Thomas Jefferson Leadership Style Analysis

As Joseph Ellis observes in his book Founding Brothers, longtime friends (and part-time bitter rivals) Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were very different men -- in politics, in personality, and (as we will observe most closely here) in leadership styles. Adams was talkative, confrontational, and tended to make his feelings unambiguously clear, while Jefferson was reserved, elusive, and outwardly passive, leading conversations where he wanted them to go by more subtle methods (a less charitable person might call him manipulative). More simply: Adams favored a top-down leadership style, Jefferson a bottom-up one. These two distinct leadership styles can be found throughout history, all the way up to the current batch of presidential …show more content…
One would initially expect an Adamsian leadership style to be more effective – it is more assertive, it sets itself apart more; it just looks more like we would expect leadership to. History demonstrates, however, that a Jeffersonian style is much more successful. Adams was deeply unpopular (even within his own party) when he left the presidency after one term, had few policy victories (aside from his successful negotiated end to the Quasi-War with France), and his party was left crippled on the national level after he left office. Jefferson, on the other hand, was elected to two terms, throughout which he remained popular, achieved several massive victories (the Louisiana Purchase chief among them), and his party (in one form or another) remained a force in national politics for years to come. Why the counterintuitive success of Jefferson and failure of …show more content…
What does the success of Jefferson and the failure of Adams teach us in a modern political context? Is a bottom-up leadership style still more effective and desirable in a president than a top-down one? Though the rise of Trump and Sanders shows that an Adamsian style can be very effective in an election year, the immense unpopularity of the second Bush administration (strongly Adamsian in style), and the overwhelming nostalgia for Bill Clinton (who has occasionally been compared to Jefferson) that can be found in many, seems to demonstrate the durability of Jefferson’s more passive style. The actual presidential leadership skills of Trump and Sanders and those of that ilk remain untested. It’s worth noting that the Jeffersonian style is far more popular among those in the race with actual executive experience – all governors (with the exception of Chris Christie) in the running have exhibited a relatively soft-spoken, thoughtful style. Clinton and Jefferson succeeded as presidents, in large part, for the same reasons: their ability to set the national agenda without appearing to set