Blog

Are great leaders born or made? Does the man or woman make the times, or do the times make the man or woman? In uncertain times, understanding how leadership works (or doesn’t) is ever more imperative, and sometimes, it takes a historian’s perspective to unravel the present. Recently I listened to Doris Kearns Goodwin discuss her new book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, in which she examines the careers of four U.S. presidents; Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

Each of these very different men found himself at the epicenter of world-shaking crises, and brought the nation through it to safety. Fortunately, most of us will never be tasked with dealing with that level of upheaval and uncertainty – but as leaders in our own spheres, there’s plenty to learn from their experiences. As different as they were, these four presidents shared some very important traits, qualities of character which Goodwin suggests were...