Licoln’s Leadership Traits (Article 16)

Abraham Lincoln wrote thousands of letters, memos, and speeches in the last thirty years of his life on subjects ranging from legal case reviews, to simple friendship and family sentiments, to explanations of his thoughts on more profound issues such as slavery, secession, and religion. However, he never articulated his philosophy of leadership, I believe because he may have thought it pretentious.

But, he was a leader!

His contemporaries left volumes about his talent for leading others to his position, but sometimes, even more importantly, his ability to lead others to effective compromise. Lincoln had a deep confidence that he could influence others and he had the patience to work through resistance without rancor towards his opponents. Also, Lincoln understood the critical difference between the power of the authority of his position, versus his personal leadership and he would almost always attempt personal persuasion before issuing commands.

But, have no doubt, he could command!

Since Lincoln never defined his leadership philosophy, it is left for his contemporaries and modern authors to build their case from their own perspective. There have been numerous books describing Lincoln’s abilities to manage people. Some focused on his relationships with individual leaders around him including William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates, all Republican opponents for the 1860 Presidential nomination, and Edwin Stanton, a Democrat, who had humiliated Lincoln a few years earlier by refusing to work with him on an important U.S. patent trial; but then Lincoln asked all of these men to serve on his Cabinet.

Some authors have applied technical and scholastic terms to his leadership style such as authoritative, transformational, motivational, situational, or transactional.  In her 2005 book, “Team of Rivals” Doris Goodwin did not try to apply one of these leadership labels, but described his willingness to seek, and respect, opposing views, and to keep the contrary personalities on his cabinet focused on the national issues rather than their personal politics.  She concluded that he was a “masterful” leader.

I believe Goodwin was on the right track.  Lincoln was a natural leader who seemed to seamlessly move, as needed, among all of these various definitions of leadership depending on the circumstances.  For me, the best way to study how he led is to simply paraphrase statements he made, or others made about him.  In my opinion these are ten leadership traits which Lincoln consistently displayed.

Leadership trait # 1: Treat people fairly and honestly and you may be perceived as their leader:

Even as a child, Abraham Lincoln began to display leadership potential.  One of his childhood friends, Nathanial Grigsby, said, “Lincoln was my best friend and the best friend to other of us boys.  Abe was our leader and was smarter but he didn’t hold it over us.”  Another said, “He told the truth and never courted favors.”

Leadership trait # 2: Be willing to take a risk and accept a leadership position, even if you know you do not yet have 100% of the information:

During the Black Hawk War in 1832, Lincoln was selected as Captain of the New Salem Militia.  He accepted the position without any basic military skills and “set about learning drill commands” but he never quite got the nomenclature down.  He said if he couldn’t remember a command, he would just make one up.  And he did!

Once his men were marching in a wide line and came to a fence with a narrow opening and he could not remember the commands to have his men form into a double line and turn through the small opening.  So he said, “Men Attention, fall out for five minutes, and then regroup on the other side of the fence.”

Leadership trait # 3: Try to work with those who have different ideas or disagree with you.

As an Illinois State Congressman, he was elected to four consecutive terms and always served in a leadership role.  In his last term, he was elected as Speaker of the House, despite the fact that his Whig Party was in the minority, but many Democrats voted for him to lead the Illinois House because he could get things accomplished.  One Democratic leader said, “With Lincoln, a deal said was a deal done.”

Leadership trait # 4: If you cannot reach agreement, leave open the opportunity for a future entree.

Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States, and Lincoln left us a great example of failing to agree but leaving room for a future entree.  After the 1865 Hampton Roads Peace Conference at which Lincoln and Stephens failed to reach any accord, Lincoln arranged for the release of Stephens’ nephew, a Confederate officer, who was a prisoner of war.

Leadership trait # 5: Don’t let a poor first impression guide your relationships.

Judge David Davis, a longtime friend, said that Lincoln, speaking of another lawyer once said, “Judge, I don’t like that man, I should like to get to know him better.”

Leadership trait # 6: Do not reprimand in haste or in anger.

When Union General Meade decided to not pursue General Lee’s forces after the battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln wrote Meade a scathing letter in part saying, “He was in your grasp and, to have closed upon him, would have ended the War.  As it is, the War will be prolonged indefinitely.  Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurable because of it.”  But, Meade never saw the letter:  It was found later among Lincoln’s papers marked “never signed, never sent.”

Lincoln once said, “Any reply uttered in haste while angry will, more often than not, do more harm to the sender than to the intended recipient,”  (I recently saw a humorous, but appropriate, post on Facebook with a picture of Lincoln saying, “Think before you hit ‘send’ after typing that mean-spirited e-mail!”)

