Introduction
Barrack Obama was the first African American to serve as the President of the United States of America. He also served as the senator for Illinois between 2005 and 2008. Throughout his career, he embraced effective leadership and communication strategies to pass his vision to the people. In his 2008 campaign to be the President through the Democratic Party, he was known for creating slogans such as “Yes you can,” which compounded his popularity. The slogans unlocked people’s potential and allowed them to dream and pursue their lifelong goals. Obama attained numerous successes in his two terms as President because of his leadership and communication skills, which embraced diversity and inclusivity.
Leadership Style Analysis
The key feature of Obama’s leadership style was its ability to inspire followers. A no-fit-all leadership strategy worked for all situations during his tenure. Since no single technique can offer solutions in all conditions, an effective leader must learn to blend different leadership styles for success (Boyd et al., 2014). He, however, applied different methods whenever faced with unique challenges. Transformational leadership was one of the most used styles because he signed landmark bills such as the Obama Care, which facilitated healthcare insurance for all Americans.
Further, the President employed collaborative skills as he liked involving many professionals when handling the nation’s affairs (Tarish, 2019). For example, he formed the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. He was a visionary leader who inspired many Americans to work hard toward achieving their goals (Tsvetkova et al., 2020). For example, his economic policy was to make wealthy Americans pay a little more tax to help raise the status of ordinary Americans. His choice of leadership style made him one of the most revered leaders to have ever lived and is still being celebrated to date.
Ethical Analysis
Obama was regarded as one of the most ethical leaders in the United States during his office. He presented higher levels of self-respect, courage, empathy, and accountability. His empathy was witnessed when he signed bills that offered protection to the vulnerable communities in the country. For example, the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made the most vulnerable people safe in the country (Tsvetkova et al., 2020).
Obama’s call for ethics in all government offices proves he was an ethical leader. Ethics ensures that followers and other subordinate staff work as expected (Javitch, 2010). He formed the Office of Government Ethics, which followed up on the actions of all the leaders and officeholders to ensure they served as required by law. Accountability was evident in his tenure as he submitted his tax returns to prove he paid the dues as required and submitted the white house visitors logs to show that he never held illegal meetings in the white house.
Emotional Intelligence Analysis
Emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to understand, control, and express their emotion and develop interpersonal skills. Obama understood his emotions and those of others and was able to leverage the knowledge to inspire and sympathize with the people and formulate positive relationships in the discourse. In most of his memoirs, he wrote about his doubts when he was President and his ability to control them to achieve success (Tarish, 2019). The understanding of his doubts and struggles showed that he understood the people. His empathy also proved his ability to understand and serve people according to their needs by signing pro-people bills such as the DACA and ACA (Tsvetkova et al., 2020).
Obama had excellent conflict resolution strategies, as witnessed by his ability to negotiate with people who held opposing views. During his tenure, Iran was planning nuclear arsenals against international relations. However, he negotiated with Iran, resolving their issues without violence. Generally, Obama’s emotional intelligence skills were witnessed through his self-awareness, empathy, conflict resolution, and diplomatic skills.
Diversity Analysis
The leader was widely known for his ability to maintain diversity and engage different people for success. Before being elected as senator and President, he was a community leader in Chicago who advocated for recognizing diversity and ensuring that all people were involved in developing America. Diversity is the antidote to ensuring people work together for better outcomes in a country or organization (Conrad et al., 2015). Unlike other crony capitalists who believed that only wealthy Americans would develop the economy, he shared the view that all citizens had an equal opportunity.
Consequently, he empowered the rich to contribute more taxes to empower and raise the poor economically. His belief in diversity was premised on the need for all Americans to feel part of the joint struggle to make America a prosperous nation (Tsvetkova et al., 2020). Further, he believed that people of all ages had a stake in the American struggle for a better nation and created a foundation that empowered the youth to be leaders. Further, selecting a diverse cabinet showed how he cared for everyone and wanted to engage them in the American decision-making system.
Presentation Analysis
During his campaigns and his presidency, Obama was widely known as a great orator whose concise and clear speeches motivated many of his followers. He used different tactics and rhetoric to connect to his audience in his speeches. For example, the leader leveraged storytelling to connect himself to people and their problems.
He always connected to the audience whenever giving a speech. When he wanted to pass a point about people living in harmony in their families, he used his personal story and his relationship with his children (Tsvetkova et al., 2020). For example, at a Democratic convention in 2004, he used his personal life story. He related it to the American dream and how people would leverage the issue to attain success in the discourse.
Obama’s humor made his speeches enjoyable, and people always wanted to be around him. Occasionally, he would crack jokes about his birth certificate and how it had once disadvantaged him. He used it as an example to pursue his dream of uniting Americans regardless of race, gender, and sexual orientation (Tarish, 2019). His speeches used humor, personal anecdotes, storytelling, and examples to motivate them and ensure they pursued their dreams without being disadvantaged. Generally, his speeches assisted him in leadership as the motivated staff became more productive.
Internal and External Communication Analysis
Communication is critical for leaders’ success because of the need to develop relationships internally and externally. Obama’s communication style included transparency, teamwork, and clear messaging to ensure people always worked towards a just cause. He leveraged internal and external communication technology to ensure all crises were well managed.
He used the open-door policy with the staff to get their ideas when making critical decisions. Besides the open-door policy, he leveraged online platforms to enhance continuous communication and encouraged people to work together to solve problems (Tarish, 2019). He contently communicated with the senate to be aware of all the challenges affecting the people for crisis management and decision-making.
The fundamental strategy to manage external communication was using social media platforms where he had personal accounts to share his ideas with the general public. Influential leaders must communicate concisely to employees and external stakeholders for better collaboration (Boyd et al., 2014). His clear and concise messaging allowed the general public to understand his stance on specific issues and encouraged them to engage to achieve the American dream.
His strong communication skills and emphasis on transparency improved his relationships with people. He employed social media managers who managed his accounts to ensure real-time responses to all specific questions (Tarish, 2019). Generally, using social media platforms and teamwork made it easier for Obama to succeed as President, and the people trusted him and voted for him for the second term in Office.
Conclusion
Obama is a transformative leader whose communication prowess and management strategy brought significant changes in the USA during his presidency. The tactic that increased his popularity was emotional intelligence, which made him connect with all the vulnerable populations by signing favorable laws. His ability to communicate internally and externally improved his relationships, and he succeeded as a leader during a crisis.
His external communication skills were tested during the negotiations with Iran on nuclear weapons. His communication skills were exceptional because his unique communication tactics involved using special tactics such as storytelling and personal anecdotes to pass the message. Generally, Obama’s communication and leadership style were instrumental in his successful tenure, and he motivated and inspired people to pursue their dreams.
References
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Conrad, D., Ghosh, A., & Isaacson, M. (2015). Employee motivation factors: A comparative study of the perceptions between physicians and physician leaders. International Journal of Public Leadership, 11(2), 92–106. Web.
Javitch, D. G. (2010). Keep employees motivated after downsizing: What to do when you have fewer employees and the same amount of work. Entrepreneur. Web.
Tarish, A. H. (2019). Us Presidents’ Political Discourse Analysis: George W. Bush and Barack Obama. A pragmatic approach. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 16(1), 128–134. Web.
Tsvetkova, N., Rushchin, D., Shiryaev, B., Yarygin, G., & Tsvetkov, I. (2020). Sprawling in cyberspace: Obama’s legacy in public diplomacy and strategic communication. Journal of Political Marketing, 1(1), 1-13. Web.