Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips

I finished this book in January 2026. I recommend this book 9/10.

Why you should read this book:

This is the book that highlights the leadership principles of Lincoln. In four short years, Lincoln changed the United States and showed the world how an awkwardly tall, undereducated, bad-luck-ridden man could lead by being calm, witty, thoughtful, and serve others.

Get your copy here.

🚀 The book in three sentences

1. Don't get caught in drama, just look to get the job done.

2. Be kind to people and work for the cause.

3. Give the credit to others and be quick to forgive people.

📝 My notes and thoughts

• P13. "His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with." (Lincoln's reason for relieving Gen. John C. Fremont from his command.)

• P21. All leaders must seek and require access to reliable and up-to-date information. And Lincoln was constantly seeking key intelligence so he could make quick, timely, and effective decisions. He needed accurate information, and the best way to obtain it was to go out and get it himself. Also, for a leader, there is a certain amount of value and effect in seeing people outside of the everyday business environment or out of the leader's office. In an informal setting, people tend to be more relaxed, more direct, and more truthful than if they were face-to-face in the Oval Office. That's what Lincoln wanted—honest talk with people. He needed to know the truth.

• P25. Future leaders can learn from Lincoln's example. One of the most effective ways to gain acceptance of a philosophy is to show it in your daily actions. In order to stage your leadership style, you must have an audience. By entering your subordinate's environment—by establishing frequent human contact—you create a sense of commitment, collaboration, and community. You also gain access to vital information necessary to make effective decisions. Additionally, when person contact is not possible, you can send surrogates to the field to obtain information. Many leaders in today's complex work settings would argue that they can't spend the amount of time Lincoln did with his subordinates. But, then again, they're not trying to win a war. Or are they?

• P26. Lincoln principles #1

  • Explain yourself in writing and offer advice on how to solve problems.

  • 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.

  • Be the very embodiment of good temper and affability.

  • Remember, everyone likes a compliment.

  • If your subordinates can stand it, so can you. Set a good example.

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

• P27. "A house divided against itself cannot stand ... Our cause must be entrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends—whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who do care for the result." (Lincoln's remarks from "A House Divided" speech, in which he accepted the nomination for U.S. senator, June 16, 1858)

• P30. Edwin M. Stanton, who first met the future president in 1855 when both were involved in the McCormick Reaper case. Stanton, at the time a renowned attorney, evidently insulted the less well-known Lincoln (reportedly calling him a giraffe). He apparently felt the same way after Lincoln's rise to power, believing that the president had "no token of any intelligent understanding." Despite all of the negative feelings displayed by Stanton, Lincoln still appointed him the new Secretary of War because he knew he was the best man for the job. Stanton accepted the job enthusiastically and quickly proved Lincoln correct in his judgment. In a few months, Stanton thoroughly revamped the War Department into an efficient organization. He worked long, exhausting hours in a tireless effort to serve his country and win the war.

• P35. "I remember when I was a lad, there were two fields behind our house separated by a fence. In each field, there was a big bulldog, and these dogs spent the whole day racing up and down, snarling and yelping at each other through that fence. One day, they both came at the same moment to a hole in it, big enough to let either of them through. Well, gentlemen, what do you think they did? They just turned tail and scampered away as fast as they could in opposite directions. Now, England and America are like those bulldogs." If modern leaders don't intuitively understand human nature as well as Lincoln did, they should at least make an attempt to learn more about the subject. After all, the most important asset an organization has is its employees. So why not spend time and money striving to more thoroughly understand what makes your people tick? All leaders, in every walk of life, should make this commitment to their followers. If they don't, they may soon find that they no longer qualify as leaders due to the simple fact that all their followers, in one way or another, have abandoned them. Contemporary executives should also realize that successful alliances, whether with subordinates or other organizations, put the leader in a position of strength and power. And, conversely, divisiveness breeds weakness. Herein lies the wisdom of Lincoln's famous statement: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." That is one reason these words have lived through the years, continually regarded as one of Lincoln's most important messages.

• P37. Lincoln Principles #2

  • Wage only one war at a time.

  • Spend time letting your followers learn that you are firm, resolute, and committed in the daily performance of your duty. Doing so will gain their respect and trust.

  • Etiquette and personal dignity are sometimes wisely set aside.

  • Invest time and money in better understanding the ins and outs of human nature.

  • Remember, human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.

  • Showing your compassionate and caring nature will aid you in forging successful relationships.

  • When you extinguish hope, you create desperation.

  • You must remember that people who have not even been suspected of disloyalty are very averse to taking an oath of any sort as a condition of exercising an ordinary right of citizenship.

• P38. "With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who statutes or pronounces decisions." Lincoln's remarks in the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, when examining the influence Stephen A. Douglas was having on the public.

