One great leader who knew the transformative power of collaboration was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

Invariably, this approach makes for little progress.Īs I was reporting on the Scottish referendum campaigns, one thought kept coming to mind: If all of these people truly love their country, why are they fighting among themselves instead of working together to find the best way forward? After all, aren’t we all part of the same nation? Turning critics into allies While it’s understandable that people should have strong opinions on important issues, it’s often the case that people spend much of their time focusing on what’s wrong in their eyes and who’s to blame. From the Brexit vote to the US elections in 2016, debate has sparked intense conflict on all sides of the argument.Īt the time of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, I was a political journalist who saw first-hand the futility of modern political “debate.” It was sad to see many people professing love for their country and yet uninterested in listening to those with different views. In recent years, we’ve experienced one of the most divisive periods in the world of politics. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.įor more book selections, please visit our Books Collection.Unusual leadership strategies to forge the best path for progress He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this brilliant work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. Acclaimed historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner Doris Kearns Goodwin profiles five of the key players in her book, four of whom contended for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and all of whom later worked together in Lincoln's cabinet. It is also a multiple biography of the entire team of personal and political competitors that he put together to lead the country through its greatest crisis. The best-selling and multi-award winning Team of Rivals doesn't just tell the story of Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln team of rivals