The Broadway play “Hamilton” is all the rage now, highlighting with song and dance the life and accomplishments of the Founding Father whose portrait graces the American $10 bill–Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton has, for the last few decades, been one of the less famous of the Founders—several paces behind George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. But why? After all, it was Hamilton that was George Washington’s “right hand man” during the Revolutionary War, it was Hamilton who was largely responsible for the ratification of the US Constitution by the states, it was Hamilton who laid the foundation of the powerful United States economy, and it was Hamilton who formed the first American political party, the Federalist Party.
Yes—this was the Alexander Hamilton who grew up in poverty on the island of St. Croix, was orphaned and working as a clerk at the age of 13, who immigrated (alone) to New York at the age of 17, and was a college student in New York when the Revolutionary War began.
In my upcoming book, The Leadership Secrets of Hamilton: 7 Steps to Revolutionary Leadership from Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers (published by Simpletruths.com, and on bookshelves February 7, 2017) I discuss the leadership skills of Hamilton and six other Founders (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, and Henry). The book serves as a brief introduction to the most significant accomplishments of the Founders: winning the Revolutionary War, writing the Declaration of Independence, the writing and ratification of the US Constitution, and the establishment of the first surviving democratic government. But more than that, Leadership Secrets of Hamilton uses modern leadership theory to illustrate how the Founders accomplished these tasks.
Historians and leadership theorists today acknowledge that the Founders were “transformational” leaders. Transformational leaders, it turns out, are the best kind to have around when you have a war to win or a new nation to establish. This is because transformational leaders are known for their ability to inspire followers to make personal sacrifices and go beyond their own self-interests for the good of the larger group (which in the Founders case, was the entire American people). Transformational leaders are inspirational because they recognize and communicate “the right thing to do” and by exemplary leadership earn the trust, loyalty, and respect of their followers.
Ultimately, the transformational leaders not only inspire their followers, but by turning their followers into leaders they become inspired by their followers too. Both leaders and followers—according to leadership theorist James MacGregor Burns—raise one another to “higher levels of morality and motivation” in pursuit of their righteous cause.
So, how did the Founders earn the trust and respect of their followers? Why were thousands of Americans willing to fight and die in the Revolutionary War? Why did they support their new government and ratify their new, controversial US Constitution? Even more important, where are the leaders today like Hamilton and Washington that can inspire the trust, loyalty, and respect of the American people?
To begin to answer these questions, something I will do in future blog posts, we will first look more closely at the leadership skills of Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers.
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