• P47. Leadership often involves parenting, and Lincoln's fatherly tendencies aided him in his position as president. The organization is the family; the leader is the head of the family. Consequently, leaders often nurture and guide subordinates much as parents do children. It's not called the "art of persuasion" for nothing. This intangible, often elusive, skill was a mainstay in Lincoln's interaction arsenal. He was adept at stepping in when subordinates had just missed gaining victory. He constantly modeled the tenets that he preached. He rendered discipline in a fatherly way. All of this formed the basis for a consistent, reliable method to both persuade and produce.

• P48. Lincoln Principles #3

  • Discourage formal grievances. Persuade your subordinates to compromise whenever you can.

  • Use force only as a last resort.

  • 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 would win a subordinate to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

  • Seek the consent of your followers for you to lead them.

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

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

  • On issues that affect your entire organization, conduct full and frequent consultations with the heads of your various departments.

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

• P51. "I am compelled to take a more impartial and unprejudiced view of things. Without claiming to be your superior, which I do not, my position enables me to understand my duty in all these matters better than you possibly can, and I hope you do not yet doubt my integrity." Lincoln's closing comments in a letter of support for General-in-Chief Henry Halleck to a close friend who urged his dismissal.

• P54. But Lincoln also practiced what he preached. When he made it to the top, he would turn and reach down for the person behind him, helping to "elevate" that person to his better self. He would help others climb the ladder of success with patience, trust, and respect. In so doing, Lincoln was what Burnes termed a "sharing leader"; one of those leaders who "perceive their roles as shaping the future to the advantage of groups with which they identify, and advantage they define in terms of the broadest possible goals and the highest possible levels of morality." Trust, honesty, and integrity are exceedingly important qualities because they so strongly affect followers. Most individuals need to trust others, especially their boss. Subordinates must perceive their leader as a consistently fair person if they're to engage in the kind of innovative risk-taking that brings a company rewards. Lincoln always did the right thing, or at least he attempted to do so. He simply did not deal with people he knew to be dishonest. "Stand with anybody that stands right," he preached. "Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he is wrong." Lincoln basically fired Simon Cameron, his first secretary of war, for improprieties in awarding defense contracts and other shady dealings. He authorized no bargains at the 1860 Republican Convention (even though many were made without his knowledge). And he advised others to "never add the weight of your character to a charge against a person without knowing it to be true." Now isn't this the type of person you would like to be associated with and do business with? Isn't it obvious that Lincoln could be trusted, that he had integrity?

• P57. Lincoln Principles #4.

  • Give your subordinates a fair chance with equal freedom and opportunity for success.

  • When you make it to the top, turn and reach down for the person behind you.

  • 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.

  • It is your duty to advance the aims of your fellow citizens; you can never regain their respect and esteem.

  • You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can't fool all the people all of the time.

• P58. "I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing." Lincoln's comments in a letter about the readmission of Louisiana to the Union.

• P59. Lincoln, through his stormy, turbulent tenure in office. Whenever he had doubts, and there were many, he fell back on the foundation of his personality: honesty, integrity, compassion, and mercy. He seemed to have virtually no feelings of hate, vindictiveness, or malice. Many people of his day, in fact, thought his tendency toward leniency was overdone. He granted more pardons, for example, than any president had before him—or has since.

• P64. Lincoln Principles #5.

  • Never crush a man out, thereby making him and his friends permanent enemies of your organization.

  • No purpose is served by punishing merely for punishment's sake.

  • Always keep in mind that once a subordinate is destroyed, he ceases to contribute to the organization.

  • People will be more willing to seek an audience with you if you have a good reputation.

  • It would not hurt you much if, once in a while, you could manage to let things slip, unbeknownst to you.

  • Remember: Your organization will take on the personality of its top leader.

  • You should be very unwilling for young people to be ruined for slight causes.

  • Have malice toward none and charity for all.

  • Touch people with the better angels of your nature.

• P65. "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in the faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." The closing statement of Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, in which he encouraged party members to hold fast to their beliefs.

• P74. Do what Lincoln did. Ignore most of the attacks if they are petty, but fight back when they are important enough to make a difference. Write letters of refutation that vent your anger and emotions, but do not mail them. And always look at the lighter side of life by keeping your sense of humor. Maintain grace under pressure. Know right from wrong. And have courage.

• P75. Lincoln Principles #6.

  • Refrain from reading attacks upon yourself so you won't be provoked.

  • Don't be terrified by an excited populace and hindered from speaking your honest sentiments.

  • It's not entirely safe to allow a misrepresentation to go uncontradicted.

  • Remember that truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

  • Do the very best you know how—and keep doing so until the end.

  • If you yield to even one false charge, you may open yourself up to other unjust attacks.

