Abraham Lincoln Leadership Style Essay

In modern times and throughout history there are many individuals who were and are in a leadership role. One of these leaders was Abraham Lincoln. This paper intends to highlight some of the valuable qualities of Lincoln and how they shaped him into a leader. A number of the traits that will be explored are faith, honor and integrity, and the ability to listen. Upon examining history it becomes evident that one of the personal qualities that Lincoln possessed was faith. This faith guided him in important or difficult decisions that needed solved. An example of one of these unpopular decisions was the issue of slavery and the signing of the emancipation proclamation. During the time of the civil war, there was resistance from both the …show more content…
“Lincoln described himself as not ashamed to accept. He preferred to react to problems and to the circumstances that others had created rather than to originate policies and lay out long range plans”. (“Lincoln” n.d.) Based on this observation, Lincoln utilized a leadership style that could best be described as a flexible. Lincoln’s leadership style allowed him to dictate his plan of action based on the events surrounding him. Lincoln did not want to be confined by one path to his desired goal but the ability to be flexible when unforeseen evens occurred. Lincoln also displayed a leadership style of preferring plans and policies that were not set in stone. It appears that Lincoln felt that the future was unpredictable and he preferred having the flexibility to be able to change his plans as new obstacles were presented. One example of this leadership style was how Lincoln managed the commanding generals of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln replaced ineffective generals such as Mcclellan, Pope and Meede. Lincoln eventually settled on General Grant to lead the Army of the Potomac who defeated General Lee and ultimately ended the war. This is just one but important example of Lincoln’s flexible leadership