Eleanor Roosevelt - Success and Leadership
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
American wife (pictured right in 1951) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Famous for her defence of the rights of women, African Americans, workers and oppressed people everywhere.
The niece of President Theodore
Roosevelt (pictured right below).
Why was she successful and a great leader?
1. Learning
She never lost her natural curiosity for:
- new ideas
- new knowledge (which, she said, is more useful than anything else).
Her biggest influences were
- Marie Souvestre (the headmistress of her boarding school, near London)
- her husband, Franklin, whom she married
in 1905 (pictured right in 1908 with their children, Anna and James).
2. Determination and courage
She was a courageous fighter of injustice everywhere. She strongly supported the rights of
women (including contraception) and African Americans.
Her biggest achievement was helping to draft the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
She also had the determination to battle through personal problems:
- depression and insecurity.
- the early death of her parents.
- her upbringing by an unloving grandmother.
- her six children’s unsuccessful private lives.
- her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer (pictured right), which nearly led to a divorce. She
was deeply hurt by this relationship, which lasted until his death.
3. Assertiveness and self-confidence
She:
- strongly defended her ideas and beliefs (believing that women have the same
rights as men).
- wanted to find her own identity (independent of her famous husband and her role as a
homemaker).
- believed that everyone must live their life in their own way and not according to
anybody else’s ideas.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”, she said
4. Contact with ordinary people
After Franklin Roosevelt’s paralysis
from polio in 1921, Eleanor (pictured right in 1932) became his “eyes and ears”, travelling the country and
meeting the people to find out their views and needs.
She learned there is good and bad in everyone.
5. Teamwork
Eleanor and Franklin made an exceptional team with complementary skills (pictured right together).
She was a moral crusader, while he was more aware of what was politically
possible.
For example, she fought to end segregation and discrimination between whites and blacks
But Franklin was less publicly supportive of blacks to win more of the white vote.
6. Putting people first
She wanted everyone (particularly the oppressed and exploited), to be free and happy through:
- the open exchange of ideas and information.
- a change in people's attitudes (most important of all).
“Laws are only observed with the consent of the individuals and a moral change still depends on the individual”,
she said.
7. Principle
Eleanor Roosevelt (pictured right with the singer, Frank Sinatra, in 1960) believed in the importance
of:
- fighting for her beliefs to the best of her ability.
- character (living her life honestly and courageously).
She joked that a woman is like a tea bag, because she gets stronger in hot water!
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right”, she said
8. Aims and action
She always stretched herself to:
- lead the best possible life,
- decide what she needed to do.
“We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now”, she
said.
Key quotes on decision
making
You must do the things you think you cannot do
Do what you feel in your heart to be right
What you don’t do can be a destructive force.
Key quote on law
Laws are only observed with the consent of the individuals and a moral change still depends on the
individual
Key quotes on
assertiveness
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
Key quote on fear and
anxiety
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the
face.
Key quote on war
It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work
at it.
Key quote on
relationships
The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.
Key quote on influencing
people
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
Key quote on love
Pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.
Key quote on objectives and
vision
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Key quote on stress and
pain
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Key quote on
management
It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
Key quote on time
management
We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.
Key quote on
happiness
Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.
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