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ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON LEADERSHIP - Timeless Principles of Successful Leadership · SECRETS OF SUCCESS & WEALTH: Hidden Laws of Money, Power & Success

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  Araham Lincoln on Leadership introduction. Throughout the relatively brief history of the United States,
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  there have been many great leaders. Several such as Washington, Adams,
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  Jefferson, and the Roosevelts, became presidents. Others like Franklin, Webster,
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  Anthony, and King made a dramatic impact on mankind without reaching the White House.
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  There are countless other leaders, on both local and national levels, in
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  all aspects of society, who could be labeled great. Yet there is one
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  person who rises above all of them, one who is consistently ranked as the
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  greatest president, one who is viewed as the greatest leader this nation has ever
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  known or will ever know, and one who, although dead for more than
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  one hundred and twenty five years, still inspires and moves people from all walks
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  of life, from all around the globe. That person is Abraham Lincoln.
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  It is not surprising that our vision of Lincoln today is more mythical than real.
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  His role as the embattled Civil War president and savior of the nation was
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  magnified after his assassination, and with time, his enduring image as the great
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  emancipator has catapulted him to a level near sainthood. In addition, the labeling
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  of Lincoln as honest abe and the rail splitter by the media of his time
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  has been perpetuated for well over a century. Every school aged child in America
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  knows about Abraham Lincoln. Thousands of books and articles have been written on various
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  aspects of his life. Moreover, the image of Lincoln is everywhere. His
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  likeness is on the penny, the five dollar bill, savings, bonds,
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  and certificates of deposit. There are countless statues, photographs, paintings, and
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  sketches of him throughout the United States and around the world. His likeness adorns
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  court rooms, schools, public buildings, and private residences. There have been
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  plays written about him, along with movies, television programs, magazine articles,
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  songs, and poems. His name has been associated with motels, automobiles,
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  toys, banks, organizations, streets, and objects too numerous to fist.
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  In addition, his letters, notes, written, speeches, and autographs are
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  in demand all over the world. With all this exposure ingrained in the American
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  stream of consciousness, it's easy to see why the distance between the myth and
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  the reality of Lincoln is still very wide. In fact, it has only
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  been in the last twenty or thirty years that Lincoln enthusiasts have begun to explore
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  the real Lincoln and at the same time try to separate and downplay the myth.
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  Curiously, with everything that has been written about Abraham Lincoln, little is
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  known about his extraordinary leadership ability. This is perhaps because leadership theory itself is
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  a relatively recent phenomenon. Only in the last ten to fifteen years has the
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  study of leadership been examined closely, and not as part of the management philosophy
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  of the business world. In a way, Abraham Lincoln represented the summation of
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  those leadership qualities that had helped to form a nation. The last great leader
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  before industrial change, Lincoln stood for all that was right, honest, and
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  self evident. As a boy, his heroes were the founding Fathers, and
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  he studied the history of that young nation that was so devoted to human rights.
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  He grew up in poverty and had a binding link to the common people.
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  He was innovative at a time when the age of discoveries and inventions was
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  just beginning. He was compassionate and caring, yet when necessary, could put
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  his foot down firmly and be decisive. Beyond question. He was patient,
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  persistent, consistent, and persuasive rather than dictatorial. But without a doubt,
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  the foundation of Abraham Lincoln's leadership style was an unshakable commitment to the rights of
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  the individual. Interestingly, in the many definitions of leadership, there are few
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  references to this basic concept of human rights. James mc gregor Bums in his
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  landmark book Leadership, came the closest when he wrote, Leadership is leaders inducing
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  followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations, the
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  wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations of both leaders and followers, and
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  the genius of leadership lies in a manner in which leaders see and act on
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  their own and their fellows values and motivations. As close as Burns comes to
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  a pure definition of leadership, it still seems a shade, unfinished or incomplete.
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  Such is the case, however, with virtually every attempt at interpreting,
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  clarifying, or defining the true meaning of leadership. Leadership is an elusive concept
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  that at times can be vague and ambiguous. As a result, there are
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  no set rules or formulas for leaders to follow. There are only guidelines and
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  concepts perceptions and ideas, abstractions and generalities. This is why the art of
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  leading people is so difficult to master and teach, and why there is such
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  a great need for role models. We must study individuals who are recognized as
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  successful leaders, those who have demonstrated their abilities with tangible results. In short,
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  we must look to our heroes, for it is only by examining individuals
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  such as Abraham Lincoln that we can ever hope to understand how effective leadership works.
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  Studies of other well known leaders suggest that certain factors in childhood can predispose
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  a person to great leadership. James McGregor Bums points out, for example,
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  that the most important influences on the shaping of leaders lie almost wholly in their
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  early years. He observed that Gondhi Lenin and Franklin Roosevelt appeared to have a
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  strong attachment to one parent, coupled with some intensively negative attachment to the other.
