In the introductory sections of his book Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times, Donald T. Phillips explains how he first formulated the idea for the book and why it is an important contribution to the field of leadership and management studies. The idea for a book about Abraham Lincoln’s leadership principles first came to Phillips in 1983, and after researching previous works and biographies about the subject, he determined that no other author had yet written a book specifically about Lincoln and leadership, even though the 16th president of the United States is one of the most admired leaders in history. Phillips’s purpose is to fill this gap in knowledge by examining the specific methods Lincoln utilized to be an effective leader of a nation in crisis during the American Civil War and to explain how readers can apply these methods in a modern corporate or business context.

While in the “Preface” Phillips lays out the precise circumstances in his corporate management background that gave rise to the book, in the “Introduction” he writes more specifically about Lincoln himself. Although Lincoln has taken on a mythical status in modern culture, Phillips wants to provide a more grounded and practical approach for understanding Lincoln as an effective leader whose principles readers can apply daily.