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{Bookshelf Recommendation}
Are Leaders Born or Made?
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| Dr. Charles E. Ziegler |
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership: In Turbulent Times (Simon and Schuster, 2018).
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of Team of Rivals and other major biographies, examines the trajectories of four notable presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson—to understand what makes a real leader. Among other questions, Kearns asks whether leaders are born or made, how times and adversity shape leadership skills, and how personal ambition affects leadership. Her subjects differ dramatically in their backgrounds and in the challenges each faced, yet all four demonstrated the qualities of effective, and inspirational, leadership.
While Kearns finds no single formula that makes a great leader, she does distill a number of cogent lessons from their lives. Among them: “assume full responsibility for a pivotal decision” (Lincoln); “keep temper in check” (T. Roosevelt), “bring all stakeholders aboard” (F. Roosevelt); and “honor commitments” (Johnson). Real leaders gather firsthand information, ask questions, put ego aside, refuse to let past resentments fester, set standards of mutual respect and dignity, control their anger, and lead by example.As Kearns observes, these four men set a standard of excellence toward which we should strive, and examples of transformational leadership that can motivate and unite people in fractured times. Although she does not explicitly make the connection, many readers will conclude that the present occupant of the White House exhibits few if any of the exemplary leadership traits of his predecessors.
Dr. Charles E. Ziegler is a Political Science Professor and University Scholar at the University of Louisville. Views expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of the McConnell Center.
This recommendation is part of the McConnell Center's Meditations publication series, which features the center's educational resources in a monthly e-newsletter. Content includes a great books podcast series hosted by McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg, book recommendations, student research and writing, and notable lectures available in video format. Subscribe