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  Most of these leaders had a close relationship with their mothers, who appeared
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  to favor them over other siblings. Sigmund Freud made a similar observation when in
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  the interpretation of dreams, he wrote, I have found that people who know
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  that they are preferred or favored by their mother s, give evidence in their
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  lives of a peculiar self reliance and an unshakable optimism, which often seem like
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  heroic attributes and bring actual success to their possessors. Abraham Lincoln similarly had a
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  very close bond with his stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. She was a
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  constant source of encouragement and love to her stepson, Missus Lincoln considered Abraham a
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  model child who never needed a cross word. She recalled that her mind and
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  his seemed to run together. Lincoln spoke only in kindness of Sarah Lincoln and
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  always called her mother. In later years, he provided for her in part
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  by keeping the forty acres of land on which she lived in his name.
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  He visited her for the last time in early eighteen sixty one, just before
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  he left for Washington to take the oath of office. They embraced, cried,
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  held hands, and talked most of the day. To friends who accompanied
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  him, Lincoln spoke very affectionately of his stepmother, calling her the best friend
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  he'd ever had, in recalling the positive change she'd brought about in his life.
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  This last visit, in itself says much about the attachment they shared.
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  Here was Lincoln off to face a task even greater than that which rested upon
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  Washington, taking time to visit his mother, his earliest and strongest source of
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  reassurance and support. By contrast, there was a major estrangement between Lincoln and
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  his father, Thomas. Lincoln grew up literally without education, as Lincoln would
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  later write, and he never did more in the way of writing than to
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  bunglingly sign his own name. Abraham, however, was more given to intellectual
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  pursuits, which may have been the chief cause for a lack of bonding and
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  affection between the two. The boy took it upon himself to learn to read
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  and write, and then subsequently expanded his abilities by leaps and bounds. A
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  perfect example of the depth of the rift between the two is that Lincoln did
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  not attend his father's funeral. When he received word that Thomas was near death,
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  Lincoln wrote to his stepbrother John D. Johnston say to him that if
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  we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful
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  than pleasant. In addition to the complex relationship many distinguished leaders have had with
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  their parents, Burne's notes, several other similarities. Many experienced some form of
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  tragedy while still very young. Lenin, Hitler, and Gondhi all lost their
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  fathers at an early age. Some were forced to accept the mutual tolerance of
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  others while growing up, such as Gondhi, who lived with his parents,
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  brothers and sisters, and five uncles and their families. Virtually all of the
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  outstanding leaders Bums studied were subject to feelings of insecurity and lack of self esteem.
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  Moreover, most developed a dynamic will to succeed, a driving ambition that
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  lasted their entire lives. Compare this profile with that of Abraham Lincoln. His
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  mother died when he was nine years old. His sister, Sarah died in
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  childbirth when he was nineteen. After his father remarried a woman with three children,
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  Abraham was forced to live in a small log cabin with seven other people.
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  As a youth, he was so gangling docy looking that he was teased
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  unmercifully by young girls. Through his adolescence and into adulthood, he massed his
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  shyness by acting the clown and telling finny stories. By the time Lincoln took
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  office, seven states had ceceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of
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  America barely ten days before he took the oath of office. On March fourth,
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  eighteen sixty one, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the Confederacy
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  in Montgomery, Obama. President Buchanan had given up hope of holding the country
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  together and was simply waiting for his term to expire. Moreover, Buchanan left
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  Washington proclaiming that he was the last president of the United States. Nor had
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  the United States Congress taken any action whatsoever to put down the rebellion. In
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  fact, while a bill was tabled in the House of Representatives that would have
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  given the president power to call out the state militias, the Senate passed a
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  resolution requesting the War Department to lower military spending. All this happened between the
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  time Lincoln was elected and the time he took office. When he finally became
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  president, Lincoln was faced with the realization that the South had taken control of
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  all federal agencies and had seized almost every fort and arsenal in Southern territory.
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  Most of the Mississippi River, lifeblood of the nation's commerce and trade, was
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  obstructed or in Southern hands. Washington was left almost completely defenseless, protected only
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  by a poor of the nation's army, which in eighteen sixty one was unprepared
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  for war. It was a scattered, dilapidated, poorly equipped, and disorganized
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  array of some sixteen thousand soldiers, many of them Southern sympathizers. In charge
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  was General Winfield Scott, who was viewed by many as incompetent. In addition,
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  most of the state militias were in much worse shape than the federal army.
