George Washington at Newburgh 1783: Your followers are upset. They feel manipulated, abused, under-appreciated. And you as the leader have to communicate to them toward a renewal of their commitment to the mission and vision. Go with Washington on this amazing journey. Key leadership topics for today—communication, vision, problem-solving.
George Washington and Late Change: For much of your life there is a change that you refuse to accept. It’s beyond you. But over time and in particular in one powerful moment, you embrace the change and do something you never would have contemplated before. That’s the leadership experience of Washington in the last few months of his life. Then, after years of inner questioning, he ended his connection to slavery. Key leadership topics for today—change agent, personal vision, accountability.
George Washington and Saying Goodbye: You’re going to leave your followers. One way or another—resigning, retiring, moving on, being fired, whatever. Learn from the three times in his life as a leader that Washington said goodbye, in his 20s, 40s and 60s. Each time was different, each time showed the growth of his leadership. Each time he touched both his followers and his future. Key leadership topics for today—communication, vision, accountability.
George Washington and The Fractious Team: You’re the leader and under your leadership are strong-willed team members. They clash, disagree, and threaten to weaken the team’s overall work. Washington faced this situation as president. For eight years he had to hold together a group of talented and head-strong team members as he and they collided with unforeseen trends and changes. You can gain from his experience. Key leadership topics for today—team unity, future direction, creativity.
Abraham Lincoln and the Inaugural Train: A crisis is brewing. You can feel it. You have to get ready. You’re the leader and everyone is watching you. Now, your first instinct is to rely on what you see as a strength. Ride with Lincoln on the train that took him to his first inauguration and to the verge of the Civil War. Ride with Lincoln as he played to his strength and absorbed an amazing level of change and meaning without committing a fatal error. Ride with Lincoln into the future of yourself and your followers. Key leadership topics for today—problem solving, communication, information analysis.
Abraham Lincoln and Finding the Purpose: Deep inside you is a sense that you can do something important. You can accomplish something not yet defined. How do you go forward? How do you gain the definition and clarity you seek? Abraham Lincoln encountered this same dynamic. And, like you, he found the way, or the way found him. In 1854, the point became clear. Key leadership topics for today—discovery of purpose, alignment of talents with action, understanding varying threats.
Abraham Lincoln & The Gettysburg Address: Communication takes on a variety of forms in a variety of places. Informal and formal, planned and unplanned, written and spoken, each connects to communication. Spend two days of Lincoln’s life during events surrounding his Gettysburg Address and you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of how you, as a leader, can communicate. Key leadership topics for today—communication, vision.
Abraham Lincoln’s Lost Days: The loyalty and support and buy-in of your followers. How do you know when it’s lost? How can you gauge it’s strength? And how do you get it back? For four crucial days Abraham Lincoln grappled with these issues in the midst of one of the most powerful and underappreciated crises of the Civil War. You can be a better leader going with Lincoln on this fateful four day trip. Key leadership topics for today—employee engagement, buy-in, communication, risk.
Walking, Rounding, and Abraham Lincoln: Getting out there in the field, face-to-face with those who follow you and those who don’t. That’s what Lincoln did when he walked through war-ravaged Richmond, Virginia. Lincoln never read the book “Management by Walking Around” but he essentially wrote it through his own experience in spring 1865. Walk with him and absorb amazing lessons for leadership. Key leadership topics for today—vision, risk, connection between vision and action, analysis of vital resources.
The Smallpox Epidemic of Boston in 1721: Innovation needs leaders but not all leaders innovate. Some excel at innovating, others stumble. The smallpox epidemic in colonial Boston contains four different leaders and their experiences with innovation. You’ll be shocked—shocked–at how recognizable their conduct and attitudes are. What’s more, you’ll learn how to navigate innovation when your leadership needs it most. Key leadership topics for today—innovation, creativity, application, courage.
Theodore Roosevelt and the River of Doubt: A leader deals with diversity in many ways. A leader deals with hardship and setbacks also in many ways. But when both issues converge, a leaer can buckle under the pressure, especially after a bitter disappointment. Learn from Roosevelt’s incredible exploration into the Amazon jungles how to continue to embrace diversity and endurance under harsh conditions. Key leadership topics for today—diversity, team unity, problem solving.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Path Forward: Personal strengths and gifts don’t always connect to existing pathways and networks. Theodore Roosevelt worked hard to create his own form of expertise, his own approach to combining change and continuity. You can learn from his experience how to see the road ahead that no one else sees. You can learn from his experience how to help shape opportunity. Key leadership topics for today—opportunity, talent development, change.
