The following case study discusses an incident Abraham Lincoln faced with one of his Cabinet members. It exemplifies the shrewd use of the Sun Tzu Way. (The excerpt below is from Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips):
"One famous case in point involved the presidents adept handling of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase's attempts to discredit William Seward in late 1862. Chase was jealous of Seward's influence with the president and of their close friendship. He felt that it was he who should be the chief adviser in the cabinet; in fact, in 1864 he worked behind the scenes in an attempt to wrest the Republican nomination from Lincoln. Chase had complained to influential Republican senators that Seward exerted undue influence on the president, that he was inept at handling foreign affairs, and that he was the cause of all the problems at the executive level of the government. After the Confederate victory over General Burnside at Fredericksburg, Virginia, the senators were overly distraught and subsequently met in caucuses to discuss Seward's position in the cabinet. They decided to send a delegation of nine to the White House to urge Lincoln to dismiss the secretary of state and reorganize the cabinet. At their meeting, on December 18, 1862, they accused Seward of endless wrongdoing and told Lincoln that they had it on good authority that the president often failed to consult all members of his cabinet when important decisions were made. Lincoln asked them to return the following night. Until then he would consider their concerns and demands... The next evening, he summoned his cabinet to a special session where he explained all that had happened the night before. When the senators returned to the White House for their scheduled meeting, Lincoln assembled everyone in the same room and asked that all matters of dispute be resolved before anyone left. All the participants were caught off guard. The senators did not know that the cabinet was going to be present, nor did the cabinet realize what Lincoln had secretly planned. Chase was especially distressed. If he were to support what the senators had asserted, his cabinet colleagues and the president were sure to realize that he was the catalyst to all the dissent. Chase was forced to agree that Lincoln had consulted the cabinet on every important decision, that they were generally in agreement, and that Seward acted properly and honestly in the administration of his duties as secretary of state. As a result of this meeting, organized and run exclusively by Lincoln, the Republican senators and Chase were thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated. Chase was exposed as a fraud never to be trusted again, and all charges against Seward were dropped. Lincoln obtained the results he wanted while seeming to be almost naïve in his actions." - Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln on Leadership, Chapter 9, pgs. 100-102 ANALYSIS Lincoln's handling of this situation displays his adeptness at the art of winning without battle, a key precept of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Let's see how he does it. From his first conversation with the senators, he knew, from how ambitious his Secretary of Treasury was, that Chase was at the source of all this trouble. He surmised that it was Chase who was complaining to the Senators, trying to stir up discontent so that he could advance in Lincoln's cabinet. However, Lincoln was in a dilemma. If he confronted Chase, then Chase would simply deny it. Confronting the Senators would also not work, as they too would deny Chase had any involvement. And if he simply refused the Senators' demands, he would look as if he was inflexible or incapable of taking feedback, which could have huge repercussions with gaining the Senators' much-needed support in the future, given how horribly the Civil War was going so far. But Lincoln realized that there was one weakness in Chase's plan: Chase's anonymity. If the rest of the cabinet knew what Chase was up to, none of them would trust Chase. Chase knew that he couldn't be seen as a dissenter. And it was this forced anonymity that Lincoln could exploit. Catching everyone off-guard by putting them in the same room and having each cabinet member speak to Seward's good character and conduct in front of the Senators, Chase was forced to agree with his fellow cabinet members in order to hide his anonymity, making himself look like a fraud in front of the Senators. At the same time, it prevented Lincoln from having to defend Seward to the Senators - rather, he let his own cabinet members do the defending for him. With Chase seen as a fraud and with unanimous support for Seward from the cabinet, the Senators had no choice but to drop their demands. Lincoln's approach displays the five main qualities of a winning strategy (profitable, protected, easy, quick, and surprising), allowing him to achieve quan sheng (total victory) in this situation. Let's break down these qualities in detail:
As a result of this strategy, Lincoln was able to achieve his overall objectives (keep Seward as Secretary of State and not lose face with the Senators), while at the same time weakening Chase's ability to build on his alliance with the Senators in the future.
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