Lincoln on preparation

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is widely regarded as one of the best leaders in the nation’s history. Lincoln led the country at a time of great political division resulting in Civil War until days after the war had ended. Lincoln had put in place a structured reunification of the North and the South starting with the night the treaty was signed.

Despite his well-known decisions regarding the execution of the war, the end to slavery and how the country would become one again Lincoln was known to spend a tremendous amount of time in preparation.

In explaining why rash decisions and actions were ill-advised. Lincoln explained it this way: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”

Abraham Lincoln was very astute in pointing out the need for preparation. This is not to say that springing into immediate action is not sometimes required. If the building is on fire you want the firefighters to spring into immediate action to start distinguishing the fire. But remember, the best firefighters are the ones who did the preparation in advance of the actual blaze.

This is especially important in developing a business strategy. Failure to do a full SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can be detrimental to launching a new program, policy or procedure.

Winston Churchill, although not known as an orator, spend as much as 40 hours preparing for a one-hour speech because he knew that once the audience (consumer) receive the product (his speech) it would be very difficult to change public opinion or acceptance.

This is an excerpt from “Earthly Time Management”. It investigates time management from the invention of time through 6 Unique Techniques to more effectively use the time God has given you. The book is available at Amazon.

About the author:

Rick Weaver has half a century’s experience in leadership development in retailing. He founded Max Impact Corporation, a leadership and business development consultancy company in 2002. His major accomplishments include working himself from stock clerk to director at a Fortune 50 retail chain and building a $40MM+ construction company in under 5 years. Today Max Impact offers staffing services as a franchisee of Patrice & Associates providing Executive Search, Management Recruiting, and Contract Staffing services.