Recently, Bill Moyers Journal played clips from a CBS news feature that asked presidential candidates what one book, other than the bible, they would bring to the White House. Moyers asked viewers to offer their own suggestions, and he got thousands of responses, including one from me.

I recommended Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times, by Donald T. Phillips. I used to give this book to coworkers, because I really believe in the lessons it offers. For example, Lincoln spent a great deal of his presidency out among the troops during the Civil War; he believed in seeing things for himself, and I think that’s a great leadership quality.

Lincoln was also a great communicator, legendary as a public speaker largely because of his storytelling talent. Storytelling and public speaking are leadership skills largely untaught in schools today. This is a shame, because stories share culture, and culture builds character. And character, of course, is the greatest leadership trait of all.

If you’d like to encourage storytelling in your family, there’s a little book called Telling Your Own Stories (1993, August House) by Donald Davis. Through a combination of brief instruction and leading questions (“Can you remember a time when you got sick at a very inconvenient moment?” “Can you take us with you to a place you went only once but have always wanted to visit again?”), Davis shows how to discover the hundreds of stories you already know and how to tell them really well.

Lincoln on Leadership and Telling Your Own Stories provide a strong foundation for those charged with organizing others to achieve as a team more than they could achieve as individuals. As a bonus, they are also thought provoking and fun to read.