On the evening of May 27, 1754, during a torrential downpour, 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington led 40 men into the wilderness near Fort Necessity in the Ohio River Valley in search of hostile French troops that reportedly were in the area. When Washington and his men found them, they fought a short skirmish that started a world war and set off a chain of events that eventually led to American independence won by 51-year-old General George Washington in 1783. More than 100 years after Washington’s first battle, a lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln beat all the odds to win the presidential election of 1860. Faced with having to save the republic Washington had founded, Lincoln knew the first test of his leadership was to build a team aligned around his vision of bringing about “a more perfect Union.” This program traces the personal leadership journeys of the nation’s two greatest presidents to delve deeply into establishing leadership presence, communicating effectively, managing strategic partnerships, and leading with vision.
