LEADERSHIP IN THE CIVIL WAR

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LEADERSHIP IN THE CIVIL WAR

• Can Civil War Leaders Impact Educational Leaders
  In The 21st Century?
• By
• David T. Booz

2
What Is Leadership?

• Leadership is the ability to move a group of
  people to a desired goal
• Leadership is the capacity to focus the Spirit
  and Spirit is the most critical element of any
  organization

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Who Are Leaders?

• Who are the leaders in your school?
• Who are the formal leaders?
• Who are the informal leaders?
• Which type of leader has the most influence in
  your school?
• Where do administrators, teachers, secretaries,
  custodians, cafeteria workers, students, parents,
  out of building support personnel fit in?

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Qualities of A Leader

• Trust
• Visibility
• People Skills
• Able To See The Big Picture
• Attention To Details
• Able To Delegate
• Takes Responsibility
• Able To Praise Others And Give Credit To Others
• Willing To Take Reasonable Risks
• Motivates Others
• Communicator (Listening, Speaking, Connecting)

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Civil War Leaders

• Robert E. Lee
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Stonewall Jackson
• William T. Sherman
• James Longstreet
• Phillip Sheridan

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What About Civilian Leaders?

• Abraham Lincoln
• Jefferson Davis
• Edwin Stanton
• Alexander Stephens

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Robert E. Lee
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Lees Thoughts On Leadership

• A leaders one unalterable rule assess
  circumstances and make the best of them.
• A leader consults his subordinates. Talk through
  alternative approaches and explain your views. It
  is the best teaching tool you have.
• Learn to delegate. Find subordinate officers you
  can trust and who share your vision, and turn
  them loose.
• The best motivator is to grant your officers
  independence and responsibility.
• The greater the risk the more a leader must trust
  his subordinates.
• Keep your composure.

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Lee

• Do your Duty in all things. You cannot do more,
  you should never wish to do less.
• I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot
  control himself.
• Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to
  keep one.
• You cannot be a true man until you learn to obey.

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Lee

• The education of a man is never completed until
  he dies.
• Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation
  of manly character.
• We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are
  sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call
  forth greater energies, and to prevent our
  falling into greater disasters.

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Ulysses S. Grant
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An Assessment of Sam Grant

• Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana wrote
• Grant was an uncommon fellow- the most
  modest, the most disinterested and the most
  honest man I ever knew, with a temper that
  nothing could disturb and a judgment that was
  judicial in its comprehensiveness and wisdom. Not
  a great man except morally not an original or
  brilliant man, but sincere, thoughtful, deep and
  gifted with courage that never faltered.

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Grants Thoughts On Leadership

• Bureaucrats will blindly obey whatever set of
  rules they are instructed to follow even if this
  leads them to take completely illogical or
  patently nonsensical actions. Try to keep them
  out of your organization.
• You can maintain the respect of your staff so
  long as they recognize that your application of
  discipline is consistent and even handed and that
  you purposefully use discipline to achieve a
  worthwhile end, not simply because you are
  heartless.
• Dress for success if you want to, but dont ever,
  with yourself or others, mistake appearance for
  achievement
• Dont kid yourself into believing you made more
  of a contribution than you actually did, and
  never claim credit when none is due you.
• There is really no excuse for having a foul
  mouth. If you curse for effect, stop it its
  counterproductive. On the other hand, if you
  curse because you cant control your temper, then
  you shouldnt be a manager.

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Grant

• Study past success and failures carefully, and
  learn from them. Avoid criticizing others for
  failures to take advantage of opportunities that
  only come to light in the glare of hindsight.
• There is no perfect management style that fits
  all. Your real focus should be on effectiveness,
  not style.
• Tell your boss if you think that you are being
  asked to do the impossible, but if youre told to
  give it your best shot, then shut up and do so.
• A person need not become a failure just by virtue
  of having been associated with a couple of failed
  enterprises. Dont be too quick to give up on
  people who have one or two failures under their
  belt, especially if they failed at things they
  really didnt enjoy doing.

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Grant

• A bad reputation is difficult, if not impossible,
  to shake.
• No one likes to work in an environment where
  there are no rules and anything goes. Your people
  need and want structure, and they will respect
  you for providing it.
• You will rarely, if ever, go wrong by relying on
  common sense.
• You are always better off to operate shorthanded,
  with unfilled positions, than you are to retain
  poor or unreliable performers.
• Surround yourself with men and women of
  unquestioned integrity who have the courage to
  tell you when they think what you are doing is
  wrong.

