, Character, Endeavor and Communication. Through these parts Phillips artfully weaves a tale of a man of the people who refused to have airs. He walked among the people and soldiers and talked to them. He did not have a perimeter of security personnel at all times.  He had an open door policy in the White House. He travel extensively to monitor the war that he desperately worked to win. He was a genius at persuasion, using plain language and anecdotes to connect with the common people of his nation.

As I was reading the section about his storytelling, it had me thinking about other master texts that promote using stories to make a point. Many ancient communities included a rich history of oral mythology to stress ideas about how to get along with others. In the Bible, Jesus famously used parables to get his message to people. Folk tales were stories of caution to children, showcasing rules to maintain appropriate behavior. Fables teach morals. The book highlights carefully chosen tales, mostly about farmers and small businessmen, Lincoln used to prove points. Being able to tell a story to demonstrate a point paints a picture the listeners will remember far longer than any lecture they likely tune out.

Another point that Phillips emphasized was the consistency of Lincoln's message and vision. Throughout his time running for federal office and as President, his message remained on point: our nation is something special because it provides a fair chance for all and attempts to elevate all. Every speech included this. When we think about the vision statements of most places today we look at paragraphs of sentences chopped full of ideas. Refining them to their essence is not done. No longer is "Beat Pepsi" an adequate vision. Coke's current mission is:

• To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit
• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions
• To create value and make a difference.

This is succinct and short compared with many school missions and visions. I concluded early on that a mission and vision should be simple enough to be articulated quickly by every member of an organization. A prior department I worked in spent months developing a mission statement that was three sentences taking up 5 lines of text. No one had memorized it. We spent two department meetings unpacking the mission. Schools need mission statements that can be articulated by all. Statements like:

Help every child reach their potential.

or

Working to create model members of society.

showcase what we all want our schools to do and they can be learned quickly by all. Statements utilizing phrases like "environment of educational excellence," "working collaboratively as professionals," and "partner with our community," tell us how they will achieve their mission- not what their mission is. They muddy the water. Lincoln knew that laser focus on mission was critical. In schools we should emulate the simplicity. Our mission is about teaching children. Perhaps we muddy the mission because this like working as professionals and partnering with our community are easier than helping every child reach their potential so adding these other things makes it easier to say we are doing ok.