Analysis of John Kennedy’s leadership style

The ability to lead is an important aspect of being human. However, given that leadership is one of the least understood but most witnessed phenomena, current research on the subject is riddled with contradictions. There isn’t a consistent theoretical school of thought on effective leadership, according to Montesen (16), in part because there isn’t an academic or scientific standard by which to judge successful leaders. In addition, there is no agreement among leadership theories regarding the best way to lead individuals. The US has had presidents who, in the eyes of many, embodied revolutionary leadership qualities. One such president was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who according to Historian Arthur Schlesinger, was consistent, candid and the last natural president of US (Montesen, 26). This paper will examine the impacts of John Kennedy’s leadership using trait and transformational theories, and bring to light key traits that marked his leadership prowess. The paper will use systematic literature review since that there is an abundance of literature material dedicated to the 35th president of US.

Background

Leadership is sometimes seen as the quality of an individual to inspire people to achieve their goals. It is a combination of process and property, and entails influence on followers through direction and support to help them achieve their objectives. Efficient leaders are the people who receive admiration from the people they lead and take decisions after mutual understanding (Northouse, 12). According to trait and transformational theories, these leaders have key characteristics that make them change the mindset of the people they lead. For example, John Kennedy’s leadership during the World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis was marked with courage, efficiency and engagemen. His command led to the successful rescue of 77 marines stranded on the Warrior River. After returning to duty and becoming a lieutenant, Kennedy, on November 1943, took PT- 59 and three former PT-109 crew members in the successful rescue of the marines who were stranded at Choiseul island held by the Japanese. However Kennedy was relieved command of PT-59 in 1944 under doctor’s order, and returned to US for treatment. Due to bravery in the war against Japanese, and successful rescue efforts, he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for bravery and Purple Heart medal for injuries sustained.

Life of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

John Kennedy was the youngest and first catholic president of the United States (Heyse and Katie, 3). He took office in 1962 with a narrow victory of 113 000 votes out of the total 69 million, against Richard Nixon. He was born in 1917 to Rose and Joseph Kennedy, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy’s parents were members of Boston’s prominent Irish catholic political families. He was the grandson of John Francis Fitzgerald, a renowned mayor of Boston. Before graduating from Choate, Kennedy had been the business manager of the school yearbook and was voted as a successful and efficient student. He graduated in 1936 from Choate boarding school in Connecticut and immediately admitted to Harvard. It was at Harvard that he developed back injury that would later haunt him for the rest of his life. While at school, his father was chosen to be the US ambassador to England, leaving John and his brother in US. His interest in politics developed when he visited his family in England, where he was exposed to government and politics. He retired to school and actively got involved in administration of the institution.

Kennedy’s political skills intensified when he toured Europe in 1939. He visited the Soviet Union, Balkans and the Middle East as part of his preparations for his thesis at Harvard University. He then toured Germany and Czechoslovakia before returning to England in 1939, the time when Germany invaded Poland to ignite World War II. Later, Kennedy’s family was at the House of Commons endorsing the United Kingdom’s declaration of war on Germany. He was sent as a representative of his father to aid in the arrangement for survival of America’s SS Athenia, a steam transatlantic liner built in Glasgow. As his political energy continued to increase, he competed his thesis“ Appeasement in Munich”, which talked about the participation of Britain in the Munich agreement. The thesis was a bestseller under the Why England Slept book, which helped understand the failure of Britain to improve its military. The book further called for the alliance of Anglo-American’s against dictatorial powers. Current thinking

Current Thinking

Trait Theory

Researchers have developed several theories to explain how successful leaders are made. These theories range from trait theory, behavior, and contingency and full range model of leadership. The trait theory is based on characteristics in a person that results to good leadership (Bolden et al, 6). This idea assumes that leadership skills are intertwined in the traits possessed by people. There is sufficient research to support the claim that effective leadership and personality traits such as intelligence and self-efficacy are related. According to this theory, leaders are born or not born with qualities that make them successful in their roles. Several studies have emerged to establish these specific traits, and it is generally agreed that intelligence, sociability and determination are the key ones. By analyzing the leadership of John Kennedy, it is clear that courage, intelligence and determination played an important role in his political career.

