How did he do this?

No magic or superhuman powers were involved.  Lincoln used resources that are within the reach of anyone, and with a bit of practice, you can use them effectively, too.

In general, behavior can be predicted in terms of a person’s interests, group identity, character, and unconscious needs.  Entire books have been written on this subject, but here’s a brief overview:

One. Interests  Interests have to do with one’s own benefit or advantage; the focus is on the basic question, “What’s in this for me?”  If you’re trying to predict a person’s (or a group’s) behavior, evaluate whether they will experience profit or loss, pleasure or pain from the outcome.  Lincoln dealt mainly with politicians and lawyers, who habitually make these kinds of calculations.  However, the approach is not foolproof because humans are more than human calculators.  People sometimes behave irrationally—that is, they do not behave in their own best interests.  So, you will have to include more than interests to become good at predictions.

Two. Group Identity.  What groups do the individuals belong to or identify with?  Do they think of themselves as Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, Christians, gang members, labor or management?  Sociologists call this “reference-group behavior.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, a contemporary of Lincoln whose work Lincoln knew about, wrote:  “If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument.”  Lincoln certainly took political affiliation (i.e. “sect”) into the aforementioned calculation.   You can see this principle at work by looking at the party affiliation of the votes that are cast for particular bills in Congress.  Whenever there is a deviation from sect affiliation, the decision will usually be based on interests.

Three.  Unconscious Needs.  Sigmund Freud discovered that behavior is sometimes neither rational nor irrational, but arational.  Lincoln, of course, lived long before Freud, and did not use this concept as such in his predictions.   But if you want to become a skillful forecaster, be aware that some behavior will seem to come out of nowhere.  The source may be memories of experiences that are buried in the individual’s unconscious mind—buried, but not dead.

Four.  Character.  Is the individual basically honest or dishonest, industrious or an idler, kind or a bully?  An honest man may yield to temptation, but a dishonest man will look for it.  An industrious man will take pride in his work.  An idler will take pride in avoiding work.  A kind man may be unkind, but regret it; a bully will be unkind and enjoy it. 

Simply put, character is a blend of genetics and deeply rooted habits.  Emerson wrote: “I suppose no man can violate his nature….A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.”   Lincoln’s character was well known.  Lincoln was Honest Abe.   He got this name because people learned that if you dealt with Lincoln, you were dealing with an honest man.   

If you want to predict behavior, do what Lincoln did, and observe carefully to see if the person is basically honest or deceitful, a giver or a taker, diligent or careless.  Once you understand a person’s character, you will seldom be surprised by their behavior.

One quick story about character.  Once there was a scorpion that wanted to cross a river.  Seeing a frog, the scorpion asked the frog if he could ride on his back across the river. 

“I can’t do that,” replied the frog, “because if you rode on my back, you would sting me and I would die.”

“Why would I sting you?” answered the scorpion.  “It is not in my best interest to sting you.  If I stung you, we would both drown.”

“That’s true,” said the frog, who then allowed the scorpion to climb on his back.

In the middle of the river, the frog felt a sharp sting in his back.

“Why have you stung me,” screamed the frog in pain.  “It is not in your best interest to sting me.”

Replied the scorpion:  “Because it is my nature to sting. You knew what I was when you let me ride on your back.”

QUOTABLE QUOTES
***Ethics
“I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.  But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”--Martin Luther King Jr, “The Negro is Your Brother,” August 1963

***Sincerity and Honest Appreciation
“Let’s cease thinking of our accomplishments, our wants.  Let’s try to figure out the other person’s good points.  Then forget flattery.  Give honest, sincere appreciation…and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime—repeat them years after you have forgotten them. 
--Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends and Influence People

“By saturating the public domain with false sincerity, advertising makes genuine sincerity more difficult.”  --Avner Offer (economic historian, Oxford University, and author of The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain Since 1950)

***How Great Thinkers Think
“To be a world champion in chess, the amount of what you have to know, what you have to fit in your brain and master, is so big that it is incomprehensible to a normal person.  You have to know more than a nuclear physicist or a brain surgeon knows.  You have to know more stuff than virtually anyone on earth.  Then you have to have the facility of mind to process it and then forget it so that you are free to improvise and be imaginative.”  --Fred Weitzkin, (father of grand master Joshua Weitzkin and author of Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess)

***America and Americans
Most of the quotes I choose for TAD are at micro level—what individuals or small groups can do.  But high achievement involves macro-thinking—understanding what is happening at the societal level.   The following two quotes have the macro-level focus.
 
“For nearly three centuries the dominant fact in American life has been expansion.   With the settlement of the Pacific coast and occupation of the free lands, this movement has come to a check.
 