The Building of Brooklyn Bridge: A project needs a leader. One of America’s most impressive physical feats of the nineteenth century—the building of the Brooklyn Bridge—needed a leader too. Become familiar with the leadership experience of Washington Roebling and his strategy for making plans and designs into reality and achievement. Key leadership topics for today—risk, resource management, communication, personal vision.
The Building of the Panama Canal: In a project a leader often must instill momentum where none exists. Sometimes, a leader must reverse a tide of misfortune and defeats. George Goethals had to do just this when he become responsible for finishing the building of the Panama Canal. Within an organizational structure, he had to deal with leaders above him and with followers below him. His leadership experience will help you with planning, execution, and accountability. Key leadership topics for today—problem solving, planning, accountability, quality.
John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis: The barriers and opposition you think you have as a leader may not be the ones that really exist. John Kennedy had more than a crisis and an enemy on his hands in October 1962. He also had severe internal divisions, a compressed timeline of crisis, and an unknown technological environment. Despite these problems, he succeeded in averting nuclear war. You can know and apply Kennedy’s successes to your own leadership. Key leadership topics for today—threat analysis, time management, speed monitoring, team unity, vision.
Dwight Eisenhower, Overlord, and Germany: Plans are plans until reality intervenes. The reality of execution. Follow Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower as he constructs the plan to invade Normandy in 1944 and then responds to numerous challenges in both the plan’s execution and the on-the-fly improvisation that immediately unfolds. It’s a fascinating example of how a leader adapts, creates, imagines, and still gets results. Key leadership topics for today—planning, creativity, talent development, resource allocation, strategic choosing.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb: A team of strong and capable followers is sought by every leader. Until they actually get such a team. Then a whole new set of challenges erupt and require the leader to show new initiative in forging collaboration, cooperation, and coherence. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves confront this situation in their leadership of the Manhatten Project, the making of the atomic bomb during World War II. Key leadership topics for today—team unity, planning, quality, accountability.
Harry Truman and the Two Atomic Bombs: A leader is often thrown into a situation and told to figure it all out. That was the reality facing Vice President Harry Truman when, upon Franklin Roosevelt’s death, Truman became President. He learned for the first time that the United States was at work on a vital new weapon, never used. Truman had to decide to use it in a cloud of unclear information. Decisiveness and accountability are two key themes in this dramatic story. Key leadership topics for today—creativity, strategic choosing, accountability, flexibility.
Florence Nightingale and Overcoming Failure: The passion and purpose you believe in most can sometimes be the very source of your greatest disappointment. So it was with Florence Nightingale, regarded as the world’s first nurse-leader. She suffered through the difficulties of failing in her calling in the middle of public view and had to fight back to regain her focus and energy. Having a calling can require more of a leader than anyone possibly imagines. Key leadership topics for today—personal vision, accountability, change.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Private Challenge: Overcoming personal barriers and setbacks can, in and of itself, produce a clear direction and purpose. Eleanor Roosevelt struggled to cope with private issues in her marriage and relationships. Gradually, she overcame them to discover a voice of her own, capable of influencing followers far beyond her reach. Key leadership topics for today—personal identity, change, vision, communication.
Mother Teresa and Courage: There are times when a leader has nothing and yet has everything. Mother Teresa had her faith and through her faith found courage to launch a life-changing enterprise. And when she met again a world of self-doubt, she found once more a source of courage, this time a surprising personal mentor. Learn the role of courage in leadership, and help uncover your own sources of courage as a leader. Key leadership topics for today—courage, initiative, resource management, vision.
Margaret Thatcher and Change-Making: A leader who wants change both compels it to happen and finds ways to build from conditions that help nurture change. Before she was Prime Minister in Britain, Margaret Thatcher had to understand the change that needed to occur. She also had to perceive a path that would take both her and her followers closer to making that change. You can use Thatcher’s experience before 1979 to strengthen your awareness of technology, of messaging, and of linking inner principles to outer expression. Key leadership topics for today—personal vision, strategic choosing, communication.
Katharine Graham and the Crisis of Change: A leader can’t always see where a crisis will go nor how long it might last. In that case, a leader must look for the best ways to add the best value to the work done by followers during the crisis. Katharine Graham was such a leader. Her deft touch with followers enabled them to hold steady in the midst of the unforeseen twists and turns of event. For being a leader with a firm hand, look no farther than the story of Katharine Graham during the Watergate crisis of 1972-1974. Key leadership topics for today—strategic choosing, team unity, communication, courage.