John Kennedy possessed courage trait that helped his crew survive Japanese attacks and effectively secure US water territories. His first leadership task, after being assigned Motor Torpedo Squadron FOUR, was PT-101. He helped relocate three Huckkins boat back to Jacksonville, Florida. However, he was briefly hospitalized after diving into cold water to fix a problematic propeller and thereafter assigned duty in Panama to command two patrol torpedos. John took command of the PT -109 motor torpedos, based at Tulagi Island in Solomon Islands. On the night of its 31st mission, while patrolling near New Georgia, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer. PT-109 was shot and cut into two by the destroyer Amagiri, resulting to death of two crew members. Courageously, he urged the remaining crew to decide whether to surrender or fight the Japanese. Fearing surrender, Kennedy encouraged his men to swim towards a small island despite injuries caused to his back. In this case, he did not command the crew to surrender or keep fighting, but motivated them to maintain their goal and decide on the best action. He understood they had families and children to take care of, and therefore could not make a decision that put them at risk.

John was a determined leader. Despite numerous heath complications, he joined the navy and thereafter became a charismatic politician. Since childhood, he was struggling with heath complications that made it harder to achieve his political dreams. As a child, he was hospitalized for scarlet fever, at a time when the infection was very contagious and deadly. He was beset with more health problems during his time at Choate boarding school years that resulted to his emergency hospitalization at New Haven Hospital in 1943. Doctors believed he had leukemia, and was then admitted to Mayo clinic in Rochester where he was diagnosed with colitis. He would later be diagnosed with a rare condition called Addison’s disease, but that did not kill his determination of living a privileged youth life. He attempted to join the US Officer of Candidate School, but failed due to poor health. Without giving up, he trained for months to fix his back and on September 1941, he joined the Naval Reserve. He was commissioned an ensign and became a member of the staff of the office of naval intelligence in Washington. He then entered Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Centre in Rhode Island, and later promoted to lieutenant junior grade.

President John Kennedy valued intelligence and through this trait, helped America survive the challenges of World War II and the Cold War. In 1944, Kennedy’s brother was killed after volunteering for a dangerous air mission. His brother had been the family’s political flag bearer, and had been carefully prepared by his father to seek presidency. His death therefore meant that Kennedy was to take up his fallen brother’s role. With his father’s help, Kennedy won the 1946 democratic primary elections, defeating his republican opponent. He then run for the senate seat in 1952, and married Jacqueline Bouvier the same year. As a senator, Kennedy played a significant role in the civil Rights Act of 1957, voting for the title three of the act which gave attorney generals more powers to enjoy. Kennedy’s charismatic and intelligence in leadership helped gather support from supporters during his presidential campaign. He was sworn as the 35th pressidnet in 1961, after one of the closest presidential elections in US. As president, he recognized the important role played by the Central Intelligence Agency in keeping the nation safe. In a letter sent to director of CIA, McCone, President Kennedy commended his deep admiral for their achievements and dedication (CIA, 1). He was the third president to dedicate a note that accompanies his portrait in the agency’s presidential gallery.

Transformational leadership approach

Transformative leadership approach looks at changes in the individual and social systems. This type of leadership seeks to create positive change in the followers with the aim of developing them into leaders (Bolden, et al, 14). In its authentic form, transformative leaderships improve the motivation and morale of the people using various mechanisms. These range from developing the followers sense of identity to being a role model. Transformative leaders actively challenge followers to take more responsibly in their work and understand their strengths and weaknesses. This approach to leadership has four key elements that define transformative leaders: individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealized influence (Ahmad et al, 2). This section will look at the four elements of transformational leadership through the presidency of John Kennedy.

Individualized consideration refers to the ways in which leaders attend to the needs of people. This is seen by how much such leaders act as mentors to their followers. These leaders keep communication open show sympathy and engage followers in overcoming challenges. This element was seen John Kennedy during his years in the naval. Instead of commanding one of crew members to dive into cold water to fix a broken propeller, John took the task and risked his health. When the Japanese destroyer boat attacked US ship, John did have to a wife or children to lose by fighting a war they would have probably lost. He sympathized with his crew by asking for their thoughts on the matter.

Intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation is a characteristic of transformative leaders. It refers to the degree to which leaders take risks, encourage creativity and nurture people who think independently. People following these leaders are visionary, think independently and find novel ways of executing tasks. Inspirational motivation on the other hand is the degree to which leaders present visions that are compelling to the people. John was himself a visionary politician who made great achievements during his political career. If presidents of US were to be rated in terms of compelling visions of the America people, then John would be ranked the first. This claim is supported by the fact that one of the most ambitious national scientific projects, known as the Moon Project, was executed during Kennedy’s reign. Also, the effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis helped shape johns visionary ideas on peaceful cooperation with the Soviet Union. This was proceeded by his famous Test Ban Treaty speech in which he promised to find a peacefully way of ending the cold war.

The last tenet of transformational leadership is idealized influence. This is an aspect of effective leadership that was a part of john Kennedy’s style. It refers to higher ethical behavior, pride, respect and trust. Despite pressure from Americans to solve the Cuban Missile problem using direct military confrontation, John understood it was inappropriate to use such means as they were contrary to UN rules. His reluctance to punish the USSR for their missile in Cuba shows that he was not a war monger, but a careful decision maker. Instead, he urged the Americans not to fear their enemies but remain proud and strong. He surrounded his office with effective people such as Secretary of State, Dena Rusk and Secretary of defense, Robert McNamara who have been described as rational, intelligent and capable people (Mortensen, 5).

Impacts of John Kennedy’s leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Although Kennedy faced numerous challenges during Cold War, he managed to keep calm during the Cuban missile crisis. This might have stopped the two superpowers from starting war of nuclear weapons. After the fall of US backed dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, John was involved in unsuccessful plans to oust the new leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. There were several reasons the US did not favor Castro: he inclined to communism ideas and his efforts to fight poverty and improve education meant US corporations that had dealing in the island could experience lower incomes. The Bay of Pigs invasion refers to attempts made by John’s administration through the CIA to remove Fidel from power by using American trained Cuban exiles. John inherited a plan by president Heisenhowever to invade Cuba using a brigade of 1400 soldiers. Unaware of the risks involved, he made it clear that the US forces would not interfere in case the mission goes wrong. In what came to be one of the greatest humiliation fiascos of American war, the air attacks failed to destroy Castro’s air force. After two days, nearly 1200 Cuban exiles had surrendered and 100 dead.

After the Bay of Pig Invasion event, an American spy plane spotted USSR nuclear weapons in Cuba. The proximity of the island to US meant that Soviet Union could easily reach US targets when war erupted. The presence of the weapons in Cuba would make USA look weak in the international stage, and for his part, Kennedy had no option but to demand Nikita Khrushchev to remove the weapons. To achieve this, Kennedy first thought of airstrikes, and then invasion of Cuba. He formed an advisory committee, known as Executive Committee (exCom) which urged him to attack Cuba However, that option would have been a possible nuclear war disaster given that US also had nuclear weapons in Turkey, strategically located close to Soviet Union. Attacking Cuba would have started war with USSR and lead to use of nuclear weapons. The Bay of Pig Invasion had taught him not to act impulsively. Furthermore, it would be have been difficult to justify unprovoked attack and Castro’s forces would have resisted the attack. He therefore opted to have a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent more USSR weapons from reaching Cuba. It was an intelligent move to avoid nuclear confrontation with USSR. The Cuban missile Crisis came to a climax when Soviet ships headed towards the blockade. As the world stood terrified of world war III, news reached that the soviet ship had turned back.

How John Kennedy compares to Franklin Roosevelt

A comparison of speeches made by President Roosevelt and John Kennedy reveal that both leaders were influenced by historical and cultural contexts. The two presidents took office at a time when America was facing great challenges from within and outside the country. Notably, Roosevelt speeches evolved around the issue of the Great Depression while Kennedy speech centered on foreign affairs and the Cold War. Roosevelt leadership therefore targeted mainly the American audience, while John’s message focused on audience from all over the whole world.

As a leader, Kennedy used his communications skills to influence foreign policies and address the issues of civic virtue, popular support and general policy principles. All these were permanent cultural themes that characterized his speeches. It can be argued that Kennedy was not just a determined and courageous leader, but one who had mastered rhetoric, stylistic devices and effective use of language. One feature of Kennedy’s leadership style was the use of imagery for effective communication. This was manifested during his inauguration speech where he said that the torch has been passed to a new generation. His words were designed in a way to let his followers conceptualize the ideas of America strength by placing power and responsibilities to each citizen. Imagery comes to play when he describes the developing nations as struggling to free themselves from misery. He also described nuclear weapons as dark powers of destruction. The imagery is a powerful communication tool as it allows audience to develop images and relate concepts without having the need to higher education.