  • If both factions or neither shall harass you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one or praised by the other.

  • The probability that you may fail in the struggles ought not to deter you from the support of a cause you believe to be just.

• P76. "Take time and think well upon this subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. Delay is ruining us. Time is everything. Please act in view of this. Make haste slowly." Lincoln gave seemingly contradictory advice to different followers in different situations.

• P81. "Let minor differences, and personal preferences, if there be such, go to the winds," he once said. In 1860, Lincoln wrote to Cornelius F. McNeil: "I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble  and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and they can not have if we don't." And in 1864, the president lectured Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox about conflict: "You have more of that feeling of personal resentment that I," Lincoln told him. "Perhaps I may have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has no time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him."

• P84. Lincoln Principles #7.

  • Make consistency one of the main cogs in the machinery of your organization.

  • Remember that it is not best to swap horses when crossing streams.

  • Don't surrender the game, leaving any available card unplayed.

  • Do less whenever you believe what you are doing hurts the cause, and do more whenever you believe doing more will help the cause. Try to correct errors when they are shown to be errors, and adopt new views as fast as they appear to be true views.

  • You must come to grips with the paradox of providing employee security while also encouraging an environment for risk-taking.

  • When you are in deep distress and cannot restrain some expression of it, sit down and write out a harsh letter venting your anger. But don't send it.

  • Make no explanation to your enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss, and that they can have if you explain, and they can not if you don't.

  • Avoid major conflict in the form of squabbles and arguments. You simply don't have time for it.

• P87. "Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything..." Part of Lincoln's firm stance regarding new elections in the State of Arkansas.

• P98. Lincoln Principles #8. (Lincoln was 52 when he became president and died at 56.)

  • An entire organization is never wisely sacrificed to avoid losing one or two small parts.

  • Take advantage of confusion, desperation, and urgency to exercise strong leadership.

  • Seize the initiative and never relinquish it.

  • Don't give up all your key points of strength, or the competition may "beat out your brains."

  • Never let your immediate subordinate take action upon your responsibility without consulting you first.

  • If you have a subordinate who has a presidential chin-fly biting him, don't knock it off.

  • When making a decision, understand the facts, consider various solutions and their consequences, make sure that the decision is consistent with your objectives, and effectively communicate your judgment.

  • Remember that compromise does not mean cowardice.

  • Try ballots first; when ballots don't work, use bullets.

• P99. "Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce ... But what next? I suppose it will be safer if I leave Gen. Grant and yourself to decide." Part of Lincoln's response to General Sherman for his "Christmas gift"—the capture of Savannah.

• P105. Sherman was more willing to act on his own now. All Lincoln had to do at this point was to provide some broad guidance, and Sherman would do the rest. If leaders do enough of this—if they praise good work and encourage more of the same—then eventually they will be able to relax and let their subordinates do most of the work. And all the leader will have to do is guide them in the proper direction. Lincoln continued this laudatory style right up to the final days of his life. During his last public address, made to gathering of people outside the White House on the evening of April 11, 1865, he was filled with modesty for himself and praise for the soldiers who had won the Union victory: "No part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine," he asserted "To General Grant, his skillful officers, and brave men, all belongs." Any leader can learn from Abraham Lincoln's standard. He had great confidence in his own competence and ability to perform. He was not insecure and did not feel threatened by others. He was flexible, open-minded, and willing to let his subordinates take all the glory for victories. He gave people the impression that they were leading him. And, in fact, he did give many of his subordinates the lead. But he always exerted some control. He stayed informed of their activity. When their ideas and actions matched his general direction and if he thought there was merit in the means to achieve the overall goal, Lincoln let his subordinates follow through. However, if they were deviating from the proper path, Lincoln guided them back on course. And when the means were inadequate to achieve the goal, he tended to talk them out of it or, when necessary, use his power to overrule. But Lincoln's chief objective was to allow his subordinates to say, "We accomplished this ourselves."

• P106. Lincoln Principles #9

  • If you are a good leader, when your work is done, your aim fulfilled, your people will say, "We did this ourselves."

  • Try not to feel insecure or threatened by your followers.

  • Let disputing parties work out their differences by bringing them together and guiding their dialogue.

  • Always let your subordinates know that the honor will be all theirs if they succeed and the blame will be yours if they fail.

  • Write letters to your subordinates making the personal acknowledging that they were right and you were wrong.

  • When your subordinates come up with good ideas, let them go ahead and try. But monitor their progress.

  • If your commanders in the field can't be successful, neither can you or your executive staff.

  • Never forget that your organization does not depend on the life of any one individual.

  • The greatest credit should be given to those in your organization who render the hardest work.

• P113. Lincoln Principles #10

  • Unite your followers with a "corporate mission."

