No matter the corporate structure or style of leadership, there’s something in the works of the Bard for every successful leader.
On August 17, 1863, not long after the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to James H. Hackett, an American actor of some note in both the United States and Great Britain. Lincoln admired Hackett’s portrayal of Falstaff, but his letter grew particularly effusive when he described his love of Shakespeare’s broader body of work: “Some of Shakspeare’s [sic] plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard Third, Henry Eighth, Hamlet, and especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful.”
He concluded by inviting Hackett to visit him in the White House. When Hackett did so, however, he was treated to a presidential chewing out for having omitted the play scene between Prince Hal and Falstaff in his recent performance of Henry IV, Part 1. The hapless actor learned, as have many since, that practicing politicians, including those of the first rank, have found in Shakespeare not merely diversion but truths about their chosen profession. He also learned that some of them do not take kindly to the cutting of their favorite scenes.
