The prominent leader

My favorite public figure is Barack Hussein Obama, the first African American to hold the office of president of the United States. From 2009 to 2017, President Obama served as the 44th President of the United States after being elected. Between 2005 and 2008, he served as Illinois’ representative in the US Senate, and from 1997 to 2004, he served in the Illinois State Senate (Quader, 2011). Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. His parents were Kenyan-born Mr. Barack Obama Sr. and American mother Stanley Ann Dunham. Obama spent his time in Chicago as a community director after completing his education at Columbia University. Obama also became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review while he was undertaking his studies at Harvard Law School. The paper will discuss the Obama’s leadership style, the characteristics he exhibits as a leader, and the servant leadership features he displays.

President Obama’s Leadership Style

President Obama’s leadership style is more of transformational than transactional. Heith (2014), asserts that transformational leadership is a style that is different from other leadership styles for it encompasses more than characteristics, actions, and personalities. Transformational leadership focuses on charisma, intelligence, personalized deliberation, and motivation. A leader who is transformational puts his focus on his followers. He ensures that he motivates his followers so as to provide a high level of performance and eventually the followers can identify and develop their leadership style. Also, a transformational leader possesses significant influence as well as power and is very inspiring. Obama is the first African-American to be elected as president in the US, demonstrated himself to be a charismatic and transformational leader.

Firstly, President Obama showed his transformational leadership even before his election as the president. During his campaigns, he attracted the attention of both the Americans and foreigners with an outwardly charismatic nature. His charismatic approach was transformational for he entreated a permanent change in the Americans who embraced him and his vision too. During his service as a president in the first term, President Obama persuaded some people to his vision by demonstrating his ability to make a visible change in both domestic and foreign affairs. President Obama was all through dedicated to helping the middle class, and he ensured to engage with the majority of the populace, and in turn, he motivated them to follow him. He was also for better education and made efforts to help kids with special needs and offered college students with grants, thus raised the American’s level of motivation for the President.

Also, President Obama’s transformational leadership was demonstrated by his speeches and the manner he communicated to the American people during his leadership. He ensured he engages his audience, in which he created connections with the American people with an aim to encourage them in following him. He tried to connect mostly with the middle class for through his speeches he mentioned a lot of his dedication to them. By this, he demonstrated his appeal to the majority of the American people and commitment to encouraging them to follow him. He also displayed the lack of desire for power, intelligence and authenticity through his speeches. Not only through his speeches, but the background of Obama showed he is not a man just after the power of being the president. He came from a value enhanced background, and he demonstrated his dedication in bringing this quality to the country. His manner of communication which he did with calmness and well-chosen words portrayed his high level of intelligence. From his intelligence, the authenticity factor is gathered. People believed in whatever he said as authentic, and this led to gaining trust and believing in him.

Leadership Characteristics Demonstrated

President Obama’s leadership was influential to many Americans, and it was useful in the inspiration of economic growth as well as in the creation of new policies. During his service, he demonstrated leadership characteristics such as decisiveness, collaboration, honesty, fairness, compassion, fearless and communication (Laing & Walter, 2016). President Obama made decisions, and he believed he made the right decision and would stand by it with a staunch conviction as well as guard it at all costs. He was collaborative in that he avoided arguments and he would always listen to others first and then make decisions so as not to appear forceful with his view. Being collaborative helped him to be certain with every research that entailed decision, and in turn, he ensured the best decision had been made at all times. Obama maintained an honest attitude in all situations even when some people could disagree with his perception.

Obama maintained fairness to all in that he treated everyone with equality, irrespective of their social status, gender or race. He had great compassion for the Americans especially the low class; he made his decisions based on the input of his people and how the decisions would influence the majority of the population in the best way. Obama was fearless in that he did not care what his critics would say about his leadership for he was unbendable in his aptitude to make right decisions and choices. Obama was a leader who was an excellent communicator and can be said to have achieved the art of communication; he talks to all types of people regardless of their background, race, age or gender.

Servant Leadership’s Aspects Displayed

Servant leadership can be described as a very political leadership style, and it entails placing the needs of other people in high esteem. A servant leader is persistent, motivating as well as constructive (Heith, 2014). President Obama exhibited aspects of servant leadership by being a motivating factor in the United States. He was widely perceived as an encouraging collaboration and cooperation, and he was willing to compromise in all situation for the best of Americans. He stood up for his principles, and he always stated his willingness to consider the alternative methods for policy implementation rather than telling his cabinet on how the things need to be done.

In his speeches, Obama’s content always focused on equality, hope, and unity. President Obama emphasized empathy and his desire to build upon the community which are major features of servant leadership. His interest was not in power or financial gain, but he focused on the needs of the population of America to identify, understand and embrace the differences within them as a prospect for development. He encouraged the people in building a community spirit that embraces the lower classes with a mutual desire and interest. He also emphasized on building upon dreams and hope to the people.

References

Heith, D. J. (2014). Evaluating Presidential Leadership Styles in Campaigning and Governing. In Communication and Language Analysis in the Public Sphere (pp. 138-151). IGI Global.

Laing, M., & Walter, J. (2016). Great Expectations and Great Limitations. The Routledge Companion to Leadership, 209.

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.