is talk about all the fundamental skills of what

is needed to be a great leader.

As Teddy Roosevelt said, human nature

is the most important thing to understand if you're a leader.

So I will use examples from the four presidents

I know the best, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt,

Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.

Each one of these presidents was a leader

during a time of great crisis.

We can learn from their failures,

and their ability to acknowledge those failures

and learn from their mistakes, to use the lessons of history

to apply to your daily life.

And I'd love to just transport them into you.

The most important thing for a leader to develop

is the ability to grow.

All of us in our lives are going to suffer difficult times.

And the question is, can you get through it?

Can you grow through it?

Can you learn from it?

I think about Abraham Lincoln, as he scoured the countryside

for books, and he read everything

he could lay his hands on.

He understood that he was a work in progress.

Nobody's going to be perfect.

The most underappreciated leadership strength

is the ability to relax and replenish energies.

In our world today, so many of us

feel we don't have time to take off to relax,

but that was important for all these leaders.

There's something about the creativity of the mind that

through quiet and serenity can break through

from the struggles that you're having every day.

That's what I love about history.

It can really give you perspective, solace,

and give you hope.

Think of what we learned from parents, from people

who have experience.

You're learning from generations that lived before us.

It makes you feel you're part of a continuum.

You're not just here alone, so it makes you a deeper person

and maybe even gives you that great thing called wisdom.

I'm Doris Kearns Goodwin, and this is my MasterClass.