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  Rumors persisted that Lincoln's inauguration was to be disrupted, the president killed,
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  and the city taken by the Confederates. The nation's capital was placed under armed
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  alert. When Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address, the nation was in a
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  crisis more severe and ominous than at any other time in American history. The
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  country was divided, Hatred was the most prevalent emotion, and there was no
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  effective leadership anywhere in the government. In the midst of all this turmoil,
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  the relatively unknown Abraham Lincoln took the oath as the nation's sixteenth president, the
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  first Republican president elected by a minority of the popular vote. He was a
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  Washington outsider who was viewed widely as a second rate country lawyer and completely ill
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  equipped and unable to handle the presidency. He commanded no respect from any one
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  in the nation except his most loyal supporters. Even the members of his newly
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  appointed cabinet considered him a figurehead whom they could control. Politically, Lincoln was
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  caught between the fierce abolitionists of the northern states and the slave holders of the
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  border states that he desperately wanted to remain in the Union. Holding on to
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  states such as Kentucky and Maryland was crucial to the preservation of the nation he
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  had just swung to preserve, protect, and defend. Yet he was pressured
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  constantly to free the slaves. Not that he was for slavery, for he
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  believed that if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong, but the timing
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  was not right to grant emancipation. To do so at such an early stage
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  age of his presidency would only serve to find a divide the country. He
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  correctly concluded that some, if not all, of the border states would secede
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  were he to call for the complete abolition of slavery. Lincoln therefore was faced
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  with the seemingly insurmountable problem of holding the nation together while at the same time
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  organizing a new, more effective government than could prepare for an impending civil war.
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  In his inaugural address, he had declared that the Southern States would not
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  be allowed to separate, and that the momentous issue of civil war was in
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  their hands. Yet he had no means at his disposal to keep them in
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  the Union. That he knew exactly what he was up against is evident from
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  his own words early in the address. It is seventy two years since the
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  first inauguration of a president under our national Constitution. I now enter upon the
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  task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty.
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  A disruption of the Federal Union, theretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
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  Such was the situation for a man who'd never before held an executive leadership
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  position, who had been only a one term National congressman, who had had
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  no military experience to speak of, had never been in battle, and indeed
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  had been only an elected captain in the Illinois militia. Briefly during the Black
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  Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln appeared unable to lead the nation out of its dark
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  dilenema. Few people at the time could have known, however, that he
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  possessed all the leadership qualities and abilities necessary to save the Union, and virtually
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  no one would have been able to predict the unparalleled strength of his leadership that
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  he would seize upon the very circumstances at hand created by the crises of confusion,
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  urgency, and desperation, to exercise the ftill power of his office and
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  to create new limits of authority in leadership for the presidency. The life of
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  Abraham Lincoln, especially his presidency, demonstrated that he possessed all of the great
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  leader ship qualities. Some of his inherent abilities were natural, others were consciously
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  developed over the course of his life. Qualities such as honesty and integrity,
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  empathy for the common man, and devotion to the rights of individuals were products
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  of his upbringing. During his adult life, Lincoln's chosen profession as a lawyer
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  prepared him for his future executive leadership position. He learned to express himself and
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  demonstrate to others his beliefs and thoughts. Most importantly, he refined his ability
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  to persuade, direct, and motivate people In running for public office, Lincoln
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  became an excellent orator and speech writer. In fact, he so dramatically increased
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  his ability to speak and write that he is today regarded as a model for
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  poetic and artistic expression. Lincoln combined an extraordinary wit with a gift for storytelling
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  to become an effective communicator. He was naturally inquisitive, and he learned rapidly,
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  which led him to be extremely innovative. He is, in fact,
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  the only US president to hold a patent for a method to make grounded boats
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  more buoyant. He had a penetrating and far reaching voice that could be heard
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  over great distances. For example, every one present heard the entire Gettysburg address,
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  and there were at least fifteen thousand people in attendance. Even lincoln w
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  s height at six feet four inches, our tallest president, gave him a
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  psychological advantage over others. He was a man to be looked up to,
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  a man to be followed. Assessing the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln as President of
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  the United States confirms that he must have been an excellent leader. How else
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  could the Union government have worked cohesively to win the Civil War and keep the
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  country together in so relatively brief a time frame. What makes this accomplishment even
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  more remarkable is that he was able to overcome the nightmare he inherited from outgoing
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  President James Buchanan. Why would today's leaders be interested in Abraham Lincoln's leadership style
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  and philosophy, because by modern standards, Lincoln's accomplishment would be regarded as no
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  less than a miracle. There can be no doubt that Lincoln is the greatest
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  leader this country and perhaps this world, has yet known. He literally towers
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  over such modern day exemplars as Iacocca, Reagan, or Bush. There is
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  no real comparison. Lincoln was the man who really knew how to lead.
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  Lincoln is the leader who genuinely has something new to offer contemporary business and political
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  leaders. And here are his lessons and principles.