Running head: LEADERSHIP REFLECTION ESSAY 1

Leadership Reflection Essay

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Leadership Reflection Essay

Introduction

A good leader exemplifies attributes such as proactiveness, integrity, honesty, and

earnestness. An educated leader demonstrates the ability to assess other group’s talents and skills

aimed at utilizing them in accomplishing a shared purpose or goals (Tourish, 2014). Barrack

Obama rose in the American political landscape as the first U.S black president and a great

leader who transformed the American politics. Among the successful accomplishments, he

pioneered include the universal health program. Barrack Obama is recognized as a great leader

since he is a diligent and persuasive worker.

Traits, Motives, Characteristics and Behaviors of Barrack Obama

The trait leadership model depicts the personality attributes of a leader. Millon’s Eight

Attribute Domains provides a comprehensive analysis of the attribute traits that great leaders

demonstrate (Brown, 2011). These attributes entail the leader’s interpersonal conduct, their

expressive behavior, their cognitive style, temperament/mood, Self-image, and regulatory

mechanisms. Equally, Millon also proposed that object representation and morphological

organization are crucial dimensions that depict a leader’s personality trait. President Obama's

personality traits correspond to Millon’s Eight attribute dimensions through his expressive

behavior, cognitive style, and self-image (Brown, 2011). While the expressive behavior refers to

how the person typically appears to others, or what the person knowingly or unknowingly

indicates about themselves, the interpersonal conduct encompasses how the person ideally relates

to others, the prompt, and the techniques the individual uses to interact with others.

On the other hand, Barack Obama had a cognitive style that enabled him to focus and

allocate his attention to policy and policy reforms that needed priority attention. The cognitive
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style also enhances Obama's effective communication skills, and how he organizes his thoughts,

processes information in addition to making attribution. Indeed, this style has been the source of

the President’s eloquent and moving speeches that made him win the two elections (Elkatawneh,

2016). Apart from these traits, Barack Obama was also a visionary leader with a compelling

vision for the entire country. He could see beyond challenges and developed an empowering

picture for future America. Considerably, as a visionary leader, President Obama was

inspirational, emotional, intelligent, resolute, open-minded, imaginative, collaborative, bold, and

optimistic.

Barrack Obama’s Leadership Practices and Style

Charismatic Leadership Style

President Barrack’s leadership personality involves a charismatic figure whereby he had

the highest ability to bring both Americans and foreigners to his side, thus accomplishing tasks

efficiently. In reference to the 2008 Presidential election, it is evident that Obama had the highest

ability to lure and persuading young individuals to volunteer in his campaigns (Quader, 2011).

This is also exemplified in how the change icon became a significant tool to voice the interest of

the young American populace. Moreover, Obama’s charismatic figure had a vital impact on

influencing other politicians to support his candidacy during the first and second election

campaigns. As a charismatic leader, Barrack Obama was extremely skilled at communicating

with others through his eloquent speeches in which he lured and led the Americans at a profound

emotional level. This helped him to articulate a captivating and compelling vision that aimed at

developing domestic and foreign policies that would capture the dynamic interests of the

country. Alongside having the ability to elicit strong emotions in their subordinates, President

Obama demonstrated a unique capacity of dissecting and deciphering any inefficiencies in his
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administration (Quader, 2011). Significantly, these visionary attributes linked to a charismatic

leader ideally emanates from critical thinking skills and the ability to compile facts and find

ways of solving a broad spectrum of problems.

Transformational Leadership Style

Barrack is also recognized as a transformational leader due to his capacity to institute

change in American politics. According to Wright et al., transformational leadership is essential

in causing a change in people and social systems (Popa et al., 2011). Typically, a

transformational leader focuses on creating positive changes with the ultimate objective of

transforming them into great leaders (Hanson, 2014). This idea shows that transformational

leadership is directly correlated to charisma. According to Weber’s definition, charisma entails a

kind of social authority wherein transformational leaders derive their acceptability through their

character and behavior instead of formal traditions, rules, and positions in society. The idea of

“change” emerged during President Obama’s campaigns (Popa et al., 2011). The quality of

change that he depicted played an important role in driving social change. Indeed, Obama’s

critics and represented strong arguments to the extent that, even though he did not deliver all the

promises in his manifesto, he did what was in his power as the members of the Senate and

Congress to bring social change. Furthermore, the transformational leadership style was evident

in his notion of “we” rather than "I." Obama's 2008 presidential elections were synonymous with

the "Yes We Can" mindset. The phrase influenced the entire country, particularly concerning the

United States economy at a time when it was recovering from the global financial crisis.

