Resilience
There is one other important point that Kearns Goodwin (2005, p. xvii) makes regarding the makeup of Abraham Lincoln’s character as leader during trying, VUCA-Plus times. She focuses briefly in this introductory statement on Lincoln’s emotional resilience – a strength that I believe is particularly important when one is sustaining a relationship with someone who comes from a quite different world (regarding perspective, values and even practices).
“. . . Lincoln suffered from chronic depression. Yet, with the exception of two despondent episodes in his early life that are described in this story; there is no evidence that he was immobilized by depression. On the contrary, even during the worst days of the war, he retained his ability to function at a very high level.”
The major reason why Lincoln was able to manage his own emotions and remain resilient in the midst of stressful conditions might reside in his capacity to reflect on his own psychological state – a level of cognitive and emotional maturity that is exceptional.
It is this capacity for meta-cognition and emotional regulation that enabled Lincoln to navigate the VUCA-Plus waters better than his “rivals” (Kearns Goodwin, 2006, p. xvii):
“. . . Lincoln possessed an uncanny understanding of his shifting moods, a profound self-awareness that enabled him to find constructive ways to alleviate sadness and stress. Indeed, when he is compared with his colleagues, it is clear that he possessed the most even-tempered disposition of them all. Time and again, he was the one who dispelled his colleagues’ anxiety and sustained their spirits with his gift for storytelling and his life affirming sense of humor. When resentment and contention threatened to destroy his administration, he refused to be provoked by petty grievances, to submit to jealousy, or to brood over perceived slights. Through the appalling pressures he faced day after day, he retained an unflagging faith in his country’s cause.”
Lincoln’s meta-cognitive capacity and ability to regulate his emotions often were evident not only in his direct addressing of complex issues—and his shifting attitudes regarding these issues—but also in his storytelling (often about his own “inadequacies”) and in the many jokes he told. These folksy anecdotes always conveyed a telling insight—often about himself. Kearns Goodwin (2005, p. 711) shares one of these jokes:
“I [Lincoln] felt a good deal like the sick man in Illinois who was told he probably hadn’t many days longer to live, and he ought to make his peace with any enemies he might have. He said the man he hated worst of all was a fellow named Brown, in the next village. So Brown was sent for and when he came the sick man began to say, in a voice as meek as Moses’s, that he wanted to die at peace with all his fellow creatures, and he hoped he and Brown could now shake hand and bury all their enmity. The scene was becoming altogether too pathetic for Brown, who had to get out his handkerchief and wipe the gathering tears from his eyes….After a parting that would have softened the heart of a grindstone Brown had about reached the room door when the sick man rose up on his elbow and called out to him: ‘But see here, Brown; if I should happen to get well, mind, that old grudge stands.'”
