{"id":65,"date":"2014-06-19T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2014-08-11T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T21:22:42","slug":"dare-to-lincoln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/dare-to-lincoln\/","title":{"rendered":"Dare to Lincoln"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States of America had been through some tough times.\u00a0 However, never has the country been so divided by disparate interests, violence, racism, personal infighting, political conflict, and cynical self-advancement as during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.\u00a0 And for Lincoln this was all within his unionist government, he still also had to deal with the break-away Confederate rebellion!<\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, Lincoln was able to lead the Union to victory, solvency, and better days during the darkest chapter in American history.\u00a0 Time and time again he was able to avert disaster and hold his nation and government together.\u00a0 Lesser leaders probably would have presided over the final dissolution of the US.\u00a0 This week in my Global Leadership and Perspectives Doctor of Ministry program at George Fox Seminary we read <em>Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln<\/em> and <em>The Save Time Summary<\/em> of the text, both by Doris Kearns Goodwin.\u00a0 As I read through Lincoln\u2019s challenges and how he ably handled them, I was able to reflect on my last two years of studying leadership.\u00a0 Several themes begin to emerge about leadership that are evocative in Lincoln\u2019s leadership style.\u00a0 These intersect with many of the findings of leadership gurus like Kets de Vries, Collins, Li, Friedman, Morse, Rath, and Clifton.\u00a0 For instance, Lincoln had amazing, almost prescient emotional intelligence, and knew how to unwind and help others unwind also.\u00a0 He knew how to encourage and motivate people, but he also actively encouraged criticism and dissent from all sides, listening well to those whose opinions differed from his.\u00a0 Below are just a few of the leadership qualities clearly manifested in Abraham Lincoln that aided in the preservation of the USA.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lincoln built consensus. <\/strong>\u00a0The first thing that Lincoln did during his presidency was to build his cabinet.\u00a0 He immediately sought out to appoint his major political rivals to important positions.\u00a0 Many of these men strongly disagreed with Lincoln and with each other on policy and politics, and some even had personal grudges against one another.\u00a0 But, Lincoln knew three important things.\u00a0 One, the country would need a strong show of unity and consensus to hold together and have everyone\u2019s voice count. Two, disparate points of view would be healthy for coming to healthy and strong policy decisions.\u00a0 Three, you want the best, most capable people, not just the ones who agree with you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln actively encouraged open discussion, debate, and criticism.<\/strong> Several of the men Lincoln tasked with major responsibilities initially declined the position citing that they disagreed strongly with Lincoln\u2019s positions and politics.\u00a0 Lincoln went out of his way to encourage these men to openly communicate with him their disagreements, notifying them that he would always listen and take into consideration their points of view.\u00a0 Lincoln\u2019s office was open to hear criticism, and he never squashed it.\u00a0 This created trust with certain key cabinet members, but also allowed for Lincoln to always have a bigger view of the situation.\u00a0 It also allowed for measured and informed decisions to be made, in which most eventually came to agreement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln led with grace, kindness, and graciousness.<\/strong>\u00a0 Into the political cauldron of Civil War era intrigue and bickering, Lincoln gingerly stepped.\u00a0 Choosing a cabinet of political rivals only intensified the political stakes.\u00a0 Lincoln was able to diffuse much of this with his openness, but also with his incredible kindness and grace towards others.\u00a0 He always attempted to encourage and quickly forgive his subordinates.\u00a0 Moreover, he often agonized over letters and telegraphs he had to send, hoping to strike a balance between encouragement and censure.\u00a0 He had committed himself to never send a letter in anger.\u00a0 Lincoln also, whenever he felt he had been too harsh, sought out the party he offended to offer a personal apology.\u00a0 Even those he had to punish or remove, he often attempted to set them up in a situation where they could succeed.\u00a0 He was tremendously patient.\u00a0 For this, Lincoln engendered great trust and loyalty even from those who disagreed with him.\u00a0 This often helped to diffuse potentially fracturing political and policy conflicts during the intensity of the war.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln always took responsibility.<\/strong> Lincoln knew the buck stopped with him.\u00a0 For this he often took the responsibility and the blame for the failures of his government officials.\u00a0 He made sure that he ultimately protected their reputation and future.\u00a0 The men working with Lincoln knew that he had their backs, and once again this engendered great trust and loyalty.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln forgave generously. <\/strong>On several occasions subordinates apologized to Lincoln for failures and in some cases gross betrayal.\u00a0 Lincoln always quickly forgave and attempted to restore friendship and status to those who had wronged him.\u00a0 In some cases he appointed people to important positions who had clearly wronged him or looked down on him.\u00a0 In one case, it was revealed that his Postmaster General, Monty Blair, had written a derogatory letter about Lincoln.\u00a0 Blair, as an act of attrition apologized and offered to resign because of the betrayal.\u00a0 Lincoln simply said, \u201cforget it and never mention or think of it again (loc 8773).\u201d\u00a0 Most would have harbored grudges or resentment, but Lincoln\u2019s policy of mercy further engendered respect, admiration, and ultimate loyalty.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln knew when to make decisive and unilateral decisions.<\/strong> Despite his kindness, Lincoln was no pushover.\u00a0 He held strong and with integrity pushed through those things he felt strongly about.\u00a0 When he felt that a decision had to be made that was essential to maintaining the future of the Union, he was not afraid to act.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lincoln led with hope and vision. <\/strong>Despite the darkness and horror of the Civil War, Lincoln never wavered from the importance of maintaining the integrity of the Union for a brighter future of the nation and all mankind. \u00a0He kept himself and his cabinet focused on the vision of America and the Constitution as the great hope of all humanity. \u00a0\u00a0After every set back (and the North experienced many) Lincoln was always there to continue to encourage his generals, his soldiers, and his cabinet with kindness and the hope of the future.\u00a0 He knew how to do this both explicitly and implicitly.\u00a0 Kearns explains: \u201cAs he had done so many times before, Lincoln withstood the storm of defeat by replacing anguish over an unchangeable past with hope in an unchartered future (loc 10631).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Are you leading in a difficult and challenging situation?\u00a0 Do you have a divided and contentious team, church, or organization that you are in charge of?\u00a0 Lead like Lincoln.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States of America had been through some tough times.\u00a0 However, never has the country been so divided by disparate interests, violence, racism, personal infighting, political conflict, and cynical self-advancement as during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.\u00a0 And for Lincoln this was all within his unionist government, he still also had to deal with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,27,35,36],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-goodwin","tag-leadership","tag-lincoln","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1379,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}