Imagine Lincoln’s thoughts as he watched the smoke from Confederate campfires rise into the sky just a few miles from the White House, well aware that there were insufficient troops to defend the city should they choose to attack. As a backdrop to this disturbing situation, all evidence suggests that Lincoln understood that HE was perhaps all that stood between a nation united and one perhaps forever divided.

How lonely must Washington have been as he struggled for most of the revolution without resources and without anything that would have passed for a trained army to even the most near-sighted observers? No money, no food, no guns, no army, no shoes, no uniforms and little reason to hope. Yet, here we are.

Churchill lifted and carried a nation’s hopes on his back for much of a war where the nation’s survival was in question.

Recently, Chesley Sullenberger in all of his humbleness reminded us of the toughness and determination of a leader and master technician that used all of his skills to land a jet in the Hudson and then help get everyone off safely.

Patton willed his army to march what must have seemed like halfway to hell to ensure the outcome of the war and Pershing built an army in record time for a nation that had none and in the process helped save a continent from collapse.

So, how important does that budget meeting sound now?

I suppose it’s not a fair fight to grab the headlines and headliners of history and then compare them to our daily existence as leaders and managers of institutions and organizations, even if our organizations are struggling. Nonetheless, the lessons of these leaders ring true long after their days have passed.

I’m particularly drawn to the quality of “mental toughness” in great leaders. Where most would have cut and run, the best stare at adversity and seem to draw strength from the enormity of the challenges in front of them. Failures are but mere setbacks and when conventional wisdom and all of the advisors preach capitulation, these leaders see and seize opportunity.

I look for this quality in leaders in the business environment, but often our hiring and screening processes get in the way. We tend to focus on hiring those that package themselves as flawless. Their victories sound grand and their defeats and flaws are hidden behind a veil of carefully wrapped histories.

Tell me about your adverse circumstances and where you stared down capitulation and the mistakes that you learned from and my eyes will light up and my mind begins to wonder whether I’m dealing with someone that has the extraordinary mental toughness that I need and we need to win the war.

Show me honesty by highlighting that you were uncertain in approach but unwavering in direction and I’ll know that I’m dealing with an honest leader.

And most of all, share with me the reality that many others did the work and that the victory was not yours, but rather theirs and I’ll hire you three times over in spite of the best advice of those that favor the well-polished and eminently that recruiters and other pros are so comfortable presenting.

Mental toughness wins everyday in my world.