Booker T. Washington and the Power from Identity: Knowing and choosing who you are can be the most critical decision of a leader’s life. It was for Booker T. Washington. With the background of enslavement as his only memory, he chose to become a particular kind of person and in so doing, a particular kind of leader. From that choice came power of untold depth, taking him to an extent of public influence the late 19th and early 20th centuries he never thought possible. Key leadership topics for today—personal identity, organization, starting-up, strategic choosing.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918: Leadership appears in many forms, not just at the top of an organization. In a crisis, leaders from different backgrounds and outlooks must work together to achieve a common goal. In Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, such a collaboration emerged between a fiery CEO and an unknown young nurse. Together, they waded through waves of change in one of the harshest public health emergencies of modern times. Key leadership topics for today—courage, planning, responsiveness.
Jane Addams and Hard Choices: The logic of a leader’s beliefs should take them in a positive direction. But when that doesn’t happen, when indeed the opposite happens and a negative outcome emerges from the beliefs of a leader, what does a leader do? A leader makes the hard choices. Jane Addams had to make the hard choices in 1901 as a result of her inner-city settlement-house movement. She had to accept the reality of seeking justice for a president’s killer. You’ll be glad for the time spent. Key leadership topics for today—organization, risk, accountability.
James Madison and The Course of Disagreement: Not all disagreements are the same. Some pass. But some, those of a deeper and more fundamental nature, take on a life of their own. How a leader responds to such a dynamic within him or her self will reveal much about their personal values and future. James Madison evolved toward a course of disagreement during the 1790s. He used his leadership experience to help guide him on a path that allowed for successfully building the legacy of the American Revolution. Key leadership topics for today—personal vision, communication, team unity.
The Constitutional Convention as a Leadership Story: Compromise is tough. Two sides dig in and point to a light that only they can see. But events can require a greater perspective, a higher view. The Constitutional Convention and ratification process of 1787-1789 reveals the worth of crafting compromises and also holding to principle. Both can be done. Both can succeed. Both need leaders. Key leadership topics for today—negotiation, collaboration, vision.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama, the Two Futures: the past is a good tool for looking at the future. In this case, two futures come together in very interesting ways. Their juncture can help clarify key points of the future beyond 2015. The second presidential terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack H. Obama share striking similarities. If you’re involved in planning strategies for the near- and mid-term future, look to these lessons to supplement your outlook. Key leadership topics for today—change agent, strategic choosing, link between vision and action.
Daniel Morgan and the Team in a Corner: A team in a corner is a team that feels trapped, with no way out. At best, they’ll flail. At worst, they’ll completely fall apart. General Daniel Morgan helped his team of soldiers find a way to succeed in such circumstances during winter 1781 in the War of the American Revolution. Morgan’s communication and preparation are as useful today as they were generations ago. Key leadership topics for today—communication, team unity, preparation.
Benjamin Harrison and the First-Time Leader: Not every leader has the chance to be fully prepared for every contingency in their leadership. Benjamin Harrison followed an impulse and found himself leading 1000 men in the Civil War. His experience consisted of three critical stages, each building on the other, as he matured from first-time leader into big-time leader. Find his techniques for your own leadership and that of other aspiring leaders. Key leadership topics for today—planning, adaptability, problem solving, vision.
William DePuy and the Leadership of Transformation: Everyone wants to transform personally but few know how to do it. Fewer still know how to do it for their followers and their organization. William DePuy is the individual most responsible for transforming the US military from its decrepit state after the Vietnam War into its condition as the most lethal and effective military in the world. DePuy’s experience can help you see inside transformation and find the key hidden steps it takes to pursue transfomation. Key leadership topics for today—vision, strategic choosing, change agent.
The Lexington 38 and the Sources of Team Unity: In a fast-moving world, unity can be hard to get and keep for a team. The leader is at pains to know how to instill and maintain such unity. Thirty-eight men found unity on a chilly April morning outside Boston in 1775. Re-enter their experiences to better understand for your leadership of your team how to foster unity in the face of overwhelming odds and intimidating change. Key leadership topics for today—team unity, vision, courage.
Ronald Reagan and The Challenger Speech: The best communication is frequently brief communication. A few words in a few minutes can make all the difference. But they must be the right words, the right minutes. Ronald Reagan found both in January 1986 when the US space shuttle Challenger exploded after take-off. Reagan’s experience on that day will illuminate a strategy for you to follow in critical communication.
Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: Creativity and innovation wedded to firm principles can, over time, produce astounding results. Each of these three things—the new, the ideas, the time—are vital for making change. As a leader, Ronald Reagan engaged all three elements in his successful overcoming of Soviet Communism during the Cold War in the 1980s. Reagan took risks, kept promises, and stayed the course in the midst of strident opponents and naysayers. You can do the same by having a working knowledge of Reagan’s leadership experience. Key leadership topics for today—creativity, innovation, link between vision and action.
