Lincoln and other presidents

One grandiose-sounding statement that is justifiably true is that it is hard to compare the job of the POTUS to any other one. Yes, leadership styles can be applied, as is being done on this blog, but in terms of sheer pressure, forces pulling and pushing, and certainly politics, being the POTUS is probably the ultimate test of one's mettle. It seems, therefore, that it might be useful to look at the leadership styles of other Presidents and consider them as well.

One that springs to mind is JFK. With the Cuban Missle Crisis, we came the closest to nuclear holocaust as any other time in history. It's comparable to the disolution of the union, I guess, though it certainly wasn't a 5 year struggle.

Irving Janis' GroupThink book, which is terrific, talks about the difference in leadership style between the Bay of Pigs invasion, conceived under Eisenhower but implemented by Kennedy's administration, and the Cuban Missle Crisis. Both had essentially the same set of men involved. However, with the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy basically listened only to what the military and CIA said, believed what they said, made presumptions about the "enemy," and went ahead without critical thought and trying to poke holes in the proposal. The result was an unmitigated disaster.

In comparison, Kennedy convened an "Executive Committee" for the Cuban Missle Crisis that approached things very differently. He learned from the Bay of Pigs. He asked just a bunch of smart people - the smartest around, not necessarily the smartest in his immediate cabinet (and in fact it was the former envoy to the USSR that came up with the real solution, not RFK, not McGeorge Bundy, not Robert McNamara, etc). He also asked them to question information, to play devil's advocate (RFK has been criticized for his aggressive approach to this in particular, but considering we did not evaporate in a nuclear cloud, I don't have a problem with his vehemence), to avoid presumptions about the accuracy of information or about the other side.

So what does this mean in terms of IT? Well, there's the "surround yourself with smart people" point. JFK also was at only one or two of the major meetings, so the "let your people do their job" idea can be in there as well.

Thoughts?