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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you

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hear weekday afternoon is on the Drive. His name is Talmuch Boston and he

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is a well known figure among historians
as an author, speaker, on stage

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interviewer, also author of cross Examining
History, Raising the Bar, Baseball and

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the Baby Boomer, and nineteen thirty
nine Baseball's Tipping Point. But his new

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creation is not about baseball. It's
called How the Best Did It? Leadership

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Lessons from our Top Presidents. Talmach
Boston, Welcome, I'd be on your

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show, lady. Let's start at
the beginning. We've learned as a nation

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that generals usually make pretty good presidents. I think it's because to be a

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good general, you gotta be a
good manager. And that is what George

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Washington was. Well. He was
a good manager of all, he was

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a good leader, and he,
I guess inherently knew what it took to

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be a good leader. As a
general. He stayed in close touch with

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his men. He wasn't one of
these I'm better than you, you never

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get to see me or speak with
me. He stayed in constant connection with

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his troops, and that endeared him
to them. He also always looked the

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part of being the leader, riding
a white horse, perfect posture, perfect

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uniform, piercing eye contact, the
tallest guy in the room wherever he was.

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So he had all these characteristics,
but above all he had integrity,

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which gave him credibility, which everything
he said people could take to the bank.

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And so it was that combination of
traits. He was not a particularly

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good public speaker, but because he
was so accomplished, and because he had

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those other traits, he emerged as
a leader who everybody wanted to follow,

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whether in the military or in politics. Tal much Boston, how the best

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did it? Speaking of not being
good speaks, we hear and read so

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much about Abraham Lincoln's high pitched whiskey
voice, which is hard to imagine when

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you see pictures of him, because
since then he's been so marbleized. But

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he also is an enigmatic president in
his uncanny ability to seemingly look at himself

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from outside himself. Well, Lincoln
stands at the top of the mountain.

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The most recent speace Span polls among
the one hundred and fifty leading historians in

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the country always rank him number one. The great thing about Abraham Lincoln is

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that he's like reading the Bible.
The more you study him, the deeper

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you get, the more fascinating he
becomes. But he had all the traits

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to be a great president. He
was emotionally intelligent, he was magnanimous,

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he was calm in a crisis.
He was eloquent. He was a quick

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study with a brilliant mind, and
remembered everything he ever read. So you

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put all those traits together, and
you've got a great president in any era.

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But in his of course, dealing
with the Civil War, dealing with

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the disconnected United States, he needed
all those talents to finally bring it to

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an end. And unfortunately, shortly
after the war's end he was killed,

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so we didn't get to see what
he would have done to surely bring about

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a better result in reconstruction. How
the best did it? Leadership lessons from

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our top presidents, Talmach Boston is
with us. I love talking about this

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kind of history, Talmage, because
history, to me is not just a

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story, it is what really happened. So now I would like to go

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from the hyper intelligence of Lincoln to
what many could describe by modern terms as

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adhd of Teddy Roosevelt. Well,
Roosevelt was always on the move. He

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was beyond energetic. He was also
totally brilliant, read more books than any

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president. He wrote more books than
any president. He's probably the highest ic

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of any president we've ever had.
And it all worked well for him through

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his presidency. That's why in the
c SPAN poll he's rated as a fourth

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president. It was after his presidency
when he really twisted off, and when

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all that energy which couldn't be used
to fulfill a huge task like president the

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United States. The last decade of
his life was not a happy story,

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and he died at age sixty.
But while he was president, with this

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forceful personality, with this brilliance,
he proved he was an incredible mediator,

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bringing an end to the Great Coal
Strike of nineteen oh two, bringing an

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end to the Russo Japanese War in
nineteen oh five that won him the Nobel

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Peace Prize, bringing an end to
the crisis in the Morocco as well as

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the Hate Convention conflict. The people
don't realize how effective he was at taking

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parties at war and bringing and finding
common ground and bringing them together. And

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certainly that's a trait that a leader
in any arena needs to have is how

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to end disputes quickly and allow people
to go on down the road and do

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what they're supposed to do. How
the best did it? Leadership lessons from

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our top presidents. Top Talmage Boston
is with us as I move along through

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the history of our presidents. It
seems to me that Woodrow Wilson was our

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first president that showed how to lead
even when you are infirmed. Well,

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of course, once he became infirmed, he didn't lead. His wife look

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over the presidency and it was a
downhill slide, and that's why we have

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the twenty fifth Amendment to cover situations
like this. Wilson is not one of

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my eight top presidents. Mine are
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelt's,

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Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan,
and I regard them as the eighth

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greatest president Wilson. With each passing
decade we realized more and more what a

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horrible racist he was, and his
standing among the presidential scholars keeps going down

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for that reason. But my target
audience for the book is anybody who is

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or aspires to be a leader in
any arena, a company, a law

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firm, a hospital, and nonprofit, and these top leadership trade my Greatest

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President can be deadly applied by anybody
fully understands them and decides to implement them.

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So that's why this book is what
I call a work of applied history.

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It's one thing to know history,
it's something else to be able to

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apply it to your daily living.
And that's what the book seeks to do.

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How the best did it. The
book is the Leadership Lessons from our

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Top President's Talmage Boston. Is there
one or two distinguishing characteristics among all of

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these men that you found in doing
your research for this book. The one

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common trait among these, say presidents, but I think is true of any

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successful leader, is they were all
great persuaders. That because they were great

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persuaders, people wanted to do what
they wanted to happen. They succeeded in

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that result. Although each of my
presidents persuaded in his own unique way,

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some of them were eloquent Lincoln,
Franklin, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan.

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Some of them were persuasive in small
groups Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt come

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to mind, but they were all
great at Ultimately imposing their will and getting

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the crowd to go their way.
And that's really what makes a leader is

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you got to have followers who want
to follow you and who want to do

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what you want to do. And
so that's the common trade. Amund the

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eight How the Best Did It?
Leadership lessons from our top presidents, tal

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Much Boston as the historian and author. The book is available everywhere and I

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can't wait to read it because I'm
a fan of history and fan of what

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we can learn from history. So
thank you for joining us. Lead you

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with My pleasure is George being on
your show. Thanks for listening to Later

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with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The

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Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
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