Colin Powell and the Shadow of Vietnam: Everyone has a basic experience as a leader that forges who they are. That experience can become a tool or template for understanding subsequent leadership events. Colin Powell’s example of this very important dynamic was the Vietnam War. That war shaped who Powell became in later leadership positions. Self-awarness in this dynamic is vitally essential to keeping the tool in proper condition. See for yourself how this can affect you. Key leadership topics for today—change agent, accountability, vision.
America and Radical Islamic Terrorism: a trend that collides into your organization can have many faces, many layers. This was true with the historic event of September 11 and its subsequent waves of events and actions for the next fourteen years. A leader must have the ability to step back and put these waves into a broader story, a deeper current. The experience of the American global war on terrorism can help you know which questions to ask, which answers to seek. Key leadership topics for today—vision, planning, change agent.
Presidents and Leadership Succession: Moving from one leader to the next is often a make-or-break event for a team or an organization. Knowing how to anticipate the pitfalls in this move will greatly reduce the shock and surprise of succession. One of the most dramatic forms of leadership succession is the Ameican Presidency. Such Presidents as George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan have powerful experiences on the do’s and don’ts of succession. Key leadership topics for today—planning, team unity, vision.
John Quincy Adams and the Second Great Career: Bouncing back. Who bounces back from a major failure and goes on to do great things? Not everyone, that’s for certain. It takes a particular person to do so. Come on the journey of John Quincy Adams’s life and find how he becomes President, loses re-election as President, and then amazingly, finds new purpose in a different role at a different time doing different things. His second career would help shape the onset of the American Civil War and the end of American slavery. Not bad for a second career. You and your team can find his path toward renewal and re-fulfillment. Key leadership topics for today—vision, identity, courage.
Winfield Scott and The Clear Mind: The swirl of fast-moving events and the need for delegation requires a leader of the highest order. He or she will need to be very effective in their leadership to respond on-the-ground without much guidance. You need to help your own leaders get ready to perform in such an environment. You’ll know better what to do to help them when you experience the story of American general Winfield Scott in 1832-1833 in South Carolina. Scott deals with a potential American civil war on his own. His actions are impressive, his leadership even more so. You and your leaders can learn from his example. Key leadership topics for today—creativity, link between vision and action, flexibility.
Elizabeth Blackwell and Breaking Barriers: Being the first, or among the first, involves a type of leadership that is unique to itself. A willingness to take risks, an inner voice that serves to steady when all other voices seek to destablize, and an acceptance of failure with the willingness to try again are among the traits of leaders who break barriers. Elizabeth Blackwell exhibited these and other traits in becoming the first female doctor in American history. She serves to inspire, to emphasize raw determination, and to combine excellence with execution. Key leadership topics for today—courage, personal growth, change agent.
Rosa Parks and Follower as Leader: A leader is a person with one or more followers, while a follower is a person with one or more leaders. But in real life, the lines can blur. A leader can be a follower and a follower can be a leader. Rosa Parks in the Montgomery bus strike of 1954-1955 illustrates this shifting reality. Parks was a leader in her own right, displaying courage and nerve. But she was also a follower, acting in pursuit of a goal as established by civil rights lawyers and others. You and your team can learn how to shift from one role to the next seamlessly through the experience of Rosa Parks. Key leadership topics for today—accountability, courage, team unity.
Winston Churchill and the Clarity of Vision: A leader points ahead. No one else can do it. It’s a basic responsibility of leadership. The clearer the vision, the stronger the tie between leader and follower. Winston Churchill at the onset of World War II elevated the duty of vision to its highest level—expressing a vision so clearly that its precision became a resource, a source of energy to followers hemmed in by difficult circumstances. You can learn the secret of how to shape your vision into a resource. Key leadership topics for today—courage, communication, vision.
Ronald Reagan & Margaret Thatcher: Collaboration between leader and follower is one thing. Collaboration between leader and leader is quite another. It’s among the most challenging aspects of leadership. American President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher worked closely together on key foreign policy issues, including the Cold War. They had disagreements, friction, and rifts. Yet they used their leadership skills to overcome them. Their leadership became indispensable in the success of collaboration as co-leaders. You have a similar co-leader, inside or outside your organization, that can benefit from this knowledge. Key leadership topics for today—vision, flexibility, risk.
