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President's Message
Let’s talk this month about energy. Now I don’t mean the kind of energy used to fuel a car or heat your house. The kind of energy to which I am referring is the energy that leaders need to be successful.
Energy is essential to leadership—it is literally the fuel that gets the job done. It is the ability to make a room come alive when communicating. It is persevering when the odds are against you. It is the ability to get others to truly engage with you or, as we say here in Gettysburg, so that they are willing to “take a bullet for you.”
Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter has identified three things that characterize people like this, the people she calls “energizers.” The characteristics are “a relentless focus on the bright side,” “redefining negatives as positives” and employing a “fast response time.”
Have you built similar characteristics into your leadership practice? Would others characterize you as an “energizer”? Anyone can be a “boss” and give direction, but if we follow the words of entrepreneur Gordon Selfridge, we can work toward being energetic leaders.
“The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘We.’ The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says ‘Go’; the leader says ‘Let’s go!’”
Read on this month to learn more about our special session for the Lincoln Leadership Academy charter school, find out what is happening with the old Cyclorama building and receive a special message from faculty member Gen. Jim Anderson.
Steven B. Wiley, president & founder
The Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg www.lincolnleadershipinstitute.com
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Charter school learns leadership from LLI |
Some of the students from Allentown’s Lincoln Leadership Academy Charter School weren’t sure what exactly to expect from their trip to Gettysburg, a trip that would expose them to experience the leadership development offered by Steve and LLI.
But 15-year-old Abraham De La Cruz had an idea. “I thought the trip was going to be boring—that we were just going to have lectures,” he remembered.
However, by the end of the two-day experience, Abraham had definitely changed his mind. “I think this trip really taught us a lot,” he said. “It taught us how to become more mature. They didn’t treat us like kids.”
A total of 27 students from Allentown’s Lincoln Leadership Academy Charter School experienced the same leadership development that Steve and his team have offered to thousands of executives. As part of the free leadership development, the students visited the Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park; the David Wills House, where Abraham Lincoln finished the Gettysburg Address; and sites on the battlefield. Their two-day visit included an overnight stay sponsored by Steve and the Historic Gettysburg Hotel.
Abraham learned many lessons during his first trip to Gettysburg, but one stuck out to him. “I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is generosity, because Mr. Wiley and Angela [Sontheimer, LLI’s Managing Director] have spent their time to teach us leadership qualities and how to be a leader,” he said.
Not only was generosity learned, but an appreciation for what occurred at Gettysburg, explained 15-year-old Cristo Vences. “There’s also an appreciation for all the men who fought in the Civil War and how they sacrificed their life for us to be living the life that we are living now,” she said.
Steve was equally impacted by the students’ visit. “This was perhaps the most gratifying work experience we’ve had,” he reflected. “We were all incredibly touched by the level of curiosity, engagement and appreciation in these young leaders.”
Lincoln Leadership Academy Principal, CEO and Founder Sandra Figueroa-Torres was pleased with the lessons her students learned during the trip. “It’s been great watching them grasp some of these leadership principles that adults sometimes find hard to grasp,” she said. “I’m excited to see that.” She believes that the emotional impact that the trip has made on the students will help them encourage the other students to make the right decisions.
The trip to Gettysburg, she said, was a good way to expose the students to life outside of their community. “Many don’t get to see the opportunities beyond their immediate community,” Torres explained. “It expands their horizons.”
During their final moments in Gettysburg, Torres took a moment to address the students. “…If Abraham Lincoln knew that 65 percent of Latino and African Americans were dropping out of high school and not getting an education and ending up in prison or ending up on drugs or ending up in gangs—what would he have thought? … Understand that your decisions, your choices, your actions will impact the generations of tomorrow,” she urged.
View a video of the event, featured on ABC 27 News, here. |
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 Introducing Recommended Reading
This month, we launch a new column introducing you to some of our favorite books focusing on a wide variety of subjects. Whether it’s Gettysburg, Lincoln, the Civil War, leadership, management or just about anything else, we’d love your suggestions, comments and feedback on our selections. Or if you’d like to submit your own review of a book of interest, please e-mail us at angela@gettysburgleadership.com.
“The Way of the Owl: Succeeding With Integrity in a Conflicted World” by Frank Rivers (HarperCollins, 1997)
Reviewed by Angela Carbone Sontheimer, Managing Director, LLI
As you probably know, we, here at The Lincoln Leadership Institute, love metaphors. In fact, our whole Transformational Journey from Gettysburg leadership experience uses the Civil War as a metaphor for addressing modern business challenges. Well, I’ve stumbled upon another great example of using metaphors to help with conflict resolution, achieving success and facing challenges with the strength of character in both in our personal lives and our business worlds. It is “The Way of the Owl,” written by martial arts guru and conflict expert Frank Rivers.
