Honest Abe as a Leader

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From the BUSINESS section: Honest Abe as a Leader

Abraham Lincoln’s nickname was Honest Abe. (¡Ojo! La letra “h” de la palabra “honest” no se pronunica, es muda.) Not only was Abe honest, he was collaborative, compassionate, persuasive, forgiving and, of course, a great communicator. In short, he was an excellent leader.

After attending a seminar on leadership, the author Donald T. Philips realized that Abraham Lincoln possessed several leadership skills, yet nobody had ever written a book about Lincoln as a leader. So he did. In 1992 he published the book Lincoln on Leadership. I discussed it on yesterday’s show.


Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s leadership skills helped him become one of the country’s greatest Presidents. In his book, Philips reminds us of how a man born in a log cabin and with very little formal education managed to become President of the United States by being:

Collaborative - William Seward was his rival during the race to become the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. After Lincoln won the nomination, he appointed Seward as Secretary of State. (Interestingly, Barack Obama did the same thing, appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State after they had also been rivals as nominees during the Democratic Party’s campaign for President).

Persuasive - Lincoln preferred persuasion over coercion as he attempted to reconstruct the North and South after the American Civil War. One of his favorite sayings was: “A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”

Forgiving - When the Civil War ended in 1865, instead of blaming or seeking revenge on the South, he offered goodwill.

During his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln said: “With malice towards none; with charity towards all…let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”

144 years ago yesterday, at 7.22 am, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, died from a gunshot wound inflicted the night before by John Wilkes Booth.
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Vocabulary:

Nickname. Apodo, mote

In short. En definitiva

Log cabin. Cabaña hecha de troncos de madera

To appoint. Nombrar

Coercion. Coacción

Gall. Descaro

To blame. Culpar

Goodwill. Buena voluntad

Malice. Mala intención

To strive. Esforzarse por hacer algo (Es un verbo irregular: strive / strove / striven)

To bind (up). Vendar (Es un verbo irregular: bind / bound / bound)

Wound. Herida

Published by: Drew Crosby