¶ … Lincoln and leadership" in the Economist discusses Lincoln's leadership skills, showing how, occasionally, in American -- and general history a leader arose who had unconventional leadership skills and was, indeed, an outsider to the system. Sometimes, in fact -- and extraordinarily as it was -- the outsider was better than the insider: more skilled, knowledgeable. He could see it with a fresh eye. Schumpeter (2012) therefore proposes that it may be this very skill of the outsider: the ability to see the situation with a certain freshness that enables him to succeed and makes him so fitting for the task.
Lincoln was one of these outsiders
In May 1860, candidates for the presidency included two very experienced politicians called William Seward and Salmon Chase. Instead, a one-term congressman who had failed to win a Senate seat for his native state, Illinois was chosen. And Lincoln more so suffered from debilitating depressions.
The nation took a risk, but it did not regret its choice. He made a series of moves that no 'insider' leader would have made such as sending ships to supply Fort Sumter, thereby forcing the South to fire the first shot of the civil war. And he delivers speeches that went down in national annals forever. At the time they were unpopular, but Lincoln stood outside his nation, outside history and marked it.
Gautam Mukunda, in his book "Indispensable" ponders whether insiders or outsiders make better leaders or managers, before the financial crisis, the pendulum swung to insiders but then so many insiders made a mess of things, so those involved and observers decided that perhaps outsiders -- t hose with a fresh perspective, had a better handle on things. It may be that outsiders are unafraid of taking risks and see things in a new way.
The fact that Lincoln succeeded may have been due to his outsider perspective. It may be that the country in that time and point needed someone who could see the situation with a fresh eye, possessed fresh energy, and the will to go it in a new way.
It may be also that the people were simply ripe for change and needed someone different to inspire and move them. Hard times call for change and this needs'thinking out of the box'
Bass (1998) mentions that there...
He says that Fremont has left himself isolated by not allowing others to communicate with him and he is therefore unable to make good decisions, because he doesn't know what is going on around him. (13) Leaders I have met emulate Lincoln in their humor, honesty and open door policies, and those who have made the greatest impression on me have; left me feeling as if I had known
Leader Analysis: Abraham LincolnBackgroundAbraham Lincoln came from humble origins: he was not born into a wealthy aristocratic family like so many of this nation�s presidents. Rather, he was born on a Kentucky farm in 1809, and was largely self-educated. He had few books to help him on his way, but after learning to read he used the Bible as his main reference source, and it instilled in him a sense
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E. leadership (Pruyne, 2001, p. 6), but also that "determining how to abstract a set of leadership concepts that apply across contexts without sacrificing an understanding of how the conditions and qualities involved in leadership vary among those same contexts" remained elusive (Pruyne, 2001, p. 7). Experts provided extended series of examples, mostly from the 20th century, demonstrating how leadership characteristics change over time and vary with context. Therefore future,
He projects a persona of trustworthiness, likability and brilliance that even his harshest critics admire. But a multiplicity of goals does not always make for a sense of coherent mission, and this sense of mission is required to sustain as well as initiate major changes. One of Obama's most-admired historical figures was Abraham Lincoln and: "Lincoln united his followers with a 'corporate mission' of preserving the Union and abolishing
Leadership Guide Transformational Leadership and Emotionally Intelligent Leader Organizations are established with on-going concern to earn profits, generate economic activity and satisfy the needs of the people. Few people join hands to establish an organization and mange the resources which may belong to all of them and they pool them together to achieve their desired goals. The goals differ from organization to organization and it is also possible that the goals of
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