Implementing and sustaining a mission and vision with focused and profound clarity -- Communicating ideas effectively with precise and straightforward language -- Building a diverse and competent team to successfully address the mission -- Engendering trust, loyalty, and respect through humility, humor, and personal example -- Leading and serving with emotional intelligence and empathy -- Exercising situational competence and responding appropriately to implement effective change -- Rising beyond personal and professional trials through tenacity, persistence, resilience, and courage -- Exercising purposeful visibility -- Demonstrating personal growth and enhanced competence as a lifetime learner, willing to reflect on and expand ideas -- Believing that hope can become a reality -- Achieving authentic leadership in schools -- Appendix A: A chronology of Abraham Lincoln's life.