Similar to Kennedy’s speech, president Roosevelt employed imagery and metaphor to pass messages to his followers. Talking about the effects of the great depression, Roosevelt said that the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side. Leaders can greatly influence their followers by the choice of words they use when addressing key issues. As in Roosevelt example, there were easier ways of saying how the great depression has affected all aspects of America life, but using withered leaves had the most significant impact. This design creates a vivid image on the audience mind about the situation at hand. Furthermore, Roosevelt, just like John Kennedy, could effectively connect to the audience by using words, phrases and imagery familiar to Americans. He used metaphor to bring out the great depression as an enemy, and therefore managed to win public support on the war against the problem. The metaphor in this case refers to the image of the battle, not against the soviets or other foreign enemies, but one waged against depression. He urged the Americans to move as trained soldiers and loyal army, and depicts himself as the leader of that war.

Both President Kennedy and Roosevelt understood the power of technology and mass media in influencing public debates. Roosevelt knew the importance of mass communication, particularly that of the radio. The president charmed radio listeners with attractive voice, which indicates the type of technology available at the time. By addressing Americans as his friends, it can be argued that he was not just a man in power, but also a normal leader who lowered himself to the level of ordinary Americans. This suggest that he was humble and a capable of establishing intimate connections with the audience. He took advantage of radio technology to inspire hope and courage to the citizens during the great depression. In his inauguration speech, he assured Americans that the nation will endure, as it had in the past. One of his well-known statements is that the only things Americans have to fear is fear itself. Americans at the time were particularly concerned with the future of America, and were looking for a leader who could provide solutions. Roosevelt saw that need when he said that he was convinced the Americans will again support his leadership. In this case, he bought the theme of popular support structured in a manner to indicate there will be strategic measures to handle the depression. Likewise, Kennedy was an outstanding communicator who had perfected the use of contrast to convey meaning to the whole world. According to Heyse and Katie (1), Kennedy enjoyed a friendly relationship with the press. He used the influence of mass media to put emphasis on critical matters; during his inauguration speech, he stated that the celebrations were not a victory of his party, but a celebration of the freedom of Americans. This contrast serves two purposes; first, it acknowledges the presence of the first point, and second, it introduces the next point as the most important.

Conclusion

Effective leadership is an essential component of development in all societies. Without strong leaders, all aspects of life, including economic, political and social systems will crumble. As much as good leaders are adored, there is currently no scientific method or approach that measures what effective leadership is. There are only theories that suggest what good leaders should have, such as transformational approach and trait theory. The former defines good leadership on the idea of a transformative leader, who is seen as a person capable of changing the mindset of the people he leads. These leaders keep their political ideas up to date, and stimulates enthusiasm by making their goals part of their followers aims. In this sense, transformative political leaders share their moral purpose with the citizens and initiate dormant needs that would be accepted by the nation. Trait theory looks at traits such as intelligence that make great leaders. The two theories have helped analyses the leadership of John Fitzgerald, the 35th president of US. His leadership style was critical to the future of US, given that he took office when the world was at the blink of nuclear war. With determination, he overcame health challenges that haunted him since childhood, and rose to the command of lieutenant at the US navy. His courage allowed him to survive Japanese attacks and rescue American crew that had been held by the same Japanese. Additionally, Kennedy was a brilliant and intelligent leader who had mastered the use of metaphor and imagery in communication. His tours to Europe and education at Harvard University helped reaper him for the office of the president at America’s time of need. Given that Americans at the time were so much concerned about the future, especially after the Cuban missile crisis, there was need for a visionary and charismatic leader.

Works cited

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Bolden, Richard, et al. A review of leadership theory and competency frameworks. Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, 2003.

Central Intelligence Agency. Presidential Reflections on U.S. Intelligence: John F. Kennedy. 2013. Available at: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-archive/john-f-kennedy.html

Hald-Mortensen, Christian. John F. Kennedy-Leadership Qualities That Moved A Nation. Diss. University of Pittsburgh, 2007.

Heyse, Amy L., and Katie L. Gibson. “john f. Kennedy,”’ the president and the press, ’bureau of advertising, American newspaper publishers association, 27 APRIL 1961“(27 APRIL 1961).” (2015).

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