Similarly, during the campaigns, the US was characterized by high levels of unemployment due

to the Lehman Crisis in 2008 (Hanson, 2014). As such, the phrase epitomized a can-do attitude
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that inspired and stimulated change creating among the Americans a perception that everything

is possible.

Ethical Concerns that Inspired followers to Pay Attention to the Leader

Obama’s tenure was characterized by social, economic, and political tensions involving

an overlap of crisis and severe historical events that led to significant changes at both external

and internal levels. His leadership characteristics owe to his efforts in solving ethical concerns

during his tenure including developing cultural diversity programs which involved his diverse

interaction with cultures from around the world, which in turn created a new vision of life. The

major ethical concern during his tenure involved the abortion debate whereby the pro-lifers and

pro-choice sides questioned its legal and ethical status. The ethical concern of abortion is not

only a concern of the American society, but a global issue. While pro-choice argue that women

have the freedom to make independent decisions whether to keep the baby or have an abortion,

pro-lifers claim that fetus is a living being and thus a woman cannot terminate a pregnancy.

Accordingly, President Obama issued an executive order in which Congressional Democratic

leaders and the President maintained that the order addressed all possible scenarios in which

abortion was provided.

Within the context of American politics, it is evident that as the U.S, it was necessary for

Barrack Obama to implement various leadership styles wherein the President’s personality was

exemplified in all events, crises, and situations (Winter, 2011). On the other hand, the ability to

lead a large country like the United States rests on a President’s transformational leadership style

that focuses on restructuring the complex organizational structure of the administration as well as

dealing with several issues at both external and internal levels. Moreover, embracing an effective

charismatic leadership practice was crucial in helping the President to address internal issues
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concerning the well-being of the citizens in addition to the coordination and cooperation with the

arms of government, including the judiciary, the executive and legislature.

Reflection on how President Obama Inspires Me

The aspect about President Obama’s leadership that inspires me is his cross-cultural

leadership. Cross-cultural exemplifies a strong desire to recognize and approach differences in

addition to their willingness to be flexible. As a cross-cultural leader, Barrack Obama inspires

me to use my personal experiences, attributes and leadership traits such as integrity, humility and

honesty in order to solve the expectations of my followers. In his bid to integrate diverse culture

in which his interests and those of America are expanded into global issues including humanity,

President Obama developed cultural policy towards ensuring that the interests of Americans

were not only limited to the country’s borders but widened to encompass the concerns and

problems of other nations around the world. Like-wise, the President’s served a crucial role in

improving the image of the country to foreigners. He continuously visited other countries abroad

and paid attention to the cultural traditions, norms, and values of foreign countries (Green &

Roberts, 2012). Additionally, through consensual policies, Barrack Obama influenced me to

become a better leader by embracing an interplay of leadership attributes such as humility,

substance, and confidence, Barack Obama concentrated on improving relations with other

countries.

Conclusion

President Barack Obama’s leadership practice involves transformational and charismatic

approaches that were fundamental in helping the leader transform the country’s social, economic,

cultural, and political landscape. His charisma served a great purpose in luring the citizens,

especially young people, to volunteer in his campaigns across the country. On the other hand, he
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embraced a visionary approach that enhanced his transformational style. For instance, the

attribute of change he depicted played an essential role in driving social change. Notably,

Obama’s critics and represented strong arguments to the extent that, even though he did not

deliver all the promises in his manifesto, he did what was in his power as the members of the

Senate and Congress to bring social change.

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References

Brown, C. B. (2011). Barack Obama as the great man: Communicative constructions of racial

transcendence in white-male elite discourses. Communication Monographs, 78(4), 535-

556.

Elkatawneh, H. (2016). Bridging Theory and Practice Leadership/Barack Obama. Barack

Obama (November 8, 2016).

Green, D. D., & Roberts, G. E. (2012). Transformational leadership in a postmodern world: The

presidential election of Barack Obama. Academy of Strategic Management

Journal, 11(1), 9.

Hanson, S. L. (2014). Transformational leadership and communication: Barack obama case

study (Doctoral dissertation, San Diego State University).

Popa, A. B., Hazel, M., Whatley, L., Andenoro, A., & Crandall, H. (2011). What is the role of

perceived leadership capacity in presidential politics? Young voters' perceptions of

candidates' leadership practices and the 2008 US presidential race. Journal of Leadership

Studies, 5(3), 25-39.

Quader, M. S. (2011). Perception of leadership styles and trust across cultures and gender: A

comparative study on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. South Asian Journal of

Management, 18(2), 30-59.

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the

role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.

Winter, D. G. (2011). Philosopher‐king or polarizing politician? A personality profile of Barack

Obama. Political Psychology, 32(6), 1059-1081.