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Grant

• You cant expect your people to get the job done
  if you dont provide them with tools that they
  need to do the job.
• It is important for managers at every level in
  the organization to walk through the work areas
  and talk with the people on the job.
• If you are falsely accused of wrongdoing,
  unemotionally set the record straight, and try to
  do so in such a manner as to allow you to resume
  amicable relations with the person who attacked
  you.

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Abraham Lincoln
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Lincolns Thoughts on Leadership

• Explain yourself in writing and offer advice on
  how to solve problems.
• It is important that people know you come among
  them without fear.
• Seek casual contact with your subordinates. It is
  as meaningful as a formal gathering, if not more
  so.
• Dont often decline to see people who call upon
  you.
• If your subordinates can stand it, so can you.
  Set a good example.
• Wage only one war at a time.
• Remember, human nature can be modified to some
  extent, but human nature cannot be changed.

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Lincoln

• Showing your compassionate and caring nature will
  aid you in forging successful relationships.
• When you extinguish hope, you create desperation.
• Discourage formal grievances. Persuade your
  subordinates to compromise whenever they can.
• Seek the consent of your followers for you to
  lead them.
• Delegate responsibility and authority by
  empowering people to act on their own.
• Give your subordinates a fair chance with equal
  freedom and opportunity for success.
• Remember that your followers generally want to
  believe that what they do is their own idea and,
  more importantly, that it generally makes a
  difference

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Lincoln

• Make consistency one of the main cogs of your
  corporation.
• When you are in deep distress and cannot restrain
  some expression of it, sit down and write out a
  harsh letter venting your anger. But dont send
  it.
• Make no explanation to your enemies. What they
  want is a squabble and a fuss and they can have
  if you explain, and they can not have if you
  dont. Avoid major conflict in the form of
  quarrels and arguments. You simply dont have the
  time for it.
• Take advantage of confusion, desperation, and
  urgency to exercise strong leadership.
• Seize the initiative and never relinquish it.

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Lincoln

• You should be very unwilling for young people to
  be ruined for slight cause.
• Have malice toward none and charity for all.
• Remember that compromise does not mean cowardice.
• If you are a good leader, when the work is done,
  your aim fulfilled, your people will say, We did
  this ourselves.

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Leadership Sayings

• You can not lead others unless you can lead
  yourself
• No one achieves anything worthwhile by themselves
• Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of
  fear- not absence of fear. Mark Twain
• If you treat an individual as if he were what he
  ought to be and could be, he will become what he
  ought to be and could be. Johann Goethe

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More Sayings

• Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God
  will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to
  speak. Not to act is to act. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• You must give time to your fellow men- even if
  its a little thing, do something for others
  something for which you get no pay but the
  privilege of doing it. Albert Schweitzer
• The greatest power that a person possesses is the
  power to choose. J. Martin Kohe

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Even More Sayings

• Once you see a childs self-image begin to
  improve, you will see significant gains in
  achievement areas, but even more important, you
  will see a child who is beginning to enjoy life
  more. Wayne Dyer
• Good leaders create a conspiracy of goodness.
  Pater Andre Trocme
• Democracy can not survive in a nation of
  spectators. Irving Borowsky
• The ballot is stronger than the bullet. A.
  Lincoln
• Look for the beauty in others. Carole Gravagno

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And The Final Sayings

• The deepest principle in human nature is the
  craving to be appreciated. William James
• We increase whatever we praise. The whole
  creation responds to praise, and is glad. Charles
  Fillmore
• If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I
  am only for myself, what will become of me? If
  not now, when? Hillel 1st Century Scholar
• If it is to be, let it begin with me.

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It Matters That

• It matters that students take the right academic
  courses
• It matters that students complete quality
  vocational and technical courses
• It matters that students meet curriculum and
  performance standards
• It matters that teachers engage students in
  difficult assignments in all courses.
• It matters that everyone supports high
  expectations
• It matters that students get extra help in
  meeting high standards
• It matters that school systems offer a supportive
  guidance system
• It matters that schools provide time and an
  organizational structure allowing teachers to
  work together

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Whatever you are, be a good one. Abraham
Lincoln16th president of US (1809 - 1865)
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Bibliography

• Crocker III, H.W. Robert E. Lee On Leadership
  Executive Lessons In Character, Courage, and
  Vision. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, California.
  1999.
• Holton, Bil. Leadership Lessons of Robert E. Lee
  Tips, Tactics, and Strategies For Leaders And
  Managers. Gramercy Books, New York. 1995.
• Kaltman, Al. Cigars, Whiskey Winning
  Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant.
  Prentice Hall Press, New Jersey.1998.
• Woodworth, Steven E. Leadership and Command in
  the American Civil War. Savas Woodbury
  Publishing. Campbell, California. 1996.