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About Us Practical History: Why the Institute for Leadership Studies and History Exists. History as management consulting? No, we are not in the business of teaching history. But we do teach leadership using history. History may not at first seem as immediately practical as plumbing, brain surgery, fixing cars or accounting, but dig a bit with me beneath the surface. Let’s become like curious hens scratching the soil and asking what else is hidden here, just beneath the dust. The most valuable things are, after all, frequently hidden. A small grain of sand caught by a wave running over a beach or an infinitesimal bit of fish bone falls into an oyster. The minute intruder causes an irritation and the disturbing fragment is surrounded by chemicals from the mollusk to protect itself from its unwelcome intruder and becomes something wonderful . . . a pearl hidden within the closed shell. History can be a wonderfully practical, hard-headed, immediately useful pearl for operating a business --if we look just a bit beneath the surface of the shell. I spent much time as a corporate sales executive and left a successful career to become a college professor. While working in a corporation, I found that my graduate study for a Ph.D. in history was much more useful than most of the courses I had taken when seeking an M.B.A. in marketing. I found myself drawing on lessons I had learned in books of history, philosophy, and literature and applying them to business problems. I eventually found these a lot more practical, and immediately instructive, to my work in corporate America than the books of finance, accounting and statistics read for an M.B.A. Also the historical figures, for example, of Henry VIII and Thomas Moore or of Churchill and Roosevelt, and the lessons they provided, were more memorable. These stayed with me. Such a recall was unlike my M.B.A. courses, whose operations research algorithms, mean standard deviation formula and the different methods of calculating depreciation I struggled, unsuccessfully, to recall and seldom had occasion to use. When, as a Vice President of Sales, I had to make some critical ethical choices in our sales organization and our product marketing that disagreed with the President of the company I did not turn to my M.B.A. course work. Nothing here would be of any help. What was of help, however, was the disagreement of one CEO, Henry VIII, with his Executive Vice President, Thomas Moore, regarding the strategic direction of Henry’s family business. I used some of Thomas Moore’s techniques, did the right thing and kept my job and integrity in tact (unlike poor Thomas who kept his integrity but lost both his job and his head in the bargain!). When one company I was working for was suddenly undercut by a vicious competitor that nearly drove us out of business, I not only recalled, but used and emulated, Churchill’s and Roosevelt’s optimism and the applied the same administrative techniques both used to assemble a team of upper managers that got Britain through the Blitz, America through the depression and my company on its feet and back to sustained profitability. Whenever I had to make a speech to motivate employees to extra efforts, I read Henry V’s “band of brothers” address to his troops before the battle of Agincourt in Shakespeare’s Henry V. This speech, the greatest motivational address ever spoken, was of far more use than my MBA communication course. It also helped my presentation to know I had studied with the greatest master of English oratory, William Shakespeare (and made me a more popular and effective figure to my corporate audiences also!). What my research in leadership in history has revealed is that successful leaders all shared things in common: First they could engage passionately with peers and those around them and the public at large. Second, all had unbounded energy to entice people to accomplish the extraordinary. Like skilled musicians they found a tempo to throw themselves and others into motion, playing persuasively on heartstrings and emotions to accomplish the seemingly impossible. In addition, as I did further research I noted all shared other qualities as well. All did similar things when under crisis. All hired others using similar standards. All shared a similar psychological experience. I began to apply my findings to my various corporate positions and to tell others about my discoveries and recommend books of history to those above and below me in the corporation. History, practical history as I have used it, seeks not to revere the dead but to help the living. With some help and coaching from me, some initial skeptics became converts as each organization I worked for saw increased revenue and profitability from my ideas and my application of history to the running of a business. After much thought I decided to use the many skills I had developed in sales and sales management, particularly the ability to lead, speak and motivate, and apply these to teaching on the University level. I was fortunate in associating myself with two unique schools. William Paterson University had developed a unique program with it’s Russ Berrie Institute (www.wpunj.edu) to be the only University to offer a major in sales through its business school. Although I was in the history department, this naturally caught my attention and my admiration and gave me the opportunity to instruct business students on sales techniques. At Fairleigh Dickinson (www.fdu.edu) I further developed my interest in practical history, drawing lessons for my classes between success and survival in business and success and survival in history. Increasingly I made comparisons across time, comparing Enron’s collapse to that of ancient Rome, various kings and Prime Ministers to present day corporate CEOs, the ancient Greek’s war against Persia to a successful company under attack and many other examples. I soon had nearly one hundred case studies from across time that applied to present problems and issues of leadership in American corporations. I wanted to combine my practical experience in being an entrepreneur and corporate executive, my studies of leadership and history, and my presentation skills as a teacher to I hope you will join me in opening up new ways to look at your role as a business leader in one of the Institute for Leadership Studies and History’s workshops. Robert Ellis
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Moses Elizabeth I Napoleon Bonaparte Franklin Roosevelt |
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MOSES | ELIZABETH I | NAPOLEON BONAPARTE | FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT © 2006 Institute For Leadership Studies & History, All Rights Reserved |
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