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Leadership Lessons from Great Past

Presidents

What can great former U.S. presidents such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy teach us about leadership? Today's business

leaders can learn a lot by studying the wisdom and "management style" of some of ourmost admirable past presidents.

George Washington: Ethical Entrepreneur

There's no better place to start than at the beginning, with the man who, during his

lifetime, may have been the most popular president ever.

George Washington was more than just an inspiring battlefield commander. His

leadership, his vision, and courage united a war-torn country and set the United States onthe path to greatness. Washington was an effective, inspiring, and visionary leader whose

historic contributions to the nation were rooted in his character. Throughout difficulttimes he remained steadfastly honest and ethical, making him a role model for leaders

everywhere. And, since his time, not one president has admitted to chopping down a

cherry tree.

Washington was also an entrepreneurial businessman and innovative farmer. Forinstance, he was America's leading promoter of the breeding and use of mules, the

offspring of a male jackass and a female horse, making him the agricultural Steve Jobs of

his day. Bosses who want to nurture and develop new ideas while maintaining a

consistent code of ethics should take a long look at how George Washington handledhimself.

Abraham Lincoln: Inclusive Facilitator

He's on the pennies in your pocket. He's on the fiver in your wallet. Abraham Lincoln is

considered by many to be the greatest president in the history of the United States, ourgreatest leader in the nation's most trying time. Talk about leadership.

In her bookTeam of Rivals, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's

brilliant leadership as he rose from obscurity to the presidency, triumphing over three

gifted rivals with greater national reputations. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, hismore accomplished competitors were dismayed and angry. Surprisingly, Lincoln invited

all three to join his cabinet in prominent roles. Goodwin demonstrates that Lincoln's

success was founded in a character that had been forged by experiences that raised himabove his more privileged rivals. He possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in

the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives

and desires. It was this capacity for empathy that enabled Lincoln as president to bring

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how well you respond to their inward hopes while leading them toward new horizons of

ambition and achievement."

This may perhaps be the most elusive skill a president can have: he has to sift throughsometimes widely conflicting opinions about what should be done to improve the

country. The presidency of the United States of America is a multifaceted and complexenterprise requiring a president who not only has vision, but the ability to stand strong in

an often hazardous crossfire of competing agendas and policies. Leaders who encouragenew ideas and inspire their employees to look to the future do it "JFK-style."