Published on July 3rd, 2013 | by FM
10 Leadership Lessons by Barack Obama
Credits to : Sompong Yusoontorn
Barack Obama is the son of a white American mother and a Kenyan father who left the family when Obama was just two years old. Later Obama moved back to the United States to live with his grandmother who took out few loans to finance Obama’s education. Unfortunately, she died two days before Obama was elected as the President of United States. In 2007, he entered the presidential race and contested the primaries against contenders like Hillary Clinton and his future vice president, Joe Biden. In 2008, he was elected the first African American president of the United States.
Here are 10 leadership lessons by the powerful man
1 (Learning Empathy)
One night Barack and his friends spilled a lot of beer, broke a lot of bottles, and trashed the dorm so thoroughly that a cleaning woman broke into tears. He told: ‘We lack the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different than us for example, the child who is hungry, the laid off steelworker and the immigrant lady cleaning your dorm room.
2 (Challenging Yourself)
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself and it will leave you unfulfilled. Don’t let people talk you into doing the safe thing. Listen to what’s inside of you and decide what it is that you care about so much that you are willing to risk it all.
3 (Persevering through adversity)
Making a mark in the world is hard, Obama told that it takes patience and commitment, and failure is part of the job description. But you have to keep plugging at it.
4 (Adopt A (Yes, you can) Mindset
Consider just a few of the obstacles Obama had to overcome in order to reach the highest position in the land. With 4 years of political experience, he was deemed to light to be president. He was accused for associating with terrorist. Any of these could have been used as an excuse or a reason to pursue a different career path. But they weren’t and were conquered by this “Yes you can” mindset.
5 (Consistent Leadership Vision)
Obama first articulated his vision back in 2004 when he was a largely unknown speaker at the Democratic national convention. His simple one word vision was: Change. It became his platform for many initiatives representing change from the status quo and a vision of the future that he repeated consistently. This clarity and consistency of purpose galvanized followers.
6 (Smarts can trump experience)
In the presidential debates with McCain, Obama responded to questions about his relative political inexperience. However, he din’t do it alone. He prepped himself tirelessly, repeatedly seeking out experienced and well respected advisers smarter than he was at these topics. And he manage to mesh their ideas with his own judgement and personal values to shape his own philosophy.
7 (Inspire confidence in others)
Barack Obama is further evidencing great leadership. Why? Because he is indicating his desire to empower people. A great leader will empower his/her people and make them feel like they are an important part of the process.
8 (Listen)
We must realize that communication starts with listening, and President Obama proves to be as good as listening as he is at speaking. When asked by a German reporter about his design for the Nato in 2009, he humbly replied,”I don’t come bearing grand designs, I’m here to listen, to share ideas and to jointly, as one of many NATO allies, help shape our vision for the future.
9 (Delegation brings you success)
President Obama also scores well in terms of being able to delegate tasks to more capable hands, and concerns himself more with the direction setting and visioning of the nation. Delegation is a crucial skill to master in order to be effective. It allows us to focus on what we are paid to do, that is to LEAD and MANAGE our team, rather than to micromanage and be take on the jobs of our whole.
10 (Willingness to make tough decision)
Despite preaching cooperation and mutual agreement, President Obama is aware that gaining a majority of consensus is not possible and economic, and tough calls may have to be made at times, Right or Wrong, it is more important to make a decision and take action, rather than to delay and shriek the responsibility to successors.
