Lincoln on Leadership is one of the most powerful books on leadership that I have read. The most interesting part to me was that Lincoln was a true leader as President and not just an individual who sat back and let others do all the necessary work while he made the pubic appearances. In my studies of history, I have never analyzed any president as a real leader, probably because before this class I assumed that they all were leaders. Now I know they are not. Every point that is made in the book to support Lincoln as a real leader is something that either we discussed in class or something that is covered in our text. The best part about this book, though, was its readability. Once you got past the introduction, it was hard to put it down. It is unfortunate that the simple things that Lincoln did which made him so great are too much for some mangers today. For example, creating relationships with your employees. The first part of Lincoln on Leadership deals with the people, the employees. In Lincoln’s case, the employees were the troops who were preparing for and engaging in civil war battles. The title of the first chapter is, “Get Out of the Office and Circulate Among the Troops.” Without even reading one word after the title, I immediately thought of the class discussion on Tom Peters and his concept of “managing by walking around.” In class we talked about how real leaders will get to know their employees and create open, trusting relationships with them. If there is trust between a leader and the employees, the employees will feel very comfortable in everyday situations as well as situations of crisis. The importance of just knowing about the individuals who work for you is so great, yet many people in today’s work force give little attention to the personal side of work. Early on in chapter one, Tom Peters was mentioned and the MBWA (managing by wandering around) was explained in great detail ...
