Lessons From History: 4 Questions for Doris Kearns Goodwin, PhD

In tumultuous times, sometimes history can provide leaders with the context needed to navigate through the turbulence. There may be no one better to view the trials of today through the lens of the past than Doris Kearns Goodwin, PhD, a world-renowned U.S. presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prizewinning, New York Times No. 1 bestselling author.

Goodwin will be the featured speaker at the Malcolm T. MacEachern Memorial Lecture and Luncheon, Tuesday, March 25, during ACHE’s 2025 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, where she’ll be interviewed by award-winning journalist Frank Senso. She recently shared insights with Healthcare Executive about leadership, what today’s leaders can learn from past U.S. presidents she’s profiled and the importance of cultivating trust. Below is an excerpt of that exchange.

HE: You’ve written bestselling books about four U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. All four led the country in times of great crisis. What can today’s healthcare leaders learn from them?

DKG: We have to understand that none of our leaders are perfect, and neither are we. The leaders I have studied will inevitably disappoint us at some point, especially as we look back from the context of today. We need to look at our presidents, ourselves and the people around us by the way we deal with other people, how we handle frustrations and anxiety, whether we win with humility and lose with grace, and whether we grow our own ambition for the greater good. The presidents I’ve studied were not born great, but they took a journey toward greatness. We have a lot to learn from them.

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HE: What do you consider to be the most important leadership skill?

DKG: Empathy—the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes to try and understand their perspective—is the most important leadership quality, especially now. I have found empathy in some people is inborn—like Lincoln—and in others it’s learned or developed, like in Teddy Roosevelt. Beginning as a young boy, Lincoln exhibited unusual empathy. Walking home one winter night with a friend, he saw a man lying in a mud hole, dead drunk and nearly frozen. The friend continued walking, but Abe picked the man up and carried him to his cousin’s house, where he built a fire to warm him. And this experience was multiplied dozens of times. We can see a straight line from empathy as a young boy to the empathy he showed to the South after the Union victory.

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HE: Establishing trust takes time, yet it can be lost in the blink of an eye. What are some ways leaders can cultivate and maintain trust with those they serve?

DKG: A great danger to our identity as a people and our democracy is the undermining of trust in the word of the institutions we depend upon—the presidency, Congress, the free press. A pattern of outright lies, half-truths, alternative facts, misspoken statements and fake news has brought confidence in all these institutions to near historic lows. Without a shared political truth, a country has no direction, no common purpose. Abraham Lincoln considered his ability to keep his word as the chief gem of his character. Theodore Roosevelt said a good public servant is like a good neighbor or trustworthy friend. He never promises what he knows cannot be done. His word matters. Leaders have to walk a fine line, as Franklin Roosevelt did, between acknowledging hard facts and providing hope. FDR told the American people that only a foolish optimist would deny the brutal realities of the time, but there is nothing to fear but fear itself. The failure was not in the citizens, but in leadership. He did what great leaders do—he took responsibility.

At the Congress on Healthcare Leadership, what can attendees expect to hear during your conversation with Frank Senso?

We are on the other side of what was the most divisive presidential election of our lifetime, still struggling with our fragile democracy at home and wars overseas. Not since the 1850s has our country been so polarized, not since the Great Depression and World War II have we experienced such a string of collective hardships, and not since the 1960s have we struggled so much for social and economic equality. So Frank and I will go back to the times when Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson lived and led to provide proof that as a country and a people we’ve been through really, really difficult times before and came through stronger. I believe that heartening leadership examples from our past can provide lessons, solace and even hope.

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