Do you lead like Abraham Lincoln? This is the final conversation about the Top 10 Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Reflections on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin This episode covers:

* Step out of the way when necessary for the cause
* Loneliness and melancholy are normal for exceptional leaders
* Invite Young Leaders to the Table.

Podcast Transcript
Joshua MacLeod:
I don’t know at what point I transitioned from, “I have to do this myself and learn this myself,” to, “I’m going to let somebody else take the blows in this stupid tax, and I’m just going to learn from them. But books are phenomenal ways to do that, where you can just really learn from somebody else.
Podcast Announcer:
Welcome to the Growability Podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching, consultation, and business collaboration needs. This is the third and final episode in our three-part series, sharing the top ten leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln. Let’s pick up with Joshua and Bernie, as they discuss lessons seven through ten. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod and Bernie Anderson.
Joshua MacLeod:
All right, number seven, this one is, step out of the way if necessary for the cause. Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a really successful run of elections leading up to the presidency. He had several failed elections before he actually became elected to be the president of the United States. You have the Republican Party and you have the Democratic Party. And so, Abraham Lincoln’s on the Republican Party and there’s another person running for this seat. I think it was the Senate seat. I can’t remember exactly what seat he was running for. The other side had 49 votes or something like that, that was in the other party. He had 48 votes. And then, there was this guy who had three votes that was in his same party, in his same ticket. They did several rounds of ballots, and these three people, they just weren’t going to budge. In order for the party to win the result, the only way that it would be possible is to take the guy who had 48 votes and give all of those votes to the person that had three votes. So that the party could win.
Bernie Anderson:
Wow.
Joshua MacLeod:
And so, in this case, Abraham Lincoln did that. He took all of his votes, he gave them to the other person in the party so that the party could win. When I heard that, I was listening to the book and I was like, pause, “Wow.” Step out of the way, if it’s necessary for the cause. Sometimes it’s critical to humbly, let someone else take your place, and let your future have a higher ceiling. Abraham Lincoln was like, “I’m not in this for the short game. I’m not in this for power. I’m in this for the long haul, I want to serve people. I’m going to let the party win this one so that we can gain some ground. Sometimes you just really got to step out of the way and do what’s right for the organization. Not just progress your own cause.”
Bernie Anderson:
Yeah. Joshua, do you think that the ability to do that has something to do with your clarity of vision, that you’re about something bigger than you, right? Good vision is not about you. It’s not about… Your vision isn’t for yourself. It’s for something bigger than you. It seems like you would have to have that clarity before you’d even be able to step out of the way for the cause, right?
Joshua MacLeod:
Fundamentally. Abraham Lincoln’s thinking about slavery, he’s thinking about civil war, he’s thinking about all of the factors that are in the country that are rife. And he is like, “Somebody has to stand up against these thing...