Biography in brief
Born on 4th, August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Barack Hussein Obama II is the current president of the United States of America. Prior to this post, he was the serving Senator of Illinois. His father and mother hailed from Kenya and Kansas respectively. Between the ages of six and ten, the young Barrack lived in Indonesia before coming back to the US to complete his education which culminated in a degree from Harvard Law School. He served as a civil right activist before joining politics (Nardo 7).
Leadership style and abilities
Leadership is the process of an individual gaining the help of others to attain or achieve certain common objective (Bass 2). In our normal daily activities, we come across several leaders such as the manager at work, the supervisor at the laundry place, the football coach in school to mention but a few. These individuals like the rest of us are of different characters and employ various techniques in influencing their followers to achieve the common goal they all are after, hence different leadership styles. Barrack Obama is a transformational leader who employs various tactics depending on his abilities to achieve his visionary goal in well governing of the country.
Avolio and Bass (113) define transformational leaders as those who motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often more than they thought was possible. The form of leadership can be viewed to entail charisma-being appealing to your followers while having energetic, dynamic and commanding presence making them wanting to emulate you. This comes from admiration; respect and developed trust that make them view you as a role model.
Inspirational motivation is another component of transformational leadership. The leaders appeal to basic values with enthusiasm optimism and eloquent speaking styles that leave their followers envisioning an attractive better future. Intellectual stimulation by them entails inspiring people to explore their abilities to get most of it through ways such as creative thinking and suggestion of new solutions to problems. Public criticism is avoided and followers are free to differ in opinion with the leader. The leaders pay attention to their subordinates and help them meet their needs.
Obama is charismatic and large numbers of the minority groups in the U.S. such as the colored admire him as their role model with majority willing to emulate him. To say his oratory skills are excellent is an understatement and he has displayed this in several instances; during his famous Cairo speech giving hope to strained relations between the U.S. and Islamic nations, the Berlin speech and in presidential debates managing to convince voters he was ready for the job among others. He has welcomed criticism in his major healthcare budget plans and included republicans’ suggestions in the bill that finally got passed by Congress.
The respect he has earned during his time in office based on decision making abilities is undisputed. The president faced enormous challenges while joining office: the economic crisis and budget deficit, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the joblessness, strained foreign relations with several Islamic countries, and the healthcare system among others. He has however well prioritized and strategized his problem solving tactics to encompass all the above some like the economy already on a positive trend. Others are long term such policies on the environment. His ability to bring together people to a common goal was most displayed in the United Nations’ Copenhagen Convention in which he made nations at least to agree on a document when all had fallen apart.
Conclusion
Barrack Hussein Obama II, is a good leader who has not only risen to the apex of the world due to his exemplary leadership abilities and style but has also proved to be capable of managing the demands the world has placed on him.
Works Cited
Avolio, Bruce and & Bass, Metcalfe. Developing potential across a full range of leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2008. Print.
Bass, Bane. Transformational leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998. Print.
Nardo, Don. Barack Obama: Profiles of the Presidents. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2009. Print.