In this quietly reflective book, Rivers suggests that many of us go through life like a fledging owl “marked by anxiety, resistance and struggle … unaware of his surroundings and the consequences of his actions.” Rather than continue to flounder in this awkward and unproductive mode, Rivers suggests that leaders learn to follow the example of a mature owl—one that is able to “strike a balance between passivity and aggression, perform well in conflict and create positive relationships without being victimized.”
In short, almost mini, chapters, Rivers offers advice on topics such as “Be Active, Not Reactive,” “Reflect,” “Master Abstraction,” “Embrace Ambiguity, Risk and Paradox” and “Expand Your Heart,” all modeled on the way a mature owl deals with its natural environment, prey and predators. Infused with Eastern sentiment—no doubt informed by his martial arts practice—Rivers’ advice is plainspoken, but not too new-agey for my taste.
Although it was hard to pick just one, my favorite chapter is “Inquire,” which urges readers to “lead with inquiry.” Rivers writes:
“Every owl knows that knowledge equals options and options equal power. Questions are the basic tools for expanding intelligence and sparking creativity. Not only is the unexamined life not worth living, the unexamined fight is not worth fighting, the unexamined strategy is not worth pursuing.”
Rivers’ unique take on the metaphor and leadership allowed me to do what he suggests in this passage—to see conflict resolution and influence through a creative, wise and reflective lens. |
 Honoring our military:
National Military Appreciation Month
By Gen. James Anderson
On April 26, both chambers of the U.S. Congress adopted a resolution calling for Americans to set aside the month of May to recognize and honor U.S. service members. The month of appreciation includes Armed Forces Day on May 15 and Memorial Day on May 31.
More than a million American service members died in the war and conflicts this nation has fought since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 to fight for independence. Each person who died during those conflicts was a loved one, cherished by family and friends. Each was a loss to the community and the nation.
The observance of Memorial Day was born of compassion and empathy in 1863. As the Civil War raged, grieving mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and other loved ones were cleaning Confederate soldiers’ graves in Columbus, Mississippi, placing flowers on them. They noticed nearby the Union soldiers’ graves, dusty and overgrown with weeds. Grieving for their own fallen soldiers, the Confederate women understood that the dead Union soldiers were the cherished loved ones of families and communities far away. They cleared the tangled brush and mud from those graves and laid flowers on them as well.
Soon the tradition of a “Decoration Day” for the graves of fallen soldiers spread and, in 1868, the nation observed its first official Memorial Day, a day to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who died in all our nation’s wars. For decades, Memorial Day meant ceremonies at cemeteries, speeches honoring those who gave their lives, the laying of wreaths, flags placed at graves of every veteran and the playing of “Taps.”
Sadly, many Americans have lost this connection with their history. For a growing percentage of the American people, Memorial Day has come to mean simply a three-day weekend or a major shopping day. One person recognized what is happening to Memorial Day. Carmella LaSpada started the “Moment of Remembrance” campaign. It is her goal to see all Americans observe one minute of silence at exactly 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, as “Taps” plays, to honor those who sacrificed their lives for us.
On this Memorial Day, let’s participate in that “Moment of Remembrance” as a way to honor not only our fallen heroes, but to also recognize our service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are involved in horrific combat and demonstrating on a daily basis the Warrior Ethos, the sum of the distinguishing characteristics that describe what it takes to carry out the duties they are assigned. Twelve characteristics make up this ethos. Visit the LLI blog to view a list of these characteristics.
Our soldiers serving in combat today have this ethos, and they are certainly worthy of our praise and our prayers as we participate in the “Moment of Remembrance” this Memorial Day. |
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Lincoln honors his mother
In honor of Mother’s Day, we’d like to share a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
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Journey Through Hallowed Ground announces project for Civil War sesquicentennial
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership seeks to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War with a legacy project of national significance. The partnership wishes to plant a tree for each of the 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War. The plan is to plant a tree, at a set pace along the 180-mile Rt. 15/20 corridor, as soldiers in formation, from Monticello to Gettysburg.
Learn more here. |
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Cyclorama building safe from demolition for now |
The 52-year-old Cyclorama building, constructed by architect Richard Neutra, is safe from demolition at the moment, thanks to a federal judge’s recent ruling. The National Park Service has wanted to tear down the building for nearly a decade, while Dion Neutra, the architect’s son, has fought for it to remain standing.
Read more here.
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Copyright 2010, The Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg |
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