Robert Hargrove

“For those who say they stand slavery, I suggest that they try it themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Abraham Lincoln entitled “Team of Rivals” is in my opinion a masterpiece and a wonderful companion to anyone who is in the position of coaching leaders. It portrays Lincoln as ambitious and humble, a powerful leader and vulnerable, a master politician and a master of human nature.

The book shows how Lincoln, once elected, turned around and appointed his brilliant presidential rivals Seward, Stanton, Bates, and Chase to his cabinet where they each distinguished themselves brilliantly.

The thing that impressed me most about the book was Lincoln’s ability to take a stand on issues like the Emancipation Proclamation, replacing General McClellan, and pardoning a deserter, but did so in a way that did not make others around him feel belittled or humiliated, even those who tried to publicly destroy him.

Once when a northern politician had offended him by saying he was a dictator and undermining the war effort, Lincoln was very disturbed and spent a good part of the night writing a letter. The next morning he put it in a locked file, “Letter to a Copperhead, unsigned and unsent, A. Lincoln.”

Another favorite story is about the time President Lincoln in the dark days of the Civil War got word through his personal assistant, John Hay that Salmon T. Chase, a former Presidential rival and now his Secretary of the Treasury, was actively plotting to beat him in the next Presidential election. Chase not only spent a lot of time lobbying prominent politicians to back him, he actively stirred up dissent regarding the President’s management of both his cabinet and the war.

Yet despite Lincoln’ s secretary’s admonishment to remove Chase from the Cabinet or at least to chastise him, Lincoln merely chuckled and said, “If Chase’s motivation is to become President, I will not strip that away from him as he is doing a superlative job and great service to the nation in raising money through war bonds to support the Union Army.”

I can almost guarantee that once you read this book when it comes time to take a stand, you will never again speak a harsh word or send the offending party a nasty letter. In so doing, you will transform all your rivals into friends and allies.