50 Ways to Love Your Leader
Welcome to a special November edition of “Phronesis in Pieces” that offers thoughts about Election Day 2022 and Thanksgiving and, as always, the pursuit of virtuous wisdom for the common good.
Since such a pursuit entails sparking one’s creativity while maintaining connections to known quantities (and qualities), I have tried something different in writing this edition.
One of the jobs for which I am most grateful as I look back on my career in journalism and communication/education is my work as Associate Editor of The Kiplinger Washington Letter in the late 1980s. The newsletter has used a distinctive writing style, called sweep-line, developed by Washington reporter W.M. Kiplinger, who founded the Kiplinger company in the 1920s.
That firm, which was sold to a digital media publisher in 2021, also produces Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. It has a remarkable history as a reliable resource for wide-ranging news, complete with well-researched information and non-politicized judgments about future financial implications.
I sensed that returning to the largely forgotten sweep-line style for this special edition would give me good mental exercise in tight writing, as well as clear prioritization of main points. This approach also honors the good people of the firm, who constituted a family, literally and figuratively. The editors with whom I worked included W.M.’s son Austin Kiplinger and grandson Knight Kiplinger. Jack Kiesner was my valued mentor in learning sweep-line.
Please enjoy the four-page “phronesis focus letter,” which I have assembled with themes of leadership, gratitude, and the pursuit of wisdom. To keep the traditional format intact, I have stored the PDF of this document here for subscribers to access. You can also find the letter through my latest blog post at OnWord.net.
Send your comments to me at billgerards@gmail.com. For a kick, consider using sweep-line! It deserves a tribute as a quick-reading environment for action-oriented words of wisdom.
Image from ClipSafari.com, a collection of Creative Commons designs.