Mitt Romney’s charisma deficit will be his ultimate undoing. But it’s not as simple or superficial as some people think. Ultimately, charismatic leadership is a relationship with followers. And it’s a relationship that reveals volumes about who the leaders are and what they represent.

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"Charisma is the result of effective leadership,
not the other way around."
-Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

Since his assassination in 1865, Abraham Lincoln has grown to mythical proportions. Lincoln has been memorialized throughout the years and across the land. After Lincoln, we have named everything from theatres and museums to schools and colleges; from streets, airports and parks to counties, cities and towns; from statues and monuments to the penny and the five-dollar-bill; from Mount Rushmore to the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is repeatedly remembered as one of America’s greatest leaders and he is always remembered as a hero among American presidents. Rather than receding into the pages of the past; Lincoln’s example as a leader continues to stand strong. But what is it that makes the leadership of Lincoln relevant to leader’s today? […]

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“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”
-Abraham Lincoln

Once the British defeated Napoleon in 1814 they immediately fortified their forces in the fight against the U.S. in the Second War of American Independence. America was unprepared. And with an unpopular war and an undisciplined and ill-equipped militia, the outcome was uncertain. What aided America’s prosecution of the war, up to this point, was Britain’s main engagement in Europe—the Napoleonic Wars. “After Napoleon’s exile,” however, “the trickle of troops to the New World turned into a torrent.”¹

The U.S. soon endured a degrading defeat in a hot summer battle that…

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"The lesson of history is that to the degree people
and civilizations have operated in harmony with
correct principles, they have prospered."
–Stephen R. Covey

What leadership lessons can we learn from Herbert Hoover’s flaws as president?

Herbert Hoover is widely considered to be a below average president, if not a failure. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the subsequent economic crisis happened on his watch. Moreover, he was the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in both the Harding and Coolidge administrations, a role in which he worked hard to promote partnerships between business and government, but ended up creating […]

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The old story told is that whenever visitors went over to see Benjamin Franklin at his estate they would need to open a large gate so that their horse and carriage could pass through on the way up to his house. Pushing this hefty contraption open always proved to be a bit of an affair requiring no small effort. Often exasperated, this prompted more than a few of his guests to offer a fix. “I can send someone over to mend that dreadful gate of yours, if you like?” With a wry smile and to the surprise of his guests, Franklin would [...]

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“That men do not learn very much from the lessons
of history is the most important of all the
lessons that history has to offer.”
–Aldous Huxley

In an effort to overcome the challenges of predicting the weather, meteorologists have identified a number of weather patterns, meteorological principles and processes, and various other recurring phases and cycles which, taken together, make weather forecasting an indispensible part of protecting life and property. Similarly, though studies in the social sciences repeatedly reveal the predictability of human behavior; like the weather, human history rarely repeats itself exactly. Yet, as with weather forecasts, there are repeating patterns and recurring themes which allow the steadfast student of history to make wiser and more informed choices. As Mark Twain observed…

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"Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past;
for human events ever resemble those of preceding times.
This arises from the fact that they are produced by men
who ever have been, and ever shall be,
animated by the same passions,
and thus they necessarily have
the same results.
—Niccolò Machiavelli

Former presidential speechwriter James C. Humes, tells of the time he met Winston Churchill. The meeting had a lasting impact on the young American exchange student at Stowe, who later said [...]

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"Study history, study history.
In history lies all the secrets of statecraft."
—Sir Winston S. Churchill