"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with." - Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was writing to his incoming general David Hunter about the man he was replacing, John Fremont. It set a clear expectation about the value of being present. Lincoln himself was constantly present at the telegraph office, the armory, even the front lines. It made him not only relatable to the army, but also well-informed.
I'm more like Fremont in the sense of not just walking about. As a supervisor I set up meetings in my office weekly to stay informed, and I attended unit meetings to show my commitment to them, but I never developed the skill of walking into a group of people for small talk. Is it time to start?
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