Leadership Books | Lessons in Leadership from Eleanor Roosevelt

Letters on Leadership

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Not enough can be said about the importance of hard work in one reaching their goals. Now while the obstacles are high for anyone trying to accomplish great things, there was a time along the American landscape that some had a more difficult time than others. I speak frankly of a time when women were seen as less than equals and African Americans suffered a reality that was even more trying. It was to this end that I worked diligently to pull this great nation out of the darkness of discrimination, or any injustice to any human walking not only our great nation, but also our planet.

Being a woman myself, this was not the easiest of tasks, however, this is where the importance of hard work and strong leadership come into play. Mine was a humanitarian agenda that started due to the unpredictable and sometimes harsh realities of life. In 1921, my husband FDR was struck with a paralytic illness that made appearances for him quite difficult. As it turned out, I enjoyed making appearances on his behalf. With great coaching from Louis Howe, the appearances turned out to be surprisingly successful. Despite the fears of political life, and the injustices that plagued my time, I knew that only a strong commitment to work and leadership would bring one out of the depths.

Leaders Confront Their Fears

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Real leaders have the capacity not to ignore their fears, but to find the strength to do the right thing even when it is not the popular thing to do. So many people today are satisfied with the way thing are and are gutless to do anything about it. With my husband’s strong support, despite criticism of us both, I continued with the active business and speaking agenda I had begun before becoming First Lady, in an era when few women had careers. I was the first to hold weekly press conferences and started writing a widely syndicated newspaper column, “My Day.”

Leadership Sees What Is and Decides if What Is Should Be

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Most leadership books deal heavily with the one reading the book, the aspiring leader. While this is well and good, I believe a greater goal is for a leadership book to help shape the mind of that leader as it relates to people. My journey was a humanitarian one. From an early age, I was afforded many luxuries that many people did not have the chance to enjoy. Sadly, some people, as well as many leaders, are fine with the injustices of the world as long as they keep a certain distance from their doorstep. My convictions lead me to believe that equality, justice, and fairness was the right of all human beings, not just to white men, but also women and people of color.

Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

It was this belief that lead me to work very closely with union leaders, union members – especially union women – and with any other human being seeking social justice in the workplace at home and abroad. Even before my public life as the First Lady of the United States, I started working with the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL). Throughout the 1920s, my leadership became increasingly influential in the New York State Democratic Party.

Find out more how Eleanor Roosevelt’s practical leadership was used in the turnaround at Ford in the leadership book, Return to Greatness: Driving the American Dream.

You see, I didn’t set out to make headlines, or a name for myself. I followed my convictions, and in doing so, great things began to take place. Not over night, of course, as my journey and convictions followed me to the grave. But in leadership, it isn’t enough to dream. Each dream has to walk hand in hand with hard work in order that your dreams and convictions be made a reality.

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

A Leadership Book to Challenge You

I pray these words of wisdom lead you into a direction in which you are impressed with the fact that true leadership is the ability to bring people up; to grow them, to nurture them, and if need be, have them help you Return to Greatness.

With hope for the future,

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