In honor of Presidents’ Day next week, I’m going to share several posts on Abraham Lincoln this week.

1: Following the defeat at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army retreated toward the refuge of Virginia.

“At that moment Lee was more vulnerable than ever before,” write Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin in Lead Yourself First. “Lee’s remaining troops were in enemy country, disoriented by defeat, and … continue reading

1: Today we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the most influential American of the 20th century.

And yet, the greatest American civil rights leader was at first unwilling.

In September 1954, at age 25, Martin had just completed his doctorate at Boston University. Soon after, he and his wife, Coretta, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, so he could pursue his goal of becoming a pastor. … continue reading

1: Today, we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the most influential American of the 20th century.

And yet, the greatest American civil rights leader was at first an unwilling one.

In September 1954, Martin was 25 years old. He had just completed studying for his doctorate at Boston University. He and his wife, Coretta, moved to Montgomery, Alabama to realize his career goal of becoming a … continue reading

1: The phone rang around midnight as Martin Luther King Jr. was getting ready for bed.  

It was January 27th, 1956, “the most important night of his life,” says Martin’s Pulitzer-winning biographer, David Garrow, “the one he would always think back to in future years when the pressures again seemed too great.”

The man on the other end of the phone called Martin the N-word and told him, “We … continue reading

1: The greatest American civil rights leader was at first an unwilling one.

In September 1954, Martin Luther King Jr. was 25 years old. He had just completed studying for his doctorate at Boston University. He and his wife Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama to realize his career goal of becoming a pastor. A little more than a year later, on November 17th, their first child, Yolanda, was born.

“Around … continue reading

1: Eleven days after the Union victory at Gettysburg and ten days after General Ulysses S. Grant’s crucial triumph at Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln suffered what was likely his most gut-wrenching setback as commander-in-chief during the Civil War.

At Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee “had been forced to relinquish the battlefield for the first time, his Army of Northern Virginia reduced by almost twenty-three thousand men,” write Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin … continue reading

1: Dwight Eisenhower was furious.  

D-Day was only weeks away. As the Supreme Commander of the Allied invasion of Europe, Ike was under tremendous pressure. Daily, he confronted leadership questions of the utmost complexity, write Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin in Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude.

And, General George S. Patton had stepped in it. Again.

In a speech to a British social club, Patton had said: … continue reading

1: Five days after Pearl Harbor, Dwight D. Eisenhower received orders to report immediately to the War Department in Washington, D.C. Stationed in San Antonio at the time, Ike was a one-star general and had no idea why he had been summoned. He took the next plane to Washington, write Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin in Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude.

Upon arriving, Ike was ushered immediately into … continue reading

The workplace engagement results were back. The consultant had conducted thousands of these surveys.

“Our employees had the lowest levels of trust he had ever seen,” Doug Conant recalls. “He said that our culture was ‘swamp water.'” 

Doug had recently been hired as the Senior Vice President of Marketing at the Nabisco Biscuit Company, then a $5.5 billion operation. Three years earlier, the firm had done a leveraged buyout (LBO) … continue reading