If Lincoln ran the incapable USTA........... By Javier Palenque

A few nights ago I was helping my son with a reading passage for the SAT, in it, some of the main leadership characteristics of the former president were highlighted vs. his opponents primarily Stephen Douglas. As soon as I finished reading the passage it was so obvious that one was a statesman and the others nothing more than status-quo caretakers. Of course in my desire to fulfill my duties as a new American (this means leave the country better than when you found it), I could not help but compare Lincoln to the incapable leadership of the USTA. So I did a little research, found some executive character and leadership traits that Lincoln had that the USTA’s leadership could use just about now. I hope you see how important it is to think big, think wise, and think loftier goals above all. (the text below is an adaptation of Mark Crawley’s article “The leadership Genius of Abraham Lincoln” Fast Company 2012)

According to Doris Kearns’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln biography, Team Of Rivals, The main trait that made president Lincoln brilliant was that he led not just from his mind, but also from his heart. Thinking of others is the key point here. Imagine if that was a requirement to lead at the inept USTA, would we not be in a different place right now? The bold and italic text is what Lincoln would do and ask today.

Molded By Loss

Born in a log cabin in rural Kentucky, Lincoln grew up in abject poverty. His father never learned to read or write, working as a hired hand with little ambition. Lincoln had virtually no formal schooling. According to Kearns Goodwin, throughout his entire adult life, “Lincoln neither romanticized nor sentimentalized the difficult circumstances of his childhood.” Instead, his acutely painful experiences became the source of life-long compassion and concern for others. This level of compassion and empathy is a requirement when the economy and cost of learning the sport are out of reach of the vast majority of Americans, including middle-class parents. How can we make it affordable for more? would be his first question. His second question would be what is the purpose of being a not-for-profit if we have no impact on those who need it, why do we exist?

Herculean Feat Of Self-Creation

Lincoln was an entirely self-taught man. Exercising incomparable drive and determination, he was a voracious reader who used literature to transcend his circumstances. Before being elected a U.S. Congressman in his thirties, he learned the trades of a boatman, clerk, merchant, postmaster, surveyor, and country lawyer. He pored over newspapers and taught himself English grammar, geometry, and trigonometry. “In a time when young men were apprenticed to practicing lawyers while learning the law, Lincoln studied with nobody,” Kearns Goodwin wrote. Instead, he read and re-read borrowed law books until he understood them thoroughly. When people are in tough life circumstances, the hunger to learn and overcome is natural to many, the logical question here is simple: if the sport is only available for those with means, are we not losing precisely the people that have what it takes to succeed at the sport? Need examples? William sisters, Connors, Tiafoe, and others? The main excuse that USTA has for its failures is this: “ we don’t have the best athletes”, the question they purposely omit is then: Why don’t you make the sport accessible to those with fewer means. This is the third question Lincoln would ask.

Indomitable Sense Of Purpose

From those hardships, Lincoln developed a deep self-confidence he fully leveraged throughout his entire adult life. But perhaps his greatest inspiration came from an intransigent belief that he had a purpose to fulfill. With the country greatly divided over slavery, and at the height of a Civil War that already had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, Lincoln was certain his purpose was to preserve the greatest democracy the world had ever known and to ensure its “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Just imagine if the mission was to grow the game and utilize the vast resources the USTA has and create programs for local decent competition and not create a pay-to-play system that few can afford. If the main purpose of the inept organization was simply to grow the game and not pretend to grow it and deceive the American public with participation figures since they do not. That sense of purpose allowed Lincoln to unite the country that we live in today. Unfortunately, we have to settle with little-minded leadership that cannot possibly conceive a mission or a vision and a way to grow the sport or include discerning voices. If this mindset were allowed when Lincoln was president, would we be here today as were are now? or would we be a fraction of the country today? Thinking big is a requirement to develop a sport or country, thinking small in selfish ways is for little-minded people and leads to nothing worth celebrating. “I want big-minded dreamers”, would be a requirement to be around Lincoln. Imagine the dumb USTA where they hire friends who can only think small and petty. “ I want people who want to keep the status quo” would be the motto. This is called in the streets the " good old boys club".