Leadership Trait # 7: Be willing to accept blame (sometimes even when the problem may not have been entirely your fault) and be willing to share credit with subordinates (even when you may have been largely responsible for a success).

In another letter to General Meade, a few months after Gettysburg, Lincoln sent him a revised battle order and wrote: “General, the order I enclose has no other record.  If you choose to follow it, and you succeed, you need not publish the order.  If it fails, publish it.  Then, if  successful, you can have the credit, if it fails, I will take the responsibility.”

Leadership trait # 8: Admit when you are wrong.

After General Ulysses S. Grant had won the battle at Vicksburg Mississippi, he moved on to capture Jefferson Davis’s plantation further south in the state.  Lincoln had earlier expressed concerns whether Grant should move deeper into Mississippi, but now wrote this letter to Grant.  “Dear General Grant, I simply want to say to you that when you decided to do this, I thought you were wrong.  When you moved (deeper) into Mississippi, I thought it was a mistake.  General Grant, I simply wish to say, I was wrong and you were right.”

Leadership trait # 9: Hold firm in your basic beliefs but pull others to you with compassion and forgiveness, not retribution or persecution.

Lincoln wanted “reconstruction” of the former Confederate States back into the Union to be as prompt as possible, with minimal political restrictions, and without vengeful public trials of the leaders.  He said, “If you hold a man out and away from you, how can he desire to rejoin us?  If we pull them to us with fairness and without consideration that they were ever away from us, we can be one again.  Let the rebels just go home!  Enough lives have been sacrificed.  We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and Union.”

However, after Lincoln’s death, the Radical Republican majorities in the House and Senate passed harsh reconstruction laws upon the South, which caused sectional issues for another 100 years.  I believe if he had lived, Lincoln’s leadership would have resulted in a more moderate and forgiving reconstruction policy, but also with better defined Civil Rights for the freed slaves.

Leadership trait #10: Use Humor appropriately. To make a point more clear, to entertain, and to ease tension; but not to humiliate or to be sarcastic.

But even Lincoln occasionally was willing to use both humiliation and sarcasm whenever he found himself dealing with arrogance, disrespect, or callousness toward others; and often his targets were Generals and politicians. These are two examples.

One day the Postmaster of Washington DC suddenly died and a Congressman ran to Lincoln to inform him. Lincoln knew the postmaster and was shocked and saddened by the news. Before Lincoln could even reply, the Congressman said, “Mr. Lincoln, I would like to take his place.” A disgusted Lincoln said, “Well, Congressman, that will be fine with me, if it is alright with the undertaker.”

On several occasions Lincoln used sarcasm on General George McClellan, whose arrogance was legendary. He once wrote to McClellan after the General claimed he was not ready to advance because he was still training his 200,000 man army. Lincoln replied, “General, if you are not going to use your Army, may I borrow it for a while.”

Generally, Lincoln’s use of humor served him well. These following two contemporaries offer interesting assessments of Lincoln as a leader because they both originally questioned if he was qualified to be their leader.

Edwin Stanton agreed to become Lincoln’s Secretary of War only because he knew the first Secretary of War, James Cameron was detrimental to the Union.  Stanton considered that Lincoln was not qualified to be a lawyer, let alone the President, and Stanton said that he would be able to manage the War Department in spite of what he expected to be “Mr. Lincoln’s attempted interferences.”  However, over the next three years the two men worked together almost every day and, after the first few months, developed a respectful relationship.  Upon Lincoln’s death, Stanton uttered the famous words: “Now he belongs to the ages” and in a letter a year later wrote, “I came to love Mr. Lincoln and I, and the country, still mourn his loss.”

William Tecumseh Sherman was from Ohio but had many close friends in the South.  He attended West Point and, after the Mexican War, he relocated to the south and married the daughter of a wealthy merchant; and in that social setting it was well known that he did not oppose slavery but was a fierce Unionist and cautioned his friends against secession.

When the Civil War started, he rejoined the Union Army but expressed grave concerns about Lincoln’s ability to be an effective President.  Even after two years, in 1863, he wrote privately that: “I am concerned that Mr. Lincoln is not advantageously using the Union’s military strengths.”   However, as he had more personal interaction with Lincoln in 1864 and 1865, his opinion dramatically changed.  After a series of meetings with Lincoln and Grant, just a few weeks before Lincoln’s death, Sherman wrote to his wife, “I recall thinking that of all of the men I have ever known, President Lincoln seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other.”

Try to imagine if only a few of today’s prominent politicians could consistently meet these ten leadership traits.  Unfortunately, most of us cannot directly influence people at that level.  However, we can teach our children and grandchildren these traits and, if we do, we just might spring a bunch of “New Lincolns” loose in this country over the next few years.

Now that would be leadership!