This then is the real situation: a people composed of heterogeneous materials, with diverse and conflicting ideals and social interests, having passed from the task of filling up the vacant spaces of the continent, is now thrown back upon itself, and is seeking an equilibrium.”—Frederick Jackson Turner (historian)  “The Problem of the West,”  1896

“We (i.e. Americans) are a business people who know nothing about the intricacies of politics, especially international politics, and in the flush of youthful pride we make no calculations of the reactions to our attitudes in the minds of others.  Our lack of imagination is increased by the fact that we have come into our position of authority too suddenly to adjust ourselves to its responsibilities and that we are geographically too isolated from the world to come into intimate contact with the thought of others.” 
--Reinhold Niebuhr (theologian, philosopher)  “Awkward Imperialists”  May 1930

***Credulity
“Who you gonna’ believe, me or your own eyes?”  --The Marx Brothers “Duck Soup” (1933)
 “Anything is possible if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” –folk saying

LEADERSHIP
Effective Communication
For those of you who conduct meetings, retreats or lead seminars, here’s a valuable communication technique from master communicator David Greenberg that will get your listeners more involved in your presentation.  Greenberg calls it the “shared pair” technique: 

“Say something like, ‘We’ve covered a lot of information.   Please turn to a person sitting next to you and each take 30 seconds to share the most important points you’ve learned so far and how you can apply them to your situation.’  Monitor the conversations so that you know they do understand your message, and are learning.”   From www.davidgreenberg.com

“LINCOLN’S WISDOM”   
Would you like to sample some of the tracks of our new audio book, or would you like to do an MP3 download?  You can do both at CD Baby.   Here’s the link to this great website: http://cdbaby.com/found?allsearch=griessman&submit=search

FEEDBACK
*** “The authenticity of Dr. Griessman’s acting was very moving.   I truly listened to the Gettysburg Address for the first time.” 

--Al Stuempel, Vistage Chair, Cincinnati

*** “Thank you for presenting at the Blue Ridge Conference this year.  You were fabulous and your evaluations certainly showed the same.  I have to share with you that your presentation was personally touching to me.   I am reading your Time Tactics book hoping to pull some examples for my time management workshop and for myself.”   --Hope Stockton, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Conference on Leadership

*** From the evaluations:
“Entertaining, powerful and everything in between!”

“It was nice to finally meet one of my favorite historical figures”
 

“I have viewed the video. It was enlightening.  But this presentation was beyond anything I imagined.  It was awesome.”
 

 “I felt that Mr. Griessman accomplished what many speakers have trouble with in presenting an informative speech.   He drew all the attendees in and had them at an intimate level, where they wanted to listen.  He offered a humorous, yet extremely informative speech with a depth of knowledge into President Lincoln’s life, and possibly emotions; his presentation was down to a science.” 

TRAVEL NOTES FROM A ROAD WARRIOR
Rockville, MD
Sushi Damo in the Rockville Town Square.   For an incredible taste sensation, try one of the Damo Lunch specials.  I chose the beef negimaki-- scallions wrapped with thin strips of broiled beef in teriyaki sauce—which was served with miso soup, house salad, mini-cali roll, chef’s side dish and rice.  A beautiful, up-scale experience in a 96-seat Zen-like atmosphere for $12.50.   301-340-8010 

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___Lincoln-Leadership
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___Keynote Presentation LESSONS FROM LEGENDS (Powerful stories from interview with famous high achievers)
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Click here to watch excerpts from the Lincoln presentation in streaming video.
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VALUABLE RESOURCES 
***THE WORDS LINCOLN LIVED BY www.achievementdigest.com/thewordslincolnlivedby.html
 
***TIME TACTICS OF VERY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE www.achievementdigest.com/timetacticsofverysuccessfulpeople.html
  
***99 WAYS TO GET MORE OUT OF EVERY DAY: www.achievementdigest.com/99waystogetmorecd.html
 
***"AN EVENING WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN" VIDEO www.achievementdigest.com/aneveningwithabraham.html
 
***"LESSONS FROM LEGENDS" CD AUDIOBOOK www.achievementdigest.com/ProductOrderForm.html
 
***"LINCOLN ON COMMUNICATION" DVD-CD  www.achievementdigest.com/lincoln%20on%20communication.html

 “Lessons From Legends”  recently was name “Best Educational Album” in the 2006 JPF Music Awards.   It is a recording before a live audience of several thousand people in which I tell stories from my exclusive interviews with celebrities.  If you’d like to obtain multiple copies of this CD, contact us directly for a quantity price.  The best way to obtain a single copy of the CD is from CD Baby.  You can hear an excerpt on-line before ordering. http://cdbaby.com/found?artist=griessman&soundlike=&album=lessons+from+legends&style=

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THE ACHIEVEMENT DIGEST--TAD, March 2005--A Unique Newsletter For Leaders