Bill Clinton was one among the many presidents of the United States of America. As a leader, Bill Clinton achieved many things which made him become a popular leader during his reign (Biography.com, 2011).
This research paper will focus its discussion on the leadership of Mr. Bill Clinton, his major style of leadership, the numerous theories connected to his leadership and it will further highlight the lesson we as population can learn from his system of leadership.
To have a good understanding of Bill Clinton, we shall have a review and a brief description of his biography in order to understand about the background of Bill Clinton right from the time he was born up to his time in power as the president to of US.
Bill Clinton was born in August the year 1946 in the state of Arkansas where he was raised by his grandparents until the age of three years since he was born in a single family after the death of his father just before he born (Biography.com, 2011).
During his stay with the grandparents, Bill Clinton learned a lot including; good discipline, reading and counting which he was taught by the grandfather who liked the young boy very much. During all this time, Clinton’s mother was at college and she only came back after graduating with a nursing degree and shortly moved in with Roger Clinton his newly wedded husband.
During his childhood Bill Clinton was raised in a religious manner and was a devoted Baptist where he attended church services every Sunday. At the Baptist church, Bill became interested in music and he engaged a lot in the church music where he even learned how to play jazz saxophone which he continued playing up to high school (Biography.com, 2011).
Al this particular time, Bill was used to the hard life such as harsh, abusive and rude stepfather due to excessive drinking. At the age of 14 Bill gained his ground and decided it was no more when he engaged his step father in a quarrel that consequently put a stop to the abusive behavior. However, not long after this incidence that the mother divorced with Roger Clinton.
At high school, Bill used to play musical instrument and also engaged in political debates a factor that made his teacher Ms Mae Mackey to like him very much (Biography.com, 2011). At the age of 17, at Arkansas Boys state, Bill was selected as the representatives of the boys association due to his outstanding character giving him a wonderful opportunity to meet face to face with President John F. Kennedy at the state house.
After high school, the youthful Bill attended Georgetown University where he got involved in university politics very much. After college he won a highly prestigious award for further studies at the Oxford University where he studied law.
Moreover, after the scholarship at oxford, Clinton further went to Yale university school of law to complete his law course; after schooling he immediately went into national politics and in the 1978 he become the youngest governor in history of US.
After this incidence Clinton had his ups and down going in and out of politics until 1992 when he was nominated as a party representative to vie for presidency which he campaigned well and in November 3 he become the 42nd president of United State of America (Biography.com, 2011).
Clinton’s philosophy on leadership
Clinton a young president belonging to Democrat party had changed the history by winning the election against the republicans which had not happened for such a long time (Hamilton, 2008); in fact, he was elected for the second term despite of the many scandals that he had been accused of due to his negative personality.
However, Clinton is highly regarded for the positive changes he brought to US which are highly attributed to his concerned nature for the well being of the citizens (Gates, 2000).
One of the major policies which he held is that of economical progression. In fact, during his reign and presidency, Clinton achieved economical progress in many ways; his government was keen to note the high rate of unemployment which his administration developed measures to curb such crisis (Hamilton, 2008).
Additionally, Clinton’s administration was very successful in ensuring that the level of inflation was reduced by all means and due to the efforts administered during his term, US acquired the lowest level of inflation (Gates, 2000). On the other hand, Clinton’s administration was very alert and did not hesitate to make necessary changes in the national budget.
During Clinton’s era, the government made proposals that really impacted the US economy in a very positive way; in point of fact, Clinton’s government made a budget that is said to have brought a balance in the deficit that had been there for decades and in effect to this, the result was a budget which was surplus (Gates, 2000).
Another topic which makes Clinton to be a president who was highly regarded was due to his enthusiasm for peace causing him to extended campaign works intended to bring harmony in the land. Further more, his administration cleared all issue of violence and crime which is reported that, during his era issues of crime rates were reported to have reduced considerably.
In the education sector, Clinton’s administration made numerous changes that have brought a positive impact up to date. During his era, the US achieved the largest investments in the education segment by expanding college edification and facilities in order to ensure all American could have at least access college education.
This program was made accessible in the course of also giving scholarship to more than five million students annually (Hamilton, 2008). Additionally, Clinton ensured that college education became basic; his administration hired more teachers and lowered college fees in order to make education become quality and be easily accessed even by the poor in order to promote equity in the society (Gates, 2000).
More importantly, his administration encouraged technology through incorporating modern facilities in schools to embrace technological changes as a form of development in the education sector.
Moreover, Clinton’s administration was in the forefront to campaign for better and improved health care; as such his government ensured increased medical facility access to all Americans at an affordable rate (Gates, 2000). Through creating a balance in the national budget, Clinton’s government extended the medical facilities through making accommodative changes to cater for the growing population of US.
