It is in this story that Lincoln quite eloquently conveys something about his own strategy in working with his team of rivals. It reflects something about his own reasoning and even his own shortcomings. Lincoln can work with his rivals as long as the illness (civil war) prevails, but need not collaborate or even interact with them once the healing has occurred (victory is achieved).
Lincoln knows that he is human—like the sick man from his home state of Illinois. As is the case with most other people, he doesn’t want to hang around for long with those who hold quite different perspectives. He can hold a grudge for many years. Yet, Abraham Lincoln can retain relationships despite differences on behalf of a greater goal (winning the war) and greater mission (preserving the union).
Evolving and Innovating
If we can step back from Lincoln’s skill as a leader and his accomplishments—as we did with J. S. Bach—we find that several contemporary psychologists have something to say about Lincoln’s insightful decision to bring in his rivals—as related to the power of diversity and the attendant openness to new ideas.
Diversity is required when an environment is complex. Lincoln required that his presidential cabinet included members with diverse ideas because the environment in which his cabinet would be operating was filled with complexity (as well as the other five VUCA-Plus conditions). One extended example of Lincoln’s use of his team of rivals to deal with a complex issue centered on his interactions with General George McClelland, who headed his armed forces during the early years of the Civil War. Lincoln was quite ambivalent about McCellan.
Ambivalence and McClellan
On the one hand, he greatly admired McClellan’s military expertise (at least during the first years of the war). On the other hand, Lincoln was offended by McClellan’s failure to acknowledge Lincoln’s presidential authority or to even grant Lincoln the courtesy of meeting with him on many occasions. Members of Lincoln’s cabinet offered a wide variety of opinions regarding McClellan, as a general and as someone with whom they wanted to work. It was in the midst of this diverse set of perspectives that Lincoln was able to sort through his own views of McClellan.
For instance, War Secretary Stanton was just as disgruntled as Lincoln when he often had to wait for McClellan when coming to the War Department for a scheduled meeting. The arrogance of the General was a source of agitation for both Lincoln and Stanton. One of the outcomes was that Stanton and Lincoln began to spend more time together (rather than spending time with McClellan).
Despite their shared annoyance and failure on the battlefield, Lincoln was hesitant to replace McClellan even though members of congress were pressuring him to do so. He did restrict McClellan’s appointment to that of Army of the Potomac command and brought in John Charles Fremont to command a new unit of the army. While this infuriated many conservatives in and outside his party, Lincoln received the unexpected support of Monty Blair (his postmaster general), who came from a powerful, conservative family.