  • Set specific short-term goals that can be focused on with intent and immediacy by subordinates.

  • Those leaders who achieve something at the head of one group will eclipse those who do nothing at the head of a hundred.

  • Sometimes it is better to plough around obstacles rather than to waste time going through them.

  • Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.

  • Your war will not be won by strategy alone, but more by hard, desperate fighting.

  • Your task will neither be done nor attempted unless you watch it every day and hour, and force it.

  • Remember that half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

• P136. Lincoln Principles #11

  • Choose as your chief subordinates those people who crave responsibility and take risks.

  • Go out into the field with your leaders, and stand or fall with the battle.

  • If employees gripe about one of your chief subordinates, and the complaints are true, do not be afraid to remove him.

  • Give your followers all the support you can, and act on the presumption that they will do the best they can with what you give them.

  • Provide your managers with a three-to-five-month grace period to see if they will take action and perform adequately.

  • If they don't perform adequately, ease them out of power gradually, always giving them ample time to turn it around.

  • Beware of subordinates who keep piling up information without ever really accomplishing anything.

  • Coach and counsel a new executive so that he or she may get off on the right foot. Remember, you want him to succeed.

  • Do not forget that aggressive leaders tend to choose employees in their own image.

  • Let the thing be pressed.

• P137. "Still the question recurs "can we do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew." Lincoln, in the Annual Message to Congress, exhorted its members to join him in a united venture to be conducted by the executive and legislative branches of government.

• P142. Lincoln Principles #12

  • When the occasion is piled high with difficulty, rise with it. Think anew and act anew.

  • Don't lose confidence in your people when they fail.

  • Let your subordinates know that you are always glad to have their suggestions.

  • If you never try, you'll never succeed.

  • Except in matters of broad policy, encourage subordinates to take action on their own initiative, without waiting for orders.

  • Remember that the best leaders never stop learning.

  • Surround yourself with people who really know their business, and avoid "yes" men.

  • Be quick and decisive in employing new advances and make every attempt to get new weapons into your soldiers' hands immediately.

• P152. Lincoln picked up this technique when he was a lawyer, as was recalled by his law partner William Herndon:

  • Mr. Lincoln's habit, methods of reading law, politics, poetry, etc. were to come into the office, pick up a book, newspaper, etc., and to sprawl himself out on the sofa, chair, etc., and read aloud much to my annoyance. I have asked him often why he did so, and his invariable reply was: "I catch the idea by two senses. But when I read aloud, I hear what is read, and I see it, and hence two senses get it, and I remember it better, if I do not understand it better."

• P154. Lincoln Principles #13

  • Be your organization's best stump-speaker, with droll ways and dry jokes.

  • Extemporaneous speaking is your avenue to the public.

  • Use a variety of body language when you speak.

  • Prepare yourself thoroughly for your public speaking engagements.

  • Never consider anything you write to be finished until published or, if a speech, until you deliver it.

  • Remember that there will be times when you should simply not speak. Say to your listeners: "Kindly let me be silent."

  • Try not to make mistakes when you speak publicly. Everything you say is intently heard. If you make a mistake, it doesn't merely affect you but the organization as well.

  • You should often couple written documents with verbal discussions, thereby catching the idea with two senses rather than just one. Both you and your subordinates will remember it better, even if you do not understand it better.

• P161. Lincoln Principles #14

  • When you meet with an individual, try not to part with any unpleasant impression on either side.

  • Speak in simple and familiar strains with people, without any pretension of superiority. Leave people with the feeling that they've known you all their lives.

  • Don't forget that humor is a major component of your ability to persuade people.

  • A good laugh is good for both the mental and physical digestion.

  • Remember that people are more easily influenced through the medium of a broad and humorous illustration than in any other way.

  • You will often avoid a long and useless discussion by others or a laborious explanation on your own part by a short story that illustrates your point of view.

  • The sharpness of a refusal of the edge of a rebuke may be blunted by an appropriate story, so as to save wounded feelings and yet serve the purpose.

  • Loyalty is more often won through private conversation than in any other way.

• P169. Lincoln Principles #15

  • Provide a clear, concise statement of the direction of your organization, and justify the actions you take.

  • Everywhere you go, at every conceivable opportunity, reaffirm, reassert, and remind everyone of the basic principles upon which your organization was founded.

  • Effective visions can't be forced on the masses. Rather, you must set them in motion by means of persuasion.

  • Harness your vision through the implementation of your own personal roving leadership style.

  • When you preach your vision, don't shoot too high. Aim lower, and the common people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach—at least they are the ones you ought to reach.

  • When effecting renewal, call on the past, relate it to the present, and then use them both to provide a link to the future.

  • You must realize the process of renewal releases the critical human talent and energy necessary to ensure success.