Abolishing
slavery, ending the Civil War, and saving the Republic. You don't face
the same challenges Abraham Lincoln did, but here's how he succeeded—and
how you can too.
By Mark .C. Crowley
The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight to the
sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last a thousand
years…. He was bigger than his country—bigger than all the Presidents
together… and as a great character, he will live as long as the world
lives.—Leo Tolstoy, 1909.
Move over, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. With the 2012 election finally decided, our
thoughts now move to Abraham Lincoln, widely regarded as the greatest president in American history.
Lincoln resurfaces this month thanks to the release of Steven
Spielberg’s new movie depicting our sixteenth President’s final days in
office—as he seeks to abolish slavery, end the Civil War, and save the
Republic. Of course, even before seeing the film, we already know that,
just six days before being assassinated, Lincoln succeeded at all these
stunning ambitions.
That Lincoln was one of the most effective leaders in world history
is a notion fully supported by his extraordinary accomplishments. But
I’ve long wondered whether workplace leadership could be substantially
improved were we to better understand—and adopt—the fundamental
character traits that made him so remarkably influential with people.
In search of this insight, I recently mustered up the resolve to read all of the nearly 800 pages of in
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize winning Lincoln biography,
Team Of Rivals. My many hours of reading proved well spent.
The profound lesson to be drawn from this book is that Lincoln led
brilliantly, not just from his mind, but also his heart. General William
Tecumseh Sherman called it his "greatness and goodness."
While Lincoln’s exceptional intellectual skills were readily apparent
at an extremely early age, his deeply humanitarian instincts very well
may be the reason he’ll be revered by all future generations. At a time
when employee happiness and engagement has reached an all-time low in
the U.S., the example of
Abraham Lincoln may just be what we need to re-inspire workers everywhere.
Molded By Loss
Born in a log cabin in rural Kentucky, Lincoln grew up in abject
poverty. His father never learned to read or write, working as a hired
hand with little ambition. While his bright, caring mother taught him to
read and spell, she contracted "milk sickness" and died when he was
just nine. Routinely lent out to farmers needing workers, Lincoln had
virtually no formal schooling. While still a boy, he witnessed the death
of his infant younger brother and, later, his beloved older sister.
According to Kearns Goodwin, throughout his entire adult life,
"Lincoln neither romanticized nor sentimentalized the difficult
circumstances of his childhood." Instead, his acutely painful
experiences became the source of life-long compassion and concern for
others.
Herculean Feat Of Self-Creation
Lincoln was an entirely self-taught man. Exercising incomparable
drive and determination, he was a voracious reader who used literature
to transcend his circumstances. Seen with a book under his arm at all
times, Lincoln devoured Aesop’s Fables and the works of Shakespeare,
reading them so many times he could recite entire passages from memory.
Prior to being elected a U.S. Congressman in his thirties, he learned
the trades of boatman, clerk, merchant, postmaster, surveyor and
country lawyer. He pored over newspapers, and taught himself English
grammar, geometry and trigonometry. "In a time when young men were
apprenticed to practicing lawyers while learning the law, Lincoln
studied with nobody," Kearns Goodwin wrote. Instead, he read and re-read
borrowed law books until he understood them thoroughly.
"Life was a school to him and he was always studying and mastering
every subject before him," Kearns Goodwin wrote. He later told a student
seeking advice, "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to
succeed is more important than any one thing."
Indomitable Sense Of Purpose
From those hardships, Lincoln developed a deep self-confidence he
fully leveraged throughout his entire adult life. But perhaps his
greatest inspiration came from an intransigent belief that he had a
purpose to fulfill.
Apparently at a very early age, Lincoln set his sights on "engraving
his name in history." "Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,"
he wrote. "I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed by
fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem."
With the country greatly divided over slavery, and at the height of a
Civil War that already had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of
men, Lincoln was certain his purpose was to preserve the greatest
democracy the world had ever known, and to ensure its "government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
Tied to the conviction that his work was intrinsically important, it
was Lincoln who consistently found the courage to invigorate the spirits
of his cabinet and troops during the country’s most dire and desperate
hours.
"Malice Toward None; Charity For All"
Adjectives routinely used to describe President Lincoln include
"compassionate" "kindhearted" and "immodest." Speaker of the House,
Schuyler Colfax, once remarked, "No man clothed with such vast power
ever wielded it more tenderly and forbearingly."
According to Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln’s prodigious influence on
friends and foes alike was due to his "extraordinary empathy – the
ability to put himself in the place of another, to experience what they
were feeling and to understand their motives and desires."
Helen Nicolay, whose father later became the President’s private
secretary, believed Lincoln’s unusual sensitivity also proved to be an
enormous asset to the ascendency of his career. "His crowning gift of
political diagnosis was due to his sympathy," she said, "which gave him
the power to forecast with uncanny accuracy what his opponents were
likely to do."
Rather than vilify people opposed to slave emancipation, Lincoln
sought to comprehend their position through empathy. In referring to the
States that had come to fully depend on slaves working their farms,
Lincoln astutely intuited, "If slavery did not now exist amongst them,
they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should
not instantly give it up."
While Lincoln had a fierce personal ambition, he also had "the rare
wisdom of temperament that consistently displayed magnanimity toward
those that opposed him." He took great pains to re-establish rapport
with the men who defeated him in early political races, and famously
made a "team of rivals" by appointing to his Cabinet the three men he
defeated for the Republican Presidential nomination.
A Thoughtful Communicator
In Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address" and "Second Inaugural Address,"
we’re given stunning examples of the man’s brilliance as a thinker. But,
just as important, Lincoln was a masterful writer and speaker who
consistently moved people through his humor and kind personal presence.
"His speaking went to the heart because it came from the heart,"
reporter Horace White wrote. "I have heard celebrated orators who could
start thunders of applause without changing a man’s opinion. Mr.
Lincoln’s eloquence…produced conviction in others because of the
conviction of the speaker himself."
Lincoln also had a wonderful gift for telling stories and,
intentionally used his quick and benign wit to soften wounded feelings
and dispel anxieties.
He also was not afraid to display his own humanness. On more than one
occasion, he traveled long distances to visit weary troops on the
battlefield. Simply by demonstrating to them that their work mattered to
him, he earned their unmitigated support. One soldier wrote in a letter
home, "Lincoln’s warm smile was a reflection of his honest, kindly
heart; but deeper, under the surface of that…were the unmistakable signs
of care."
Lincoln’s Leadership Genius
What Abraham Lincoln seemed to intuitively understand about
leadership 150 years ago remains uncommon knowledge today. Engagement
and performance are mostly influenced by feelings and emotions.
Lincoln fundamentally cared about people and made every effort to
demonstrate that to them. Through kind and encouraging words, and
authentic gestures of exceptional thoughtfulness, he assured people of
their individual significance. He was most essentially a human being who
identified with the challenges people faced and the sacrifices they
made. His tremendous influence was due to this.
Expressed in his own words, here is Lincoln’s most luminous leadership
insight by far: "In order to win a man to your cause, you must first
reach his heart, the great high road to his reason."
Believe in Yourself
To be successful as a leader, you need a combination of two
ingredients: character and competence. You need to be a person of
integrity. Someone people trust and are willing to follow.
Integrity is perhaps the most valued and respected quality of leadership and one of the most important management skills you need to attain. By saying what you’ll do and then doing what you say, you will build trust around your team.