Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times

Part 4 is the final section of Lincoln on Leadership and the chapters focus on communication. Chapter 13 begins Part 4 with a call to “Master the Art of Public Speaking,” another principle that Phillips believes modern leaders can better understand through examples from Lincoln’s own methods of communicating with people. Phillips first describes Lincoln’s background in Illinois and how the future president gained valuable experience by public speaking. He performed 175 speeches, some of which were extemporaneous, or without preparation. Lincoln viewed public speaking as an art that he needed to practice and refine over the course of many years in order to rise in the ranks of politics and become well-known enough to achieve his ambitions.

According to Phillips, “Lincoln’s most famous speeches were exhaustively researched, analyzed, and practiced” (147), including his “Cooper Institute address” of 1860, which he worked on for 3 months. Although Lincoln had a remarkable talent for public speaking and was often able to improvise very impressive speeches when needed, he did not rely on his abilities to extemporize when the circumstances required a planned approach. Phillips provides an excerpt from a primary source—a journalist’s response to Lincoln’s Cooper Institute speech in 1860—to show that Lincoln’s talent for public speaking, and also his thorough preparation beforehand, had the effect of turning audiences to his favor.