“Right makes might” Abraham Lincoln – Leadership

Transcript

Steve Fouts: 0:03 

Hey everybody, Steve and Dan Fouts here. We are teaching different with American President Abraham Lincoln with a thought provoking quote about leadership. Here’s the quote, “Right makes might.” This is probably the shortest quote we have, and maybe one of the most profound. It takes a familiar phrase that we’re all used to, might makes right, and it turns it on its head. It’s really dealing with the relationship between morality, doing the right thing, and having power and influence. A lot of times those two things don’t go well together. We’ve all had experiences where those in power make rules that are unfair, and we’ve also had experiences when people do the right things, but don’t have the influence that maybe we think they deserve. Abraham Lincoln inspires us with this quote. What claim do you see him making in this quote? 

Dan Fouts: 1:09 – Claim

I think he’s deciding on the fact that morality is a powerful way to lead other people. Trying to do the right thing consistently, kind of as a moral leader and role model, is the best way to have influence over people, long term and short term. It’s a fascinating way to think about things because by doing something, or what you perceive as the morally right thing, you’re allowing other people to look at you as somebody who cares more about good and bad than their own self interest as a leader. That makes you want to follow that leader more; it makes you think it’s not all about him or her, but about what’s right. That has an amazing influence over others. 

Steve Fouts: 2:03 

I’m thinking of how to get the students to share an experience that they have in seeing right and wrong at play with power. You can always bring up something like bullying, where a student has seen another student being taken advantage of by someone who has more power, or at least more perceived power at that moment, and how they reacted to it and how others who witnessed it reacted to it says a lot about who everyone is. When a student stands up to confront a bully, or reports the incident to a person in authority, that really shows that doing the right thing can have power. Students look up to other students who stand up to injustice, they love that feeling of knowing there are people in the world who care about what’s right. I think that that’s a persuasive way of acting, you’re going to just get junk about. 

Dan Fouts: 3:19 

I agree. Think about if one of your friends has your back and makes sure that you’re taken care of if someone does something bad to you. That friend has incredible influence over you because of how they lead by example and do the right thing. 

Steve Fouts: 3:44 

I think that’s a really good example to bring these ideas out. Let’s do a counterclaim to this. 

Dan Fouts: 3:58 – Counterclaim

Well, if you’re in a position of authority, what you say goes, what you say is right.  It’s right because you’re in the position of authority. The first thing that  pops into my head, from a parent perspective, is when parents get frustrated with their children. This has happened to me before where you say to your kid, I need you to do this because I said you need to do it. The thinking is that it’s right because I said so. Which in some cases is an appropriate way to lead. You can’t challenge all authority all the time. Sometimes you just have to accept that what you’re being told is what you have to follow and is right. 

Steve Fouts: 4:48 

What you hope in those cases is that the leader has your best interests at heart, and that you trust the leader to make rules that you have to follow.  That’s the ideal case, and then sometimes you’ll get rules that you don’t like, but, because you trust the leader, it works out okay. 

Dan Fouts: 5:08 

That’s a great point, that you have to trust the leader to have your best interests in mind. Going back to the claim, you also have to trust that the leader is doing the morally right thing. So trust is going to be important in both settings. 

Steve Fouts: 5:28 

The frustrating part, I think, for many students is that they perceive those in power as not caring about what’s right and wrong, but that they like the feeling of power. We have a great conversation in the library with a quote from John Adams about this idea that power should never be trusted without a check. Our founding fathers believed that power itself was something that was so infectious we needed to find ways to check it, because otherwise everyone would abuse it once they had it. 

Dan Fouts: 6:07 

In other words, our leaders won’t always follow “right makes might” in the  Lincoln sense.  

Steve Fouts: 6:16 – Essential Question

Here’s an essential question you can use to wrap up and that offers an opportunity for a vibrant conversation: “Is doing the right thing the best way to influence others?”  This gets to the heart of morality, good and bad, and how it relates to power and influence. Some students aren’t going to think they’re related, but after a conversation like this you’ll be able to get them to reflect and become more conscious of whether or not it’s possible for power to be infused with morality. Maybe power even gets stronger when the leader is doing the right thing. 

Dan Fouts: 7:02 

I was just going to add that these students are going to be leaders one day and many of them are leaders already. They have important decisions to make on how they want to lead others, how they get others to see them as having credibility and how to influence. These are so important to think about before you occupy positions of authority. 

Steve Fouts: 7:29 

We hope you’ve enjoyed Abraham Lincoln this week. If you want more resources, then sign up for access to our Conversation Library where we have videos, guides and everything you really need to make having these conversations in the classroom a routine. Take care, everybody.  We’ll talk to you soon.  

Dan Fouts: 8:06 

All right, take care.