아브라함 링컨은 시대를 초월해 최고의 미국 대통령으로 꼽힙니다.
미국 뿐 만 아니라 그의 지도력은 세계가 배우려고 합니다.
컬럼비아 비지니스 스쿨 히텐드라 워드화( Hitendra Wadhwa) 교수가 쓴 링컨의 리더십에 관한 글입니다.

링컨 지도력의 힘은 커뮤니케이션에서 나옵니다.
대중연설가로서, 작가로서, 토론가로서, 유모리스트로서 링컨은 사람들을 즐겁게 하고
교육하고 영감을 줬습니다.

대화를 가장 잘하는 사람 링컨

학교는 단 1년을 다닌 링컨은 어렸을 때부터 친구들을 모아 말하기를 연습했고 일리노이 주에서 변호사를 할 때는 저녁에 친구와 술집에서 만나
말하기 컨테스트를 했습니다.
세익스피어를 열심히 연구한 사람이 링컨입니다.

정치야망을 가지면서 링컨은 라이벌을 약하게, 또는 물리칠 말의 힘을 알았고 상대를 말로 타격하고 비판했습니다. 링컨은 무명으로 라이벌을
비판하는 편지를 신문에 보내는 게 습관이었습니다.

더 큰 목표를 위한 말하기

링컨은 정치인으로 다른 사람을 지나치게 공격하는 게 역풍이 된다는 것을 알고부터는 자제했습니다.
레베카라는 가짜 이름으로 정치
라이벌을 비판했으나 신문이 들통 난 뒤 비판을 받은 라이벌과 불명예스러운 죽음에 이르기 직전까지 결투를 한 뒤 링컨은 그 뒤부터는 이름을 속인
편지는 더 쓰지 않았습니다.

그 뒤 링컨은 다른 사람을 많이 배려하는 사람으로 성숙해져 갔고 정치 라이벌과 적대관계에서도 대화를 하기 시작했습니다. 미국이 남북전쟁으로
상처받고 찢겨졌을 때입니다.
한때 부인인 메리 타드 링컨이 마차에서 워싱턴을 적이 가득한 곳이라고 말했을 때 링컨은 ‘적’이라는 말은
다시는 하지 말라고 못박았습니다.

링컨은 조롱하는 경향은 다 버리지는 못했지만 나중에는 그 조롱을 자신에게로 돌렸습니다.
스티븐 더글러스와 토론을 할 때 더글러스가
링컨을 두 얼굴을 가졌다고 비난하자 링컨은 청중에게 물어보겠다면서 자신이 두 얼굴의 사나이라면 왜 그 자리에 그 얼굴을 갖고 나왔겠느냐고
답했습니다.

링컨은 비판에 어떻게 대처했나?

당시 전쟁 장관 에드윈 스탠튼이 링컨 대통령의 행정명령을 어기고 대통령을 멍청이라고 불렀다는 말을 듣자 링컨은 그 말을 전해준 정치인에게
“맞지, 내가 한번이 아니라 두 번 멍청이였지. 스탠튼은 마음 그대로 말했고 그가 말하는 게 보통 맞아. 그가 나를 멍청이라고 했다면 아마 나는
멍청이일거야. 그에게 가서 내가 왜 멍청이인지 물어봐야겠네.”라고 말했습니다.

그런 링컨도 화를 자주 내서 화가 나는 대상에게는 편지를 썼습니다.
그러나 그 편지를 보내지는 않고 대통령 책상에
넣어뒀습니다.
자기훈련을 했던 링컨 대통령의 모습입니다.

링컨은 리더는 교육되고 강함을 보여주는 데서 오는 게 아니라 강함을 개인의 사리사욕보다는 더 큰 목적에 사용하는 데서 온다는 것을
제시합니다.

Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President

There is much we can learn by studying Abraham Lincoln’s journey from being just another politician to becoming America’s greatest president. (Wikipedia provides a compilation of “Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States” which makes it clear that in the eyes of many experts, and the public, Lincoln has consistently held this status). A key to this transformation was how Lincoln, whose birthday is today, developed the self-discipline to take one of his signature strengths—his mastery of language—and used it to serve the interests of the American people rather than his own.

One of the best communicators of all time

Lincoln was undoubtedly one of the greatest communicators among all American presidents. His words—as a public speaker, writer, debater, humorist, and conversationalist—continue to entertain, educate, and inspire us to this day. With only one year of formal schooling, Lincoln consciously cultivated this mastery of language and expression. As a young boy he would practice public speaking by gathering his friends together and stepping onto a stump to address them. During his days as a lawyer in Illinois, Lincoln would frequently meet up in the evening with friends at a tavern where they would engage in story-telling contests. And he gleaned valuable lessons in rhetoric by diligently studying Shakespeare.