Robert Kennedy and the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.: A tragic turn of events gives a leader the chance to help followers understand the meaning and implications of the events themselves. Six leaders performed this vital task for their followers on the night of Martin Luther King Jr’s murder in 1968. As it happened, in Indianapolis, Indiana, the collective impact of these six leaders’ efforts resulted in peace reigning in the city, the only American city not to riot that night. Leadership in the moment of severe trial made the crucial difference. You will be called upon, by fate, to make such a difference. Key leadership topics for today—communication, adaptability, risk.
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692: Panic, fear, terror can take on overwhelming power when unchecked. A leader will face no more frightening choice than to decide to stand alone in the face of this power. Cotton Mather, a leader of major stature in colonial New England, confronted this reality. He struggled. He fell short. He made mistakes. The story of his leadership conduct will shine a very strong light on how a leader makes moral choices, ethical choices, and choices of truth. You have a similar set of choices on many more occasions that might have been expected. You can use Mather’s actions to enhance your own. Key leadership topics for today—courage, accountability, link between vision and action.
The Swine Flu Scare of 1976: A crisis is more than a crisis. It is a challenge of knowing how to define what the crisis is, or is not. That it does, or does not exist. A leader will be expected to know the beginning from the end, the end from the middle, the state of a crisis from the state of no crisis at all. The swine flu scare of 1976 is a fascinating story of how crisis can look very differently in real time than it does in hindsight. Your leadership of a crisis may pivot on whether or not it exists. This story will help you deal with such an environment. Key leadership topics for today—threat analysis, planning, responsiveness.
Woodrow Wilson and the Great War of 1914-1919: An event of sweeping proportions smashes into a team and organization again and again and again. A leader must have a firm grasp of the principles and priorities vital to his or her followers if the group is to navigate successfully in such a time. President Woodrow Wilson’s experience from 1914 to 1919 depicts the amazing challenges of such a dynamic. You can strengthen your leadership by following Wilson’s journey through the defining event of the 20th century, the Great War, or as it’s now known, World War I. Key leadership topics for today: vision, link between vision and action, flexibility.
Louisa Schuyler and the Leadership of Volunteers: A leader’s duty to volunteers consists of influence and not authority, persuasion and not power. Louisa Schuyler was a woman in the Civil War who tackled the extraordinary obstacle of organizing volunteer contributions to Union soldiers. Schuyler’s amazing achievement was to lead volunteers with virtually no prior leadership experience of her own. Whether you lead volunteers or not, Schuyler’s story shows you a path for countering a lack of experience with a straightforward dose of common sense and practicality. Key leadership topics for today—planning, execution, problem solving.
The Last Day of Life for Martin Luther King Jr: You feel down and despairing. You’ve got to pick yourself up and move ahead and, somehow, get your followers to do the same. That’s the issue in front of Martin Luther King, Jr on what will be the last full day of his life. He has four meetings that day. From deep within and high above, King mustered the strength to give what became the most remarkable speech of his life. You will find inspiration and rejuvenation in this story of King the leader. Key leadership topics for today—courage, endurance, vision.
Founding Versus Starting Up: Pennsylvania Hospital in the 1750s: Founding is different from starting up. But every longstanding organization started, began, originated. The first hospital in North America, the Pennsylvania Hospital, was both founded and started. You can learn the leadership lessons of how something that can last can also begin. You’re the leader. You can make it happen. But only if you know what to do, and you can learn what to do with this story. Key leadership topics for today—vision, link between vision and action, change agent.
Frederick Douglass and Driving Major Change: Not all change is major change. Major change is fundamental, it is a significant action and degree and kind. A leader who seeks to drive major change without recognizing the scope of that effort will face untold difficulties. Frederick Douglass, with a background as an ex-slave, understood intuitively the enormity of what he wanted to change—the major change of ending slavery. Douglass embarked on a campaign of far-reaching effects that spanned slaves in captivity and the President of the United States. His story tells you the reality of how to drive major change in a major way. Take advantage of his experience. Key leadership topics for today—change agent, courage, communication.
Madame C.J. Walker and Business Pioneering: A pioneer has few peers. He or she both needs the help of others and also goes it alone at particular moments. Madame C.J. Walker was the first black female millionaire and wide-reaching business owner. She demonstrated the importance of vision, planning, collaboration, and prioritization. You can see the benefit of a leader who refuses to let obstacles stand in her way. Key leadership topics for today—organization, planning, execution.
Generations, Leadership, and Time Layers: Your workforce and followers have as many as seven different forms of time circulating among them. In addition to the Millenialists as defined by advertisers, time expresses itself in numerous ways in the communication, perception, understanding, and action by the individuals of different ages in your organization or team. History must help you sharpen how you look at these separate and interactive forms of time. Key leadership topics for today—organization, communication, link between vision and action.
