A Call to Greatness
6/8/20262 min read
The American civil war was raging, and it was becoming increasingly bloodier and more brutal. President Abraham Lincoln was falling into a deep depression. As every week the war became more complicated. His days were discouraging and his nights were interminably restless.
Only to awake the next morning to a horrible report of more deaths, more heartbreak, and the future ending of it seemed forever removed from him at all.
Would it ever end?
The burden of all of that rested on the shoulders of President Abraham Lincoln.
And we who love to read him stand back at amazement at his ability to handle all this as well as he did.
One afternoon, he felt he must get a little solitude and hopefully find a place of refreshment and relief.
He said to his aide, “I’d like to go to the church.” He often attended the national presbyterian church in DC on Wednesday evenings.
The two of them went alone. They walked there. That was in the days when presidents could walk freely in the capitol city.
Night had fallen.
They slipped into a side door into an unlit room to not call attention to his presence and disturb the meeting.
The pastor had just stood to begin his sermon.
Lincoln sat in a pew and crossed his legs.
Placed his stovepipe hat on his lap and never moved as he listened intently to what the pastor had to say.
As the sermon ended, people got up to leave. Lincoln remained seated.
His aide leaned over and whispered to him, “Well, what did you think? Did you think it was a good message?”
Lincoln responded, “I think the message was well prepared, well delivered, sincere. The points were logical. The man was clear.”
His aide asked again, “Then you thought it was a good sermon?”
Lincoln said, “No. I thought he failed.”
“Failed? How? Why?” asked the aide.
Lincoln made eye contact with his aide and responded, “He failed because he did not ask of us something great.”
He failed because he did not ask of us something great.
You just read the words of Chuck Swindoll who told this true story of Lincoln, and it’s become a favorite of mine.
It’s an important story.
It should be for all of us.
Have you called your team to something great?
The great you should call them to do is the mission or purpose of the organization. Whether you’re curating experiences for guests at a resort, trying to inspire people to do something for God, build a radio network, or serve the best food at a restaurant you need a higher purpose.
When you hire someone to fill a particular role and do certain tasks, be sure to emphasize the why. Make sure they’re qualified to do the role, but they need to be inspired to do it with excellence.
Tell the new hire, and the team, the stories of customers who have been impacted by what your organization does. That gives everyone’s role significance and weight. People need to know they’re more than what they do. They need to know they’re making a difference in this world. Help them believe that by drawing a direct line from what they do to the purpose of the organization.
When you hire someone invite them to make a dent in the universe by helping to achieve the mission. Don’t hire someone to do a job. Ask them to join a movement and spend their lives doing something worthy of their time.
Let’s call people to something great.
Leadership matters,
Brian