Special Report: Leadership Lessons from the President

Barack Obama was known as “No Drama Obama” during his historic presidential campaign. And according to actor and author Hill Harper, a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama’s and a member of his National Finance Committee, Obama’s overall organizational skills are exemplary–clearly demonstrated in how he won the national election. “He was the CEO of one of the most organized, if not the most organized, campaigns in history,” Harper remarks.

Obama’s management style continues to awe many observers, but to those who know and work with the 47-year-old commander in chief, his administrative talents have been consistent over the years. Obama has maintained basic but important management and leadership principles that served him first as a community organizer, as well as president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review and now as president of the United States.

Undoubtedly solid leadership is the foundation for every successful business model. Here are several qualities of Obama’s leadership style that could benefit your management practices.

HE IS UNFLAPPABLE

There were many times throughout the campaign when Obama’s most ardent supporters wished he’d be a little more aggressive in the defense of his political positions, particularly against sometimes false and inaccurate depictions and snipes. He was consistently ridiculed as being too young, too inexperienced, and at times even unpatriotic. Obama, without fail, maintained his composure in every instance.
Republican Bradford Berenson, who worked as an editor under Obama on

the Harvard Law Review and as associate White House counsel during George W. Bush’s first term, says Obama’s unflappability, “is a signature characteristic, and I think it’s going to serve him well in the White House.”

Former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., considered Obama’s political mentor, often witnessed Obama’s steadiness and in particular remembers when Obama worked to reform Illinois’ ethics laws. “There was a lot of opposition within his own party,” Jones recalled. “He was under siege and attacked. At times I felt sorry for him. But he was able to talk to the members and convince them that this was the direction we should go in.”

Corporate Lesson: “We as people of color tend to be very emotional,” says Ken Roldan, CEO of the minority search firm Wesley, Brown & Bartle in New York. You cannot be strategic and emotional. Emotion clouds your thinking and forces you to focus on your feelings instead of the task at hand. “You need to be true to yourself,” says Roldan, “but at the same time you have to understand that you are playing a game.”

Opponents and competitors are always trying to pull you off course. Being successful requires a steadiness and a focus that reacts and shifts based on actual circumstances, not insults and barbs.

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR DRAMA

Throughout the presidential campaign Obama was challenged, particularly about his former and

present associations with friends, colleagues, even his own mentor and pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright over inflammatory rhetoric in church sermons. Obama was no doubt disturbed by the charges that his political views mirrored those of some of his past and present associates. He and his camp also knew that they could easily assert similar charges against his opponents–a tactic even the media slyly suggested. But Obama understood that while dramatic plays in politics make for good copy in the press, they do little to effectively further political goals.

John W. Rogers Jr., CEO of Chicago-based Ariel Investments and the campaign’s Illinois finance co-chair, recalls times when offensive smear tactics were suggested. “Obama’s vision was to take the high road during the campaign,” he says. “Some of us thought he should go negative toward Hillary and try to remind people of some of the horrible things that happened during the Clinton administration. He said absolutely not. That’s not the campaign I’m going to run. I only want people on board who are going to take the high road as well. It took a lot of courage to stick to that commitment.”

Corporate Lesson: It can be easy for an executive to be focused on winning at any cost. In a highly competitive environment, smearing or maligning a fellow executive can feel like fair game, if the goal is to win that highly prized promotion or

contract. But as much as the personal objective is to advance your position in an organization, the overall goal is always to work in a manner that will benefit the company. Ron Williams, president, chairman, and CEO of Aetna, likes to remind employees to “attack the problem, not the person.”

HE LISTENS TO OTHERS

“The foundational skill of organizing is to be a good listener,” says Jerry Kellman, who hired Obama as a community organizer in 1985, “and [Obama] does that well.”
He remembers how Obama galvanized the residents of Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens, the nation’s first public housing projects, to fight for the removal of asbestos in their homes, by first understanding many of their other frustrations, such as unemployment.

Throughout his campaign and entering his presidency, Obama has consistently focused on listening to the concerns of the American people. Upon winning the election he launched the Website Change.gov (www.change.gov), allowing for an exchange of dialogue and ideas, and he has also gathered an eclectic group of advisers who represent a cross section of the American public.

Corporate Lesson: Having strong communication skills is a hallmark quality of leadership. Knowing how to articulate goals is imperative, but listening is an important part of engaging employees and inspiring colleagues to action. “Listening

is a discipline,” writes John Baldoni, author of Lead by Example: 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results (AMACOM; $21.95), “Experienced leaders know that listening is not a passive process; it requires energy, time, and most of all, commitment to do it.”

HE MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO WORK TOGETHER

When Obama presided over the Harvard Law Review in 1990, racial issues such as affirmative action and faculty diversity polarized the faculty and student body at the law school. Berenson admits he was part of the “hearty band of politically conservative students on the Review” and initially didn’t vote for Obama until the final round.

“At times the staff of the Review felt like warring tribes, and he managed to keep them all working together pretty smoothly,” says Berenson, a Washington, D.C.-based partner at global law firm Sidley Austin L.L.P. “He encouraged people to arrive at consensus and forget compromises. He did an amazing job keeping the peace among a group of very fractious personalities and big egos. His political skills in that internal sense were extremely evident, even back then.” Even as Obama chose his cabinet and advisers, his team represents a diversity of backgrounds and ideologies.

Corporate Lesson: As the economy becomes increasingly influenced by global markets, it is crucial that companies embrace a diversity of ideas that will be based on varying influences from culture and social status to politics. The challenge is creating consensus around those diverse and even conflicting ideas.

Check out this story and more in the March issue of Black Enterprise magazine.