A Larger Way of Looking at Leadership

A lesson from David McCullough

David McCullough greets the Main Stage crowd at the National Book Festival, August 31, 2019. (Shawn Miller/Library of Congress - public domain)

“Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” — John Adams, 1776

Why should leaders care about history?

It’s a question I ponder frequently, as I write this eclectic newsletter.

Readers like you know that this isn’t a standard “Four Ways Leaders Can Improve Performance” publication.

The death of David McCullough caused me again to consider why I beat this drum. And the answer is twofold:

Stories and humanity.

Scott Monty @ScottMonty

“We are all part of a larger stream of events. We are all the beneficiaries of those who have gone before us.” — David McCullough, 1998

In the 2008 documentary Painting with Words, McCullough recounted:

A friend of mine recently said, “Your books aren’t about history. They’re about life.”
And I thought, “Well, yeah, because that’s what history is. Life.”

And isn’t that what leadership is? Leadership is about working with people and helping them become the best they can be.

Dealing with the messiness of human nature, understanding others through empathy, and using stories to motivate and move people.

Leadership is inextricably linked with life. And therefore, the stories and examples we find in history help us apply those life lessons.

---

“History is not about dates and quotes and obscure provisos. History is about life. About change. About consequences, cause and effect. It's about the mystery of human nature. The mystery of time.

“And it isn’t just about politics and the military and social issues, which is almost always the way it's taught. It’s about music and poetry, and drama and science, and medicine and money, and love.” — David McCullough

---

When your employees show up to work, they don’t turn off their personal lives. They may be concerned about a child’s performance on a test, scheduling a doctor’s appointment for an elderly parent, dealing with relationship issues. All of this affects their performance at work.

And leaders ought to be aware of that and show their employees that they care about their lives.

Ambition

In his biography John Adams, McCullough wrote about a visit Ralph Waldo Emerson made to Adams in Quincy, Massachusetts in the latter’s final year of his life in 1825.

Emerson recounted the visit and noted what Adams said to him:

“I would to God there were more ambition in the country,” by which he meant, “ambition of the laudable kind. To excel.”

We might call that conscientiousness, taking pride in your work, and a commitment to success.

Or perhaps it’s a commitment to virtue—to character.

Scott Monty @ScottMonty

“History teaches that character counts. Character above all.” — David McCullough, 1998

Leaders are committed to the success of their team and know that they are judged based on their words and actions.

Scott Monty @ScottMonty

One more quote — something all leaders should remember: “The lessons of history are innumerable, but one of the more obvious lessons, and one that we cannot forget or ignore, is that very seldom is anything of consequence accomplished alone.” — David McCullough, 2019

History will judge us.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet

One last thing…

Last year, I wrote to David McCullough to ask if he’d join me for an interview on the Timeless Leadership podcast:

Letter to David McCullough

His son wrote back, declining on his behalf.

“David McCullough is not well enough to respond to your letter himself but he truly enjoyed it...he very much appreciates you having included his quotation and wishes you all the very best.”

Scott Monty @ScottMonty

“History, I like to think, is a larger way of looking at life.” — David McCullough, 2017