Effective Leader

Does Abraham Lincoln meet the five capacities of an effective leader? The five characteristics were developed by Michael Fullan in his book, “Leading in a Culture of Change.” Fullan feels that moral purpose, the change process, building relationships, knowledge building and sharing, and coherence making are vital to effective leaders. Keeping these traits in mind, Abraham Lincoln will be judged.

Lincoln was an altruistic person with moral purpose. During a time when his country was torn apart, he knew he could make a difference for the good of the whole. He knew his goals of ending the Civil War and slavery would be the best thing for the country. To have moral purpose, goals must be mobilizing of people and be measurable; a look at Lincoln’s ability to do this is raised. Lincoln was able to get half of the United States’ population behind him at the start of the Civil War and his success is seen when he succeeds in ending the Civil War and slavery. For these reasons, it seems that Lincoln had moral purpose.

For understanding change, a look at Lincoln’s leadership style is analyzed. Lincoln possessed three leadership styles. The styles he used were affiliative; people come first, authoritative; mobilizing people toward a vision, and democratic; what do you think. The goal of ending slavery was Lincoln’s primary goal until the Civil War started. Realizing that a divided country would destroy the United States, Lincoln put the needs of the Americans before himself. He altered his aim from just slavery to unification and slavery. The people knew his vision before he ran for President of the United States. He laid his vision out for everyone to see and told them come with me if you believe. He put the question of ending slavery on the plates of the American people and they had the democratic choice of picking him to carry out his goal. The majority of Americans agreed with him and voted for him (ww.whitehouse.gov).

Relationships are important to any good leader. The ability to create relationship is crucial and it is another area in which Lincoln succeeds. Fullan claims that there are seven essentials elements to developing relationships. Lincoln achieves five of the seven. First, he set a clear good of ending the war and slavery. Then, he expected the best and paid attention to details. Lincoln appointed the best generals he could find to lead the Potomac army and expected them to do their best. General after general failed to win. Luckily, Lincoln was watching carefully and saw the failures and replaced the generals who failed. When Lincoln found a successful general, he celebrated with him. Finally, he developed a relationship with the people when he set an example for others; he showed how to treat blacks when he invited George Washington Carver to the White House. These five examples showed he could develop relationships (www.history.com).

In the area of knowledge building and sharing, Lincoln struggled. Lincoln did not allow his generals to experiment in battle situations. If a general failed, they were removed. Because of Lincoln’s quickness to pull the trigger on a general, a general could not gain any information if they are replaced after failing once. They obviously could not share the information of what not to do. The information could have been passed along to other officers if they were not replaced.

The final element of leadership is coherence making. Coherence makers need to make sure things run smoothly and they need to make so they do not get stale with the status quo. As previously mentioned, Lincoln sought fresh solutions to his problems. Generals were replaced when they did not perform. When the North started to doubt Lincoln, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address to boost morale (www.history.com).

With Abraham Lincoln’s ability to meet most of Fullan’s leadership traits, it seems that he was an effective leader. He had moral purpose since he was able to set measurable goals. He understood the need for change and changed generals when needed. Relationships were created with the American people and they responded with support of him. The only area he struggled in was his knowledge building. He seemed to keep new ideas for being fostered. Finally, his ability to make coherence decisions keep his supporters. When a person is able to do this they are an effective leader.

References

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In White House online. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In History Channel online. Retrieved from
http://www.history.com/presidents/lincoln/biography

Post 2

There are four major qualities that made up Abraham Lincoln’s leadership. His four qualities are integrity, passion, daringness, and guiding visions. Abraham Lincoln had two guiding visions. Lincoln knew what he wanted to do and would not stop until he reached his goals of reuniting our country and ending slavery. His passion and integrity went hand in hand. He was so passionate toward ending the injustice of slavery that it cost him a seat in the U.S. Senate. Despite losing this position he remained steadfast on his goal and continued on that platform two years later when he ran for president. Even though he was passionate in ending slavery, his integrity to stay steadfast to the cause despite the war shows he was true to his word. His final attribute was his daringness to do something no one had ever done before. When he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he freed all Southern slaves and forever changed the economy and politics of America (history.org).

Two major turning points in Lincoln’s life seem to have set the stage for his presidency. The first turning point was about seven years in the making. As a state legislator for Illinois, he became a leading member of the Whig party and, as his years of service grew, he gained more seniority and his agenda could be revealed (history.org). He spoke about the injustices of slavery. The other major turning point in his life came about when he sought the U.S. Senate seat for the second time to no avail. In his second attempt, he ran against the popular Stephen Douglas. Lincoln realized he may lose, but used election as a platform to speak about how wrong slavery was and the need to end it. He lost the election, but in the process caused Stephen Douglas and the Democrats to become divided and that would allow Lincoln to win the Presidential Election of 1860 (whitehouse.gov).

Abraham Lincoln was probably one of our country’s biggest failures, but you would never know it. Lincoln never let a failure destroy him. He continued to try and try. Lincoln lost an election to the Illinois state legislature, he lost his true love to death, his business went bankrupt, he lost the Illinois Speaker of the House position, he was defeated twice when running for the U.S. Senate, and lost his bid to be the Vice-Presidential nominee (Carnegie, 1932). Most people would give up after this many loses, but he focused on his success and used his losses to his advantage. For example, in his Senate race against Douglas, he used the captive audience to get his message out about slavery. His approach paid dividends in the long run.

References

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In White House online. Retrieved fromhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In History Channel online. Retrieved from
http://www.history.com/presidents/lincoln/biography

Carnegie, Dale. (1932). Lincoln the Unknown. Garden City, NY: Dale Carnegie and Associates, Inc.

Post 1

Abraham Lincoln was one of the great leaders in U.S. history. Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States in 1861. The previous President allowed southern states to secede from the union without any punishment. Then, on April 12, 1861 the United States entered into a civil war between the southern states that referred to themselves as the Confederate States of America and the northern states. Lincoln was the first and only President to govern over a divided country. He was faced with the daunting task of trying to govern a divided nation and had to figure out a way to reunite the country (White House.gov).
His leadership during this trying time was inspirational to anyone who seeks a leadership role. Faced with the fighting in the south, Lincoln put his own agenda of freeing slaves on the back burner until he could get a handle on the Civil War. During the earlier stages of the war, Lincoln had a hard time finding followers to his war cause. Any good leader has to have followers. The generals in the early part of the war did not buy into Lincoln’s ideals. He had to replace numerous generals until he could find followers (Boorstin & Kelley, 1996).
Besides the Civil War, Lincoln was the first U.S. government official to end slavery. His original idea, that slaves were people and should be freed, lead to a large following for Lincoln. Lincoln was finally able to reach his goal of freeing slaves when more Americans followed his cause and asked him to free the slaves. When he gathered enough support he issued the Emancipation Proclamation (History.com).
As a U.S. History teacher, I am partial to U.S. Presidents. Lincoln’s leadership sets a great example for any person who wants to be a leader. He was able to gather followers and did not push his agenda before he knew he could succeed. Finally, his ability to govern over a divided country until it could be reunited shows his determination. Lincoln also led our country economically and politically. Lincoln was the first Republican President and his ideals helped shape the political party that still exists today. Those facts show his leadership and also his longevity.

References

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In White House online. Retrieved fromhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln/

Boorstin, Daniel & Kelley, Brooks Mather. (1996). The Civil War. A History of The United States (pp. 341-348). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Abraham Lincoln. (n.d.) In History Channel online. Retrieved from
http://www.history.com/presidents/lincoln/biography