Management Lesson from Lincoln

What can we learn about Management from Political Leaders? Well that was the topic an article published in April'09 Harvard Business Review (HBR). Though most of the articles in HBR add a new dimension to managerial thought process but this one in particular stood out for me. This article claimed that there was a lot to learn from historical leaders whose tenure in political office is of extreme importance.

When talking of historical leaders, Abraham Lincoln really stands out. We all have heard about the motivation stories about Lincoln. Such stories go like, he lost 8 elections, failed in business twice, his fiancee died, he even had a nervous breakdown yet he overcame all such setbacks to become President of United States. And what a great president and leader he was. For that, only he had the courage to free the slaves. He also did many other things but abolishing slavery stands out as his key achievement.

Interestingly, I thought the article would go into similar motivational discussion. But, to my surprise the article did not touch upon motivation but highlighted that Lincoln had high level of emotional intelligence. He had a lot of control on his emotions and displayed empathy with people around him. Such was his self-awareness that he had appointed his political enemies to highly visible government positions because he deemed that the country needed such persons talent. Overall, I found it as an eye opener that one can learn so much about management from political leaders.