Presidential Lessons In Leadership

This book seeks to demonstrate that we can learn from both 'good' and 'bad' leaders. Part One looks at President Trump's behaviour from inauguration to impeachment. The ancient Greek concepts of Kairos and Chronos are used to indicate that Trump was almost a natural fit for the US of 2017. Part Two considers the consequences of his behaviour on the US, the world at large, and for leadership overall. There is a temptation to consider only 'good' leaders when asking what we can learn from others. This book explores the issue of what can be learned from any person in a leadership role, no matter what the value judgement we make of them. Part One explores Trump's behaviour up to the moment of impeachment and the longer-term residual impacts this will have once his term as President is over. It shows that our value judgements tend to be based on perception and a priori assumptions. Part Two explores what we can learn from the Trump event no matter what our leadership role. Disruption is endemic in today's world. Today, it often seems that we are born, live, and die, in three quite different worlds. Yet, at its core, things have changed very little. Oligarchy has been a reality since time immemorial. Unless we are first 'unfrozen' from the status quo, change tends to be more cosmetic than actual. Donald Trump's presidency has the potential to be the thawing agent that could enable 'real' change through which new forms of both democracy and capitalism might emerge across the world.

In a divided nation, Presidential Leadership unites insightful leadership qualities by pairings US Presidents and applying their common leadership skills to the modern home, business, community, and nation.

This book crystallizes the methods of leadership from America's greatest presidents during moments of personal challenge and turns them into concrete lessons that business leaders, and anyone interested in becoming a more effective leader, can use daily. The presidents include Lincoln, Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, and Reagan.

By analyzing the leadership skills of five recent American presidents, this book seeks to de-mystify the elements and dynamics of effective presidential leadership which our democracy has come to depend upon and value. Building on the pioneering work of political scientist Fred Greenstein and others, this book argues that leadership in the White House can be explained and assessed by using a consistent set of criteria to analyze presidential performance. Siegel shows that presidential leadership is exercised by real, flawed human beings, and not by superheroes or philosopher-kings beyond the reach of scrutiny or critique.

In this culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential history, Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an illuminating exploration of the origin, uncertain growth, and finally, the exercise of fully developed leadership. Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the man make the times or does the times make the man? In Leadership Goodwin draws upon four of the presidents she has studied - Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson - to show how they first recognized leadership qualities within themselves, and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entry into public life, when their paths were filled with confusion, hope, and fear, we can share their struggles and follow their development into leaders. Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to forever shatter their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times. No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities and temperament, they shared a fierce ambition, a hunger to succeed beyond expectations. All four, at their best, were guided by a sense of moral purpose that led them at moments of great challenge to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others. This seminal work provides a roadmap for aspiring and established leaders. In today's polarized world, these stories of authentic leadership in time of surpassing fracture and fear take on a singular urgency.

This book examines the foreign policy decisions of the presidents who presided over the most critical phases of America's rise to world primacy in the twentieth century, and assesses the effectiveness and ethics of their choices. Joseph Nye, who was ranked as one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 100 Top Global Thinkers, reveals how some presidents tried with varying success to forge a new international order while others sought to manage America’s existing position. The book shows how transformational presidents like Wilson and Reagan changed how America sees the world, but argues that transactional presidents like Eisenhower and the elder Bush were sometimes more effective and ethical. It also draws important lessons for today’s uncertain world, in which presidential decision making is more critical than ever.

How the Best Did It is an accessible and insightful explanation of how the most important leadership traits from America’s eight greatest presidents can be implemented by today’s leaders. “A discerning examination of what all of us can learn from some of our most effective leaders who have held—and wielded—ultimate power at the highest level.” —Jon Meacham David O. Stewart (author of George Washington: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father) on the George Washington chapter: “In How the Best Did It, Talmage Boston demonstrates rare gifts in sifting gold nuggets from the endless gravel beds of known facts about eight leading presidents, then delivering them concisely and persuasively. In his insightful study of George Washington, he finds the core of America’s first great leader without exaggerating his talents, and makes him someone from whom we can learn and cherish.” Annette Gordon-Reed (Pulitzer-winning historian and coauthor of Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination) on the Thomas Jefferson chapter: “Thomas Jefferson was one the most effective American leaders of his time, creating a political party that dominated American politics for more than a quarter of a century. With great insight and clear writing, Talmage Boston brings Jefferson to life as the talented leader who shaped the course of early American society.” Ronald C. White Jr. (author of A. Lincoln and three other notable books on Lincoln) on the Abraham Lincoln chapter: “Talmage Boston offers a wise and wide-ranging understanding of Lincoln’s leadership qualities. What makes Boston’s chapter distinct is the personal questions that challenge the reader to apply Lincoln’s values to their lives today.”

The second edition of this classic work adds a new chapter on Barack Obama and updates coverage of the end of the George W. Bush administration. Presidential scholar Erwin C. Hargrove extends his analytical framework of presidential effectiveness to show how Obama combines eventful leadership with pragmatism to move the nation forward in an intensely polarized partisan environment. Features of the textbook: Uses an analytical framework to assess historical context, personal skills and attributes, and the ability to "make a difference" in each of ten presidencies. Four presidents are judged to be "event-making" leaders: Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush. Six presidents are assessed as "eventful" leaders: JFK, Ford, Carter, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama. As much a study of leadership as an analysis of ten presidencies, this book adds to our understanding in political science, history, and public administration and management.