Last night (11/4) I sat in rapt attention in the second row of Campbell Hall along with a sold out audience listening to world-renowned historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, spin her fascinating tales about our past Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Lyndon Johnson to Teddy Roosevelt to FDR and more. Her Arts & Lectures presentation entitled, The Lessons of History: Great Presidents Past and Present, held our attention like none other as she related story after story after story. She even peppered her talk with her touching baseball adventures.

I found most interesting the leadership traits she highlighted as a thread binding these great presidential leaders together. These traits included:

1. Withstanding adversity
2. Focus
3. Surrounding themselves with people who question their assumptions
4. Learning from mistakes
5. Relaxing and shaking off anxiety—practicing intentional recreation
6. Knowing about human nature—making emotional connections with people
7. Being a master of timing
8. Speaking with stories and everyday metaphors, poetry, and drama
9. Maintaining integrity of character
10. Having physical and mental courage to take a risk—building up the habit of courage

 In her forthcoming book, The  Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, Doris Kearns Goodwin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Team of Rivals, captures the Progressive Era through the story of the broken friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, culminating in their running against one another for president in 1912. This book was available at last night’s performance—astonishing since it wasn’t offered for sale to the general public until today!