Time

Leaders, by the nature of their work, move across past, present, and future. They draw on the lessons the past offers their group. They act in the urgency of now, where followers live and work. And they glimpse the future, or a future, carrying a vision of what might yet be. If they have the skill and understanding, their words knit the threads of time together for their people, offering a sense of purpose that stretches beyond the moment.

The past offers more than precedent — it offers meaning. Leaders who reflect on where their group has been can draw strength, caution, and continuity from that history. They hold up what came before not as nostalgia, but as foundation, and sometimes restoration.

The present is where work happens. Most people do their work in the now, because that is how they are judged, so the present is where their attention is focused — deadlines, immediate concerns, what is expected next. But leaders, who can no longer affect the present, view it more lightly, as a leverage point for change. Change is the real focus of leaders, not what is happening now.

The future is where leadership lives. Leaders must act now in a way that prepares others for what’s next — setting direction, sparking momentum, and helping people imagine what could be.

Few have done this more masterfully than Abraham Lincoln. In just 272 words at Gettysburg, he invoked the past (“Fourscore and seven years ago”), grounded the speech in the cost and crisis of the present (“Now we are met on a great battlefield of that war”), and cast forward to a renewed future (“that government of the people . . . shall not perish from the earth”).

To lead is to work in the rhythm of time — honoring the past, acting in the present, and shaping what’s to come.