Introduction
Leadership refers to the ability to influence a social group or a team of people into accomplishing a particular mission or assignment (Mehrotra, 2005). Hence, a leader is equipped with the potential of not only showing the way but also encouraging those below him or her to pursue a common goal irrespective of the difficulty at hand. In reviewing leadership, it is also imperative to note that there a myriad styles that a leader can use to guide a group. For instance, in an autocratic style of leadership, the leader has the central authority in all the processes such as decision making and developing new ideas (Mehrotra, 2005). The subordinates are not given the chance to offer suggestions. On the other hand, the democratic style of leadership allows for consultation, and decision-making is done unanimously. Members within a team participate in all the processes. Finally, in a laissez-faire style of leadership, group members are given the full freedom to lead themselves without any interference from the leader. In this essay, the leadership style of the incumbent U.S President Barrack Obama is reviewed. Besides, I explore the results of my Leadership and Team Self-Management Assessment result and compare them to that of Barrack Obama.
An example of a person with a successful leadership style
In my opinion, I consider the current US President Barrack Obama as having a successful leadership style. Firstly, he is remarkably a transformational leader (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2004). His charisma was demonstrated when he managed from the very beginning, to capture the interest of both the US populace as well as foreigners. He has the natural ability to convince or persuade people to buy his ideas and use the same to achieve more. A case example is the US health care plan that was his major campaign agenda in the run-up to the Presidency. His vision to see most Americans receive medical coverage indeed came to pass when the healthcare bill was passed into law. Hence, a permanent change has been invoked by his transformational approach and charismatic style of leadership (Coggins, 2009). Both the local and foreign affairs in the US have been impacted by his leadership which can also be considered by far and large to be democratic.
The US image was greatly lost during the Bush Administration. Both Bush and his vice practiced an ethnocentric and one-sided decision-making policy especially on matters touching on foreign affairs. On the contrary, Obama has put in place a cross-cultural leadership style with US safety in mind. He has put into consideration the needs of other nations, not just of the US alone. His style of leadership is participative since he consults the entire administration before making any decision.
Moreover, President Obama has been keen on listening to issues at hand and more humble despite the constitutional powers he is entitled to. Therefore, I strongly feel that so far, he is a successful leader as the sitting US president.
My Leadership and Team Self-Management Assessment results
One of my styles of leadership is the ability to listen to the rest of the team members. I give them the chance to air their views and then respond to their independent opinions. As part of listening, I found that I can put aside what I am working on to pay attention to whoever is speaking. I have always put this into practice especially whenever performing my leadership roles. Even though the information being passed may not be very important, it is important to listen as a show of respect and dignity to the speaker. It is equally important to honor whoever is speaking to me as part of imparting my leadership skills. Moreover, after assessing how I can handle situations as a leader, I found out that I am a “thinker”. In other words, I can be methodological in my leadership style besides being practical and fair. Therefore, I am quite democratic yet fairly assertive in my leadership style. This has been my perception for a long and colleagues share the same thought. In terms of responding to situations, I came to realize that although I may involve others in decision-making, I can personally delay making decisions. In addition, I may sometimes hurt the feelings of individuals I am working with or leading and I may prefer to cover my thoughts such that nobody understands me.
In rare cases, I tend to allow members of the group to have the chance to talk. I rarely take full control as the spokesperson of the team I am leading. On the same note, I frequently allow team members to make use of their points of view in problem-solving. However, I hardly institute punitive measures on them when things go wrong.
Comparison of leadership styles
One main difference between my leadership styles with that of Barrack Obama is that while he is fairly assertive, I am not. I tend to allow nature to take its course as a leader with minimal interventions. I am especially good at handling crises but poor in long-term strategies as a leader. However, both of us exercise listening and participatory leadership as part of our leadership styles. I will quite often involve the rest of my colleagues in matters of decision-making. While Barrack Obama is highly charismatic, I am not highly enigmatic and compelling as a leader. I tend to maintain a low profile and most of the decisions made are large as a result of members’ contributions. This is contrary to Obama’s style of leadership; he is transformational, charming, and alluring to people. Nonetheless, we are both persuasive. I have the potential to convince the group under me to follow a given course of action owing to the fact I give them the chance to air their views.
Conclusion
To improve on my leadership skills, I need to transform into a task-oriented leader than valuing relationships so much more than the task at hand. Although Barrack Obama is a democratic and persuasive leader, he is task-oriented and may break relationships in favor of duties at hand (Coggins, 2009). I am poor at this bearing in mind that I would rather keep to my inner hurt feelings than expose them to people.
Despite this weak point in my leadership style, I believe I am also endowed with certain strengths which Obama can benefit from. For instance, I take a relatively long time before making a decision and I hardly make such decisions on my own but based on the input of others. In contrast, President Obama sometimes tends to work alone, articulating his administrative issue as an individual without involving his administrative team. This is a mild weakness that has seen him criticized from within and without.
References
Coggins, E. (2009). “Five Leadership Theories Applied in Barack Obama’s First 100 Days as President”, Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag.
Goleman, D.; Boyatzis, E.R. and McKee, A. (2004). “Primal leadership: learning to lead with emotional intelligence”, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Mehrotra, A. (2005). “Leadership Styles of Principals”, New Delhi: Mittal Publishers.