Abraham Lincoln's Leadership Style

The capacity for evolution defines the intellectual, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and historical experience of humanity across time and space. It is this human capacity for simple and complex changes within the structures of self and society which provides the inspiration for the scholarly study of leadership. The term leader naturally conjures up historic examples of remarkable human beings, like, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Junior, Muhammed Ghandi, Mother Theresea, and countless others whose life example points out the ability of an individual to ignite within humanity a yearning for cooperative efforts toward creating and sustaining change. Leadership is woven into the fabric of our indivivual and societal life, it provides
Abraham Lincoln is a prime example of the fruit stemming forth from a conscious awareness and deliberate effort to develop upon his strength of communication. Lincoln had an encounter early on in his political career during which his unwieldly verbal skills, i.e., mockery and ridicule, left an opponent in tears (Daft & Lane, 2015, p. 3). This experience lead Lincoln to make a conscious effort to regulate his emotions, exercise empathy, and utilize his craft for the advancement or noble endeavors (Daft & Lane, 2015, p. 3). An effective leader must not only be aware of his or her strength but also develop them through continual practice and refinement of individual character. Lincoln’s strength of communication could not have become the asset it did without the cultivation of emotional regulation, empathy, and conscientious effort to apply his language abilities to positively influence others. For me this theme highlight the importance of not only developing our strengths as individuals, followers, and leaders but also mastering those elements of our character that inhibit us from using our gifts to the fullest
Specifically, the importance of communication among all stakeholders not only in the creation of buy in on key intiatives our department is implementing but also in the establishing of relationships built on trust. The nature of my position within our organization does not always lend itself to transparent communication among all stakeholders because we have to follow data privacy laws with regard to our students. However, I understand the importance of all members of the organization feeling apart of the process, especially with relation to the work my department does on proactive management of challenging student behavior. Ultimately, if all staff can latch onto the vision of proactively and positively managing student behaviors the entire organization will achieve better academic, social, emotional, and environmental results. Along the lines of communication, I recognize the importance of using the appropriate channels of communication and often the nature of messages my department needs to transmit would be better suited for face to face communication. This can provide an opportunity for constructive dialogue to occur around student behavior plans and an opportunity to unite staff around way to work collaboratively with a student versus independently. Finally, I