Lincoln on Leadership Quotes

“articulate and define what has previously remained implicit or unsaid;”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a “drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and tho’ your cause be naked truth itself . . . you shall no more be able to [reach] him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interest. [Italics added]”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“Messages are more often “heard” when the communicator is honest, sincere, and succinct. In other words, say what you mean, and mean what you say.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“The best leaders never stop learning.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“It is your duty to advance the aims of the organization and also to help those who serve it. If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens you can never regain their respect and esteem”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“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.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“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.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“But people are much more likely to trust a leader if they know he is compassionate and forgiving of mistakes. And trust, of course, is the essential building block for successful relationships.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a “drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and tho’ your cause be naked truth itself . . . you shall no more be able to [reach] him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interest. [Italics”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“The governor is like the boy I saw once at the launching of a ship. When everything was ready, they picked out a boy and sent him under the ship to knock away the trigger and let her go. At the critical moment everything depended on the boy. He had to do the job well by a direct, vigorous blow, and then lie flat and keep still while the ship slid over him. The boy did everything right; but he yelled as if he were being murdered, from the time he got under the keel until he got out. I thought the skin was all scraped off his back; but he wasn’t hurt at all. The master of the yard told me that this boy was always chosen for that job, that he did his work well, that he never had been hurt, but that he always squealed in that way. That’s just the way with the governor. Make up your minds that he is not hurt, and that he is doing his work right, and pay no attention to his squealing. He only wants to make you understand how hard his task is, and that he is on hand performing”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“The only way you can motivate people is to communicate with them.” Effective communication also shapes values for people by “not only bringing company philosophy to life . . . ,” as Peters and Austin put it, but also “helps newcomers understand how shared values affect individual performance.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“James MacGregor Burns wrote that “the Leader’s fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel – to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent,”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“But the sad fact is that too many of today’s leaders resign themselves to the limits imposed on them by flawed systems rather than rethinking those systems.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“The best leaders never stop learning. They possess a special capacity to be taught by those with whom they come into contact. In essence, this ongoing accumulation of knowledge prepares the organization for change.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“will pay attention to the role of stories [and] myths . . . .”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

“As president, Lincoln was an intelligent communicator. He was careful about what he said, and he thought before he spoke.”
― Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times