Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

In Part 2, “Character,” Phillips’s purpose is to explore the personality traits that helped Lincoln guide the United States through the Civil War. Part 2 is rather similar to Part 1 in their overarching ideas: both sections argue that Lincoln is an excellent historical model for a modern leader who wants to develop techniques for gaining the trust and support of a broad base of people. In Part 1, Phillips’s focus is more “outward,” as he explains Lincoln’s approach to personal relationships, making compromises, negotiating with other leaders, and his behavior out in his community. In Part 2, Phillips moves “inward,” explaining Lincoln’s core values and how he used these to implement change, especially during the Civil War.

There is some overlap between the concepts in Parts 1 and 2. For instance, Phillips again discusses Lincoln’s strategy of writing letters to articulate his position on areas of disagreement with people (70-71). In Part 1, Lincoln’s letters served to smooth his relationships with generals or government officials by giving all parties time to consider the contents without pressure from the president. In Part 2, Lincoln writes letters as a therapeutic technique to vent frustration rather than as a method of communication. Even though Lincoln never sent or published these letters, they helped him maintain an even temper in challenging circumstances. In both cases, Phillips shows that Lincoln was aware of his surroundings and wanted to avoid unnecessary conflicts that would interfere with his main goal, winning the war and reuniting the United States. Although Lincoln’s outward approach to people in Part I was a crucial aspect of his success as a leader, Phillips argues that the inward values and character traits he delineates in Part 2 were equally significant.

The chapter headings allude to the core values that contributed to Lincoln’s success, and we can summarize them as follows: transparency and fairness as a leader, empathy for others (including enemies), patience with critics, and keeping an even temper. When it comes to transparency, Phillips discusses “Lincoln’s reputation for honesty and integrity” (52). By providing examples from throughout Lincoln’s career, Phillips proves that transparency was one of Lincoln’s fundamental priorities as a leader and that he had no interest in deceit, taking unfair advantage of people, or manipulating facts for his own gain. He fired one of his secretaries of war for “shady dealings” (54) and did not have patience for cheaters. Lincoln’s anti-slavery stance also stemmed from this core value of fairness toward others.

Though Phillips points out Lincoln’s traits, honesty and integrity were not simply some kind of management principles that Lincoln adopted to advance in his career; he truly believed in their importance for making the world a better place. Phillips argues that leaders today must also adopt these as core values if they want their businesses to thrive. He writes, “Subordinates must perceive their leaders as a consistently fair person if they’re to engage in the kind of innovative risk-taking that brings a company rewards” (54). Phillips points out the practical application of these concepts in a modern business environment and alludes to several writers in the field of leadership studies who share his perspective, including Tom Peters (a writer on business management practices) and James McGregor Burns (renowned historian).

Phillips’s explanations of the other core values are similar to his discussion of honesty and integrity. He uses examples from primary source material, including Lincoln’s own remarks and letters, to show how Lincoln had empathy for deserting soldiers during the Civil War, many of whom were very young men, and made it a policy not to punish these individuals unless absolutely necessary. Lincoln’s choice to show empathy for people, even if they were sabotaging the Union’s cause, demonstrated that Lincoln was a “savvy businessman,” Phillips asserts (59). Since Lincoln’s priority was to reunite the country following the Civil War, punishing deserting Union soldiers or captured Confederates out of sheer anger would do nothing to further that cause. Phillips asks, “what can modern leaders infer from Lincoln’s issuance of so many pardons?” (60). Like Lincoln, modern leaders need to consider the consequences of their choices and avoid being motivated by “emotional reactions” (58). Being empathetic to the challenges others are facing is one way a leader can make sure that all sides of a problem are considered before acting.

The final two chapters of Part 2 explore ideas relating to Lincoln’s ability to have patience and keep his temper despite being in circumstances of incredibly high stress and pressure. If Chapter 5 was primarily about empathy, Chapter 6 is mostly about Lincoln’s choice to set aside his ego. Just as Lincoln made the active choice to issue pardons to enemies during the Civil War, so did he consciously decide not to engage with his many critics in the newspapers unless their claims would directly hurt the Union’s cause. Lincoln was an unconventional politician whom many of his contemporaries considered to be a “third rate country lawyer” because of his modest background (66), and he endured constant criticism throughout his career. Phillips emphasizes that even after public criticisms escalated following the presidential election, “Lincoln handled it all with a patience, forbearance, and determination uncommon of most men” (67). Lincoln also developed methods for coping with public criticism so that it would not interfere with his ability to govern. A detailed example toward the end of Chapter 6 includes excerpts from one of these negative press articles about Lincoln and Lincoln’s method for coping with it (70-71). Like Lincoln, Phillips believes that modern leaders must develop clear strategies for handling criticism and avoid allowing pride to rule their behavior at the expense of a larger goal.

Chapter 7 is similar to Chapter 6 in that Phillips continues with the concept of Lincoln’s ability to exercise patience, despite stressful circumstances. Although the chapter is titled “Be a Master of Paradox,” by this Phillips simply means that Lincoln was not rigid when difficult circumstances required creative solutions, and Lincoln was aware of his own shortcomings and was careful not to let them get the better of him. Again, Phillips discusses Lincoln’s uncommonly patient nature, but he reiterates that Lincoln actively cultivated this aspect of his personality for the benefit of the country. According to Phillips, “Lincoln’s primary goal was to not lose his temper at all, or at least to minimize the times he would do so” (81). “To simply avoid quarrelling” is not a principle typically appears in management textbooks, but Phillips shows that even such a seemingly obvious concept is one that Lincoln took seriously as a leader (82).