Where soccer and leadership meet – DSF Presidents Day edition

A little Monday morning head-scratcher: Which of our U.S. Presidents would have been the best manager?

I’m tempted to go with Dwight Eisenhower. He demonstrated time and again how he could inspire people to work together. His ability during World War II to manage enormous egos (Churchill, de Gaulle, Roosevelt, Montgomery, Patton, etc.) and navigate the formidable Allied politics would surely serve him well in a manger’s overly politicized universe. Fans may underestimate how much time modern managers spend jumping through political hoops arranged by athletes’ layers of handlers or stroking the pro athlete ego.

Plus, Ike was an esteemed tactician who understood how to maximize resources and exploit opposition weakness. Anyone who could breach the Atlantic Wall and show the Axis a thing or two could surely deconstruct the complexities of the 4-2-3-1, ya know?

But I’m going to go with Abraham Lincoln. With an assist from Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Zinedine Zidane of presidential historians, here are some of his signature leadership qualities, assets which would make Honest Abe a brilliant soccer manager: Ability to learn on the job; willingness to share credit for success and accept blame for swinging misses; awareness of own weaknesses; ability to control emotions; ability to go out into the field (the practice field, in this case) and manage directly; the fortitude to adhere to fundamental beliefs and goals, and; ability to communicate his goals and vision.

(Come to think of it, I could go down that list and pinpoint which past and present MLS and U.S. national team managers would fail the test in each of those particular qualities. But since this is just a silly blog entry, and not the place to poke the hornets nest, I’ll resist the temptation.)