Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering:

Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

July 19, 2007

Ralph G. Giffin, IIIDirector, Business Operations and Industry Service Professor

School of Systems and EnterprisesStevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, NJ 07030

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Lincoln on Leadership Donald T. PhillipsWarner Business Books, 1992

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham LincolnDoris Kearns GoodwinSimon & Schuster, 2005

Lincoln’s MelancholyJoshua Wolf ShenkHoughton Mifflin, 2005

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

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Lincoln Facts

Born: February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, KentuckyMiddle Name: None

Parents: Thomas and Nancy Hanks LincolnSiblings: Sarah (1807-1828), Thomas (1812)

Places Lived: Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, District of Columbia

Wife: Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882); married 1842Children: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926),

Edward Baker Lincoln (1846-1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850-1862),

Thomas (Tad) Lincoln (1853-1871)

Formal Education: About 1 year totalDegrees: Honorary degrees from Knox College (1860), Columbia (1861), Princeton (1864)

Political Party: Whig (1832-1856), Republican (1856-1865)Offices Held: elected to Illinois General Assembly in 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840;

elected to U.S. House of Representatives in 1846; elected sixteenth President of the U.S. in 1860 and 1864

Military Experience: Captain and private, Illinois Militia (1832); Commander-in-Chief (1861-1865)

Patent: #6469 granted May 22, 1849 for device to lift boats over shoals; only U.S. President to own a patent

Appearance: 6'4", 180 lbs., gray eyes, black hair, size 14 shoe

Abraham Lincoln Online, 2007

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States

Seceded from the Union:

South Carolina December 20, 1860 Mississippi January 9, 1861 Florida January 10, 1861 Alabama January 11, 1861 Georgia January 19, 1861 Louisiana January 26, 1861 Texas March 2, 1861

Elected: November 6, 1860

Sworn into Office: March 4, 1861

Further Secession from the Union:

Virginia April 17, 1861 Arkansas May 6, 1861 North Carolina May 20, 1861 Tennessee June 8, 1861

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States

“It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our national constitution…..I now enter upon the task for the brief constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.”

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

A short sidetrack…….

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln16th President of the United States

Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives usto see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

A short sidetrack…….

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln’s Lessons for Leaders

• Be Accessible

• Do Not Order; Persuade

• Be Honest • Lead with Integrity

• Be Kind and Magnanimous

• Understand the View and Needs of Others

• Be Self-Confident But Modest

• Preach a Vision, Continually Reaffirm

• Be Decisive

• Be Results Oriented

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Being Accessible

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Being Accessible

…I do not often decline seeing people who call upon me; and probably will see you if you call…

Lincoln, in a letter to Indiana Resident, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Being Accessible

…I tell you, that I call these receptions my ‘public opinion baths – for I have little time to read the newspapers and gather public opinion that way…and though they may not be pleasant in all particulars, the effect, as a whole, is renovating and invigorating…

Lincoln, describing his Public Opinion Baths, 1862

…I do not often decline seeing people who call upon me; and probably will see you if you call…

Lincoln, in a letter to Indiana Resident, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Being Accessible

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Being Accessible

• It is important that the people know you come among them without fear.

• Seek casual contact with your subordinates. It is as meaningful as a formal gathering, if not more so.

• Don’t often decline to see people who call on you.

• Take public opinion baths.

• Remember, everyone likes a compliment.

• You must seek and require access to reliable and up-to-date information.

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

Lincoln’s Principles

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Uses Persuasion Over Coercion

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Uses Persuasion Over Coercion

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

To General McClellan (10/13/63) “….this letter is in no sense an order.”

To General Halleck (9/19/63) “…I hope you will consider it.”

To General Burnside (9/27/63) “ It was suggested to you, not ordered.”

To General Banks (1/13/64) “…frame orders, and fix times and places, for this and that, according to your own judgment.”

Major General Joseph Hooker

“What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship”

“I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which, I am not quite satisfied with you.”

President Abraham Lincoln

Executive MansionWashington, D.C.January 26, 1863.

Major General Hooker:

General. I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac…

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Major General Joseph Hooker

“Just such a letter as a father might write to a son. It is a beautiful letter, and, although I thinks he was harder on me than I deserved, I will say I love the man who wrote it.”

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

General Joseph Hooker, to a news reporter, several months after receiving his letter from Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader Uses Persuasion Over Coercion

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

• Remember that your followers generally want to believe that what they do is their own idea and, more importantly that it genuinely makes a difference.

• If you practice dictatorial leadership, you prepare yourself to be dictated to.

• A good leader avoids issuing orders, preferring to request, imply, or make suggestions.

• Use force only as a last resort

• Delegate responsibility and authority by empowering people to act on their own.

Lincoln’s Principles

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader is Honest

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader is Honest

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

“Stand with anybody that stands right, stand by with him when he is right and part with him when he is wrong”

Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854

“Never add the weight of (your) character to a charge against a fellow man without knowing it to be true”

Letter to the editor, Illinois Gazette, 1846

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader is Honest

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

“Stand with anybody that stands right, stand by with him when he is right and part with him when he is wrong”

Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854

“Never add the weight of (your) character to a charge against a fellow man without knowing it to be true”

Letter to the editor, Illinois Gazette, 1846

“It’s like certain habits of men, it decorates the ruin it makes”

Lincoln, comparing untrustworthy people to a tree being killed by its ivy cover

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Leader is Honest

From Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips, 1992

• You must set, and respond to, fundamental goals and values that move your followers

• You must be consistently fair and decent, in both the business and the personal side of life.

• Stand with anybody who stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

• Never add the weight of your character to a charge against a person without knowing it to be true.

• Once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Lincoln’s Principles

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Honest Abe

Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Kind and Magnanimous

“I cannot for a moment suspect you of anything dishonorable”Lincoln, to Douglas supporters, 1858

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

The Team of Rivals

Edward BatesAttorney General

Salmon ChaseSecretary of the Treasury

William SewardSecretary of State

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Kind and Magnanimous

Edwin StantonSecretary of War

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Kind and Magnanimous

Edwin StantonSecretary of War

“Why did you bring that damned long armed ape here?He doesn’t know anything and can do you no good.”

Stanton, to George Harding, commenting on Lincoln,Cincinnati, 1855

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Kind and Magnanimous

Edwin StantonSecretary of War

“…the secretary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none [e.g., soldiers] to give.”

Lincoln, responding to critics of Secretary Stanton

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Modest, Yet Self Confidant

Lincoln’s decisions on his cabinet showed “…great courage and self-reliance As each (of the rivals) were to feel the wrong man had been nominated.”

John Nicolay, secretary to the President

John NicolayPrivate Secretary to Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Modest, Yet Self Confidant

Lincoln’s decisions on his cabinet showed “…great courage and self-reliance As each (of the rivals) were to feel the wrong man had been nominated.”

John Nicolay, secretary to the President

John NicolayPrivate Secretary to Lincoln

We need the strongest men in the party for the Cabinet…I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. I had no right to deprive the country of their services.” Lincoln, to a reporter, when asked why he selected

political rivals to his cabinet

President Abraham Lincoln

Leadership for Enabling Systems Engineering: Lessons for Leaders from 19th Century America

Abraham Lincoln’s Lessons for Leaders

• Be Accessible

• Do Not Order; Persuade

• Be Honest • Lead with Integrity

• Be Kind and Magnanimous

• Understand the View and Needs of Others

• Be Self-Confident But Modest

• Preach a Vision, Continually Reaffirm

• Be Decisive

• Be Results Oriented