As he began forging his political ambitions, Lincoln recognized the power of words to weaken and even destroy his opponents, and so he started to attack them with powerful volleys of criticism and mockery. Upon provocation at a political gathering in 1840, Lincoln mimicked and ridiculed his opponent, Jess Thomas, to uproarious cheering of the crowd. Thomas, who was present at the event, was reduced to tears, and for years afterwards, the people referred to it as “the skinning of Thomas.”

Lincoln was also in the habit of writing anonymous letters to newspapers to sharply criticize his adversaries. On one occasion in 1842, for instance, he used the fictitious identity of “Rebecca” to castigate and deride the state auditor, James Shields, calling him “a fool and a liar” in a letter, and making mock-allegations of an unflattering conversation that James had had with Rebecca.

How Lincoln began to use words for a higher purpose

But the Lincoln we know as president was not this brash, impulsive politician who launched personal attacks on his opponents. What made him change? All along, something had been stirring within him. Right after the “skinning of Thomas” in 1840, one of his friends reported that “…the recollection of his own conduct that evening filled [Lincoln] with the deepest chagrin. He felt he had gone too far and to rid his good nature of a load, hunted up Thomas and made ample apology,” according to an excerpt in Benjamin Thomas, Lincoln’s Humor: An Analysis.

This inner stirring intensified when some of his verbal attacks drew unfavorable consequences for Lincoln himself. In fact, when the letter he signed as “Rebecca” was published, the recipient of his reproach, Shields, was so enraged that he forced the newspaper to divulge the writer’s identity, and, when he was told that it was Lincoln, accosted Lincoln and challenged him to a duel. Good sense prevailed on both men just moments before they were to commence this fight-unto-death. Having learned a lesson by coming so close to an inglorious death, Lincoln never wrote such anonymous letters again.

Gradually molding his character this way, Lincoln also became highly attuned to the feelings of others, including his enemies, and highly measured in the way he communicated in adversarial situations. This was a crucial quality for leading America at a time when the nation was so divided, and the wounds of a Civil War had to be rapidly healed. Once, as he and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln were approaching Washington in a carriage, she remarked, “This city is full of enemies,” Lincoln injected, “Enemies? Never again must we repeat that word,” as told in Lincoln As I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes, and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies.

On an earlier occasion Lincoln had explained about Southerners: “They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up,” as recorded in Lincoln-Douglas Debates. And, in a stirring testimony to his power over words, the President pleaded, in his first inaugural address, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”

Lincoln had not lost his propensity for ridicule, but now it was mostly directed at his own self, in a self-effacing manner. When, during one of their debates, Stephen Douglas called Lincoln two-faced, Lincoln responded, wryly, “I leave it to my audience. If I had another face, why would I be wearing this one?” (This is from Presidential Anecdotes.)

How Lincoln masterfully handled criticism

Lincoln by now was also showing remarkable self-mastery in gracefully fending off the frequent attacks hurled on him by critics, even those within his inner circle. On one occasion, he was informed that the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, had refused to execute a presidential order—and further, had called the president a “damn fool.” “He called me a damn fool?” Lincoln asked. “Yes! Not once, sir, but twice!” replied the excited congressman, who had brought him this news. “Well, Stanton speaks what is on his mind, and he is usually right about what he speaks, so if he called me a damn fool, I must be a damn fool. I will go to him now and find out why,” according to a 2005 Time magazine article The Master of the Game.

But changing oneself isn’t easy, so even as president, Lincoln’s anger occasionally consumed him, making him pour it out in letters to critics, errant generals, and others. He had the self-discipline though to not dispatch these “hot” letters; they were later discovered, unsigned, in a drawer in the president’s desk. In this way, one small step at a time, Lincoln built his self-discipline, and through it, the character of his presidency.

Lincoln’s journey suggests that the true measure of a leader lies not in how much we cultivate and exploit our strengths, but in how we work on tapping, in Lincoln’s words, the “better angels of our nature” to use our strengths in the service of a cause much higher than our own personal gain.

Do you have the discipline to sculpt your character?

Do you view yourself solely as who you are today—some good, some bad—or do you see the potential for gradually sculpting your character further, the way Lincoln did?

How aware are you of your strengths? What have you been doing to nurture them? Are there times when you have misused these strengths? Has this led to any inner stirring in you, and have you been striving to discipline yourself to use your strengths in more and more purposeful ways? What kind of life story could you craft for yourself if you chose to do that?

In the comments section below, I invite you to share reflections from your own journey in life and leadership. Some executives and MBA students in my Personal Leadership & Success classes and workshops have shared remarkable stories of their own personal transformation and growth—in wisdom, character, and life direction. If you have experienced a similar turning point, do describe it below, for your story may inspire us just as much as Lincoln’s.