In my recent post entitled, “Leadership Guiding Principles of a Successful CEO,” I shared with you how one very successful CEO makes the book, “Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times” required reading for every member of his Leadership Development Team.
I’ve had this book on my bedside table for the past few months, reading just a few paragraphs or pages each night to enable the depth of the lessons to truly sink in, and to give my brain time to ponder how these lessons apply in the world of 2011.
I’m currently reading the chapter on Vision.
I have found Lincoln to be a most inspiring form of Visionary – one who creates his vision from a reverent respect for the past and from values that exude from within him and are essential to his very being.
There is no better demonstration of this than Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
As Donald T. Phillips lays out in, “Lincoln on Leadership,”
While Lincoln technically spent only a few weeks preparing for the address, it’s clear from his past oratory and writings that all of the concepts, and many of the phrases employed, had been part of his vision for the nation for years…
He left Washington amid the anguished protests of his wife, Mary, because their youngest son was ill and confined to bed… And for Lincoln, who had already watched two sons die from disease, this was not an unimportant matter…
On November 19, 1863, after having had his mind greatly eased by receipt of a telegram relating that his son was much improved, and after listening to the principal orator of the day, Edward Everett, speak for nearly two hours, Abraham Lincoln spent only two minutes reminding the nation what the Civil War, and America itself, was all about.
On this Memorial Day I thought it would be most fitting to renew our acquaintance with Lincoln’s vision, shared so eloquently in his Gettysburg Address.
I admittedly always tear up when I read it…
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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God bless America.
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Photo of the Lincoln Address Memorial plaque is by Digitonin.
10 Response Comments
Amen to that!
Agreed! Perhaps someday a Leadership Chat in honor of Lincoln…? 🙂 Happy Memorial Day, my friend!
Have you ever been to Gettysburg? I need to go back there – it is so absorbed in history that it almost gets funny. “Lincoln probably stood by this tree.” “Lincoln looked up at this window.” But still, the history of the place is everywhere. Our hotel was next to the Jenny Wade house – Jenny was a young girl who got killed while kneading bread in her kitchen – that’s how close the battle was to the center of the town.
I am going to have to check out that book you mention too! But I have to say, y’all can’t have a leadership chat about Lincoln till you read Team of Rivals 🙂
Margie, It’s been so long since I was there… I am actually hoping to get back there in the next few years. And – duly noted about “Team of Rivals.” 🙂 Thanks so much!
Hi Lisa. Thank you for reminding us of Lincoln’s powerful words. It helps to keep things in perspective when we view our Nation in the context of Lincoln’s vision. Also, it is very fitting that you chose the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day, which began to honor the fallen of the Civil War.
Thank you, Christopher – and I couldn’t agree more… It keeps so much of what’s happening in the world today in perspective. And yes, many people forget that the address itself was centered around honoring the fallen. All the very best and thank you for sharing your thoughts here!
Wouldn’t it be great to jump in a time machine and meet Lincoln? His courage and leadership were an inspiration before I was in Jr. High. Now as an adult, I find it nearly impossible to pass the smallest of tributes to him in museums without being emotionally moved. Thank you for the post Lisa!
Thank you, Chery. I am with you on that – always moved by his words and his examples. Thank you for being here!