“Malice Toward None; Charity For All”

Adjectives routinely used to describe President Lincoln include “compassionate” “kindhearted” and “immodest.” Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax, once remarked, “No man clothed with such vast power ever wielded it more tenderly and forbearingly.” Rather than vilify people opposed to slave emancipation, Lincoln sought to comprehend their position through empathy. In referring to the States that had come to fully depend on slaves working their farms, Lincoln astutely intuited, “If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up.”

Today Lincoln would ask if we have a not-for-profit whose market is mostly wealthy individuals but since the world has changed, we have more wealthy individuals but fewer possible tennis players? The logical question would be what do we do to expand the demographic shifts? How can we work with the people that have tennis hijacked and help more people, the solution is of course education. But today USTA deceives its customers and is a not-for-profit that lacks a vision and mission, no wonder it is stagnant for years and in decline. Lincoln would end the “welfare culture” the US open riches has created among the employees and leadership.

A Thoughtful Communicator

In Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and “Second Inaugural Address,” we’re given stunning examples of the man’s brilliance as a thinker. But, just as important, Lincoln was a masterful writer and speaker who consistently moved people through his humor and kind personal presence.

“His speaking went to the heart because it came from the heart,” reporter Horace White wrote. He also was not afraid to display his humanness. On more than one occasion, he traveled long distances to visit weary troops on the battlefield. Simply by demonstrating to them that their work mattered to him, he earned their unmitigated support. One soldier wrote in a letter home, “Lincoln’s warm smile was a reflection of his honest, kindly heart; but deeper, under the surface of that…were the unmistakable signs of care.”

The leadership of the inept USTA hides behind the bureaucracy and by all means, tries to limit criticism and works in an isolated fashion. Imagine what Lincoln would do if he got an email that said, no communication with the leaders you need to only deal with the minions who can’t decide anything or a board that simply will not allow dissent and naysayers. Can you Imagine where our country would be if the mindset of the leadership of USTA ran our country? What about communicating with care? of all the communications I have ever seen from inept USTA it has always been unsigned by the executives, talk about incompetence and lack of vision. How can the executives think they can lead if they are unable to relate and communicate with honesty and transparency?

Lincoln’s Leadership Genius

What Abraham Lincoln seemed to intuitively understand about leadership 150 years ago remains uncommon knowledge today. Engagement and performance are mostly influenced by feelings and emotions. Lincoln fundamentally cared about people and made every effort to demonstrate that to them. Through kind and encouraging words, and authentic gestures of exceptional thoughtfulness, he assured people of their significance. He was most essentially a human being who identified with the challenges people faced and the sacrifices they made. His tremendous influence was due to this.

Expressed in his own words, here is Lincoln’s most luminous leadership insight by far: “To win a man to your cause, you must first reach his heart, the great high road to his reason.

Has any one of you ever heard anyone of the brilliant USTA leaders say something meaningful, insightful, thoughtful, caring, with a vision of expanding our sport or simply an effort to talk to people’s hearts and love for the sport? Of course not, that is why we are living the failures of the most incapable leadership of all sports. What is worse is that there is no better-funded sport in the country than tennis. Yet, the incapable leaders can’t even publish publicly the actual amount of players per gender, age, and zip code. If people like Lincoln guided the country through war and slavery, why can’t we grow a simple sport that has more money than time? I say to the USTA executives, if Lincoln ran the USTA our sport would be the envy of the world, we would have a vision, a mission, and all initiatives would come from the heart. With the USTA board and executives, all we get is a shame to the country, to the sport, to non-profit management, and to the spirit of America.

USTA executives and Board of directors, past and present your results prove your capabilities, your actions prove your ineptitude, your silence proves your culpability and your minds prove your limits. You have it all wrong USTA!, you have it all WRONG!

I leave you with two thoughts:

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” ― Abraham Lincoln

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” ― Abraham Lincoln

I say NO to ineptitude and YES to growing the game

I can be reached at [email protected]