The Next Director of the BGCT, Part Six-Lincoln on Leadership

   He must be Lincolnian in his leadership preferences. Our sixteenth president was not above appointing persons to office for political reasons. He clearly understood the use of patronage to build consensus. He was an astute politician. 

  Unlike others, however, Lincoln did not keep a man in high office when he proved himself either corrupt or incompetent. Lincoln's first Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, was almost certainly both. Lincoln put up with this well positioned fellow for as long as it took to find Edwin Stanton to replace him Stanton was, of all things, a Quaker, who eagerly "cried havoc and let loose the hounds of war." Stanton was the progenitor of total warfare in the Lincoln administration. He had a hand in every aspect of procurement, appointment and promotion from the day he took office.

   Stanton hated Lincoln early on. He considered Lincoln "a long-armed ape." Only after Stanton came to work under Lincoln did Stanton see his genius for handling people and managing circumstances. Lincoln, then, was a leader who could convert the feelings of his best workers and eliminate the presence of his poorer, more corrupt ones. Since Lincoln had no corruption in himself, he had no difficulty recognizing corruption in others. He did not expect his subordinates to think as deeply as he thought, as evidenced by his anecdotal style of communication with them. 

   After Gettysburg, Lincoln told General George Gordon Meade that his failure to get his army up and chasing Robert E. Lee as he tried to recross into Virginian made him think mostly "of an old woman trying to shoo her chickens in front of her in the yard." Imagine talking so to a decorated war veteran who had just managed the most celebrated victory  of a long war. Lincoln was so deeeply thoughtful and intelligent, he chose parables to communicate with his subordinates because they could not have readily followed his rationale.

   So, your next next leader must be one without corruption in himself so he can clearly see it (but neither admire, fear nor embrace it) in others. He must be a fellow who can clean the incompetent job holders from the temple. He must be someone who can convert his staff to his way. He must be a deep thinker who can yet communicate powerfully with others who must serve with him.

 

Opinions expressed here are mine alone.

 

Comments

[David Montoya]

And, like Lincoln, he will probably face assassination (by the enemy within, not the conspirators on the outside).