Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln - Part 2

4. Practice the art of constructive compromise.
More than anything else, Lincoln's genius lay in knowing when and how to compromise. He had to, since he got only 40% of the popular vote in 1860. Lincoln would say, My policy is to have no policy. He meant he would be flexible and not rigid, willing to change as necessary.

Lincoln opposed slavery from the start, but to attack it prematurely would have destroyed the Union. He moved forward in small steps, each one designed to convince the country that the only way to end the Civil War was to end slavery.

5. Use humor as your secret weapon.
Lincoln was a very funny man. His jokes and puns gave him great relief from the crushing burdens of his job. But he also used humor to defuse tense situations and avoid giving answers to troublesome questions.

6. Make honesty and integrity the cornerstones of your leadership style.
Lincoln's reputation for absolute honesty gave him an edge with other people. They might disagree with him, but they couldn't question his integrity.

There is not a recorded instance of Lincoln telling a lie or deliberately deceiving anyone. People at the time, of course, referred to him as Honest Abe.

Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln - Part 1

When most people think of Abraham Lincoln, they imagine a tall, skinny lawyer whose bumbling style and rural charm helped him win the presidency of the United States of America – and the Civil War.

These are the leadership skills that made Lincoln great – and the lessons we can learn from them...

1. Encourage – and listen carefully to – criticism.
There were no public opinion polls in Lincoln's day. Yet he kept in touch with common people and was able to perceive what they were thinking better than any other American politician at that time. With no way to measure public opinion, Lincoln invented one. The doors of the White House were thrown open almost every day for what Lincoln called his "public opinion baths."

Lincoln also asked nearly everyone he met to send him their ideas or their opinions. Hundreds of letters crossed his desk each month – more than any president before him had ever received. He handled much of his correspondence by referring letters to the appropriate officials. But he wrote an extraordinary number of replies himself – all in longhand and never dictating them.

2. Learn to communicate clearly and concisely.
There was no radio or television in Lincoln's day, and there were no national newspapers. His strongest channels of communication with theincreasingly diverse population were letters and speeches. To make these channels work effectively, Lincoln taught himself to speak clearly and directly – and in words the average person would understand.

3. Delegate authority – but never surrender it.
Lincoln's contemporaries thought him a pooradministrator because important details seemed to slip through his fingers. Actually he wasdelegating power to those best equipped to use it. Though he delegated well, Lincoln always kept his eye on the big picture. He set the tone for his policies and stepped in only when key decisions had to be made.

心中的顽石

阻碍我们去发现、去创造的，仅仅是我们心理上的障碍和思想中的顽石。

从前有一户人家的菜园摆着一颗大石头，宽度大约有四十公分，高度有十公分。到菜园的人，不小心就会踢到那一颗大石头，不是跌倒就是擦伤。

儿子问：“爸爸，那颗讨厌的石头，为什么不把它挖走？”
　　
爸爸这么回答：“你说那颗石头喔？从你爷爷时代，就一直放到现在了，它的体积那么大，不知道要挖到到什么时候，没事无聊挖石头，不如走路小心一点，还可以训练你的反应能力。”

过了几年，这颗大石头留到下一代，当时的儿子娶了媳妇，当了爸爸。

有一天媳妇气愤地说：“爸爸，菜园那颗大石头，我越看越不顺眼，改天请人搬走好了。”
　　
爸爸回答说：“算了吧！那颗大石头很重的，可以搬走的话在我小时候就搬走了，哪会让它留到现在啊？”

媳妇心底非常不是滋味，那颗大石头不知道让她跌倒多少次了。

有一天早上，媳妇带着锄头和一桶水，将整桶水倒在大石头的四周。

十几分钟以后，媳妇用锄头把大石头四周的泥土搅松。

媳妇早有心理准备，可能要挖一天吧，谁都没想到几分钟就把石头挖起来，看看大小，这颗石头没有想像的那么大，都是被那个巨大的外表蒙骗了。

温馨提示：你抱着下坡的想法爬山，便无从爬上山去。如果你的世界沉闷而无望，那是因为你自己沉闷无望。改变你的世界，必先改变你自己的心态。

12th Children Play Camp

On 11th Sept 2005, we have successfully organised the 12th Children Play Camp in Hutan Lipur Cherok To'kun. Total no. of participants are 92 children from various school in BM area.

Here is some of the photo that taken during the events,

JCI Podcast - Suara Bukit #2

This is the for JCI Bukit Mertajam's Suara Bukit.

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Suara Bukit #2 is Released

This is the 2nd Edition for our Suara Bukit.

It have some information about incoming activities, ANC, Academy & etc. Please click update in iTunes music player to download the latest JCI Podcast.

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Amended Constitution & By-Laws (25/July/2005)

During the 6th of Board of Director Meeting, the Board of Director have made some amendments on the Constitution & BY-Laws.

Kindly please download the attached file and those with yellow highlighted are those that amended.

Please give us your comments if you have such and we shall discuss it again in coming Board Meeting before we proceed to AGM for final endorsement.

Please click here to download the file in PDF format.
(Right click to save the file to your harddisk)