Lincoln on Leadership Donald T. PhillipsContentsIntroductionPART I - PEOPLE1Get Out of the Office and Circulate Among the Troops 2Build Strong Alliances 3Persuade Rather Than Coerce PART II - CHARACTER 4Honesty and Integrity Are the Best Policies5Never Act Out of Vengeance or Spite 6Have the Courage to Handle Unjust Criticism 7Be a Master of Paradox PART III - ENDEAVOR8Exercise a Strong Hand-Be Decisive9Lead by Being Led 10Set Goals and Be Results Oriented 11Keep Searching Until You Find Your Grant12Encourage Innovation PART IV - COMMUNICATION 13Master the Art of Public Speaking 14Influence People Through Convention and Storytelling 15Preach a Vision and Continually Reaffirm ItEpilogue IntroductionThroughout the relatively brief history of the United States there have been many great leaders. Several, such as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the Roosevelts, became presidents; others like Franklin, Webster, Anthony, and King made a dramatic impact on mankind without reaching the White House. There are countless other leaders, on both local and national levels, in all aspects of society, who could be labeled great. Yet there is one person who rises above all of them. One who is consistently ranked as the greatest president. One who is viewed as the greatest leader this nation has ever known or will ever know. And one who, although dead for more than 125 years, still inspires and moves people from all walks of life, from all around the globe. That person is Abraham Lincoln.It is not surprising that our vision of Lincoln today is more mythical than real. His role as the embattled Civil War president and Savior of the Nation was magnified after his assassination. And with time his enduring image as the Great Emancipator has catapulted him to a level near sainthood. In addition, the labeling of Lincoln as Honest Abe and The Railsplitter by the media of his time has been perpetuated for well over a century.Every school-age child in America knows about Abraham Lincoln. Thousands of books and articles have been written on various aspects of his life. Moreover, the image of Lincoln is everywhere. His likeness is on the penny, the five-dollar bill, savings bonds, and certificates of deposit. There are countless statues, photographs, paintings, and sketches of him throughout the United States and around the world. His likeness adorns courtrooms, schools, public buildings, and private residences. There have been plays written about him, along with movies, television programs, magazine articles, songs, and poems. His name has been associated with motels, automobiles, toys, banks, organizations, streets, and objects too numerous to fist. In addition, his letters, notes, written speeches, and autographs are in demand all over the world.With all this exposure ingrained in the American stream of consciousness, its easy to see why the distance between the myth and the reality of Lincoln is still very wide. In fact, it has only been in the last twenty or thirty years that Lincoln enthusiasts have begun to explore the real Lincoln and, at the same time, try to separate and downplay the myth.Curiously, with everything that has been written about Abraham Lincoln, little is known about his extraordinary leadership ability. This is perhaps because leadership theory itself is a relatively recent phenomenon. Only in the last ten to fifteen years has the study of leadership been examined closely, and not as part of the management philosophy of the business world.In a way, Abraham Lincoln represented the summation of those leadership qualities that had helped to form a nation. The last great leader before industrial change, Lincoln stood for all that was right, honest, and self-evident. As a boy, his heroes were the Founding Fathers, and he studied the history of that young nation that was so devoted to human rights. He grew up in poverty and had a binding link to the common people. He was innovative at a time when the age of discoveries and inventions was just beginning. He was compassionate and caring yet, when necessary, could put his foot down firmly and be decisive beyond question. He was patient, persistent, consistent, and persuasive rather than dictatorial. But, without a doubt, the foundation of Abraham Lincolns leadership style was an unshakable commitment to the rights of the individual.Interestingly, in the many definitions of leadership there are few references to this basic concept of human rights. James MacGregor Bums, in his landmark book Leadership, came the closest when he wrote:Leadership is leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations-the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations-of both leaders and followers. And the genius of leadership lies in the manner in which leaders see and act on their own and t