In the child health care, Clinton’s administration enacted the largest health supportive program since 1965 which was big enough to cater for medical needs for more than 5 million children every year (Gates, 2000).
Furthermore, to ensure better health care, his government signed a law to cater for the mental challenged across America which would help eradicate stigmatization against those mentally challenged (Hamilton, 2008). Apart from this, Clinton’s administration also developed foreign policies that were meant to facilitate peace, campaign for freedom and encourage democracy (Gates, 2000).
Leadership Theories connected to Clinton’s leadership
There are many theories of associated with leadership and we can relate a good number of the theories to the leadership of Bill Clinton based on his accomplishment as the 42nd president of US. In order to have an understanding of this concept we shall review just but a few of the leadership theories studied in class for a broader understanding.
One among many other leadership theories is the great man theory; great man theory argues that, quality leaders arise when they are needs in the society and it further argues that “leaders are born and not made” (Changingminds.com , 2002). By looking back to the system of Clinton’s administration, we can be able to relate Clinton’s leadership to this particular in the following way.
As a president of US Clinton was able to integrate quality management leadership when the state was undergoing tough economical times, it during his era when US acquired a balance in the national budget something that seems not to have been achieved for decades.
So, we can be able to attribute the economical progress to sthe good leadership style by Clinton which can also be argued that the great man theory correctly fits in this situation because as the theory argues “good leaders come in when the society really needs them” (Changingminds.com , 2002), as such, Clinton’s leadership also seems to have appeared right when US was under tough economical times.
Secondly, another theory of leadership which can be related to leadership of bill Clinton is the transformational leadership theory.
Transformational leadership theory is a hypothesis whose assumption is that, good leaders are those who inspire others and usually work hard to achieving what they have passion for (Changingminds.com , 2002); mostly their style of leadership is based on what they what to achieve in the society, so, the transformational leaders will be motivated to achieve their desired goals which they work and dedicate all their energy towards such objectives (Changingminds.com , 2002).
In this regard, by reviewing the leadership of bill Clinton we are able to conclude that, it is no doubt that Clinton’s leadership style can be related to this particular theory in various ways. One way is through the way Clinton had passion for education based on his background and how he had gotten quality education through scholarship.
As such, we can be able to trace those qualities through observing how Clinton was aggressive to make positive change in the education sector in US (Gates, 2000). In point of fact, Clinton’s administration worked towards making college education to be accessible as basic by all Americans and this was achieved through his passion for education.
Additionally, Clintons made sure that college education was affordable by campaigning for reduced college fee. Most importantly, Clinton’s administration initiated the scholarship program in order to support the needy students towards attaining education in the society and it does support millions of student annually (Gates, 2000).
Lessons we can learn from leadership of Bill Clinton
From what we have already learned, Clinton is one among the many presidents of the US who was popular during his term as a leader of US. Despite of the few shortcomings and criticism raised regarding his personality, Clinton was a charismatic leader a factor that also contributed to him being selected for the second term.
Generally, there are many positive things we can learn from such form of leadership and if applied in the society today, it could contribute to progressive changes necessary for development and social change in the world today.
One great lesson we can always learn from Clinton’s presidency is that, a good leader transforms the society for better.
Clearly, we have already seen how Clinton’s administration strived to make a lot of changes in the society in order to accommodate developments and hence steer growth of the state; such changes include, economical development, technological advancement, health for all, affordable college education, environmental conservation among many others. All these changes are necessary for a better tomorrow.
Furthermore, we can also get to learn that as leaders, we should develop love for others in order to change our society and our neighbors (Koestenbaum, 2000).
Such a lesson can be derived form Clinton’s leadership looking at the way his administration was concern about peace; majorly, he was concerned about peace in his country and that of the other countries which resulted in developing foreign policies that were meant to promote internal and external peace.
Finally, another lesson we can learn from Clinton’s leadership is that, as leaders we should have a desire to impact changes where others have not achieved (Koestenbaum, 2000). It is obvious that Clinton made positive developments where other presidents had not achieved; such changes include creating a balance in the national budget something that had not been achieved for decades.
Therefore, leaders should not be discouraged by the fact that others have not achieved, in fact this should be a motivation to achieve and exercise ones abilities in order to achieve great things in the society.
References
Biography.com. (2011). Bill Clinton. Web.
Changingminds.com. (2002). Leadership theories. Web.
Gates, P (2000). Bill Clinton Accomplishments. Web.
Hamilton, N. (2008). Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency. New York: PublicAffairs.
Koestenbaum, P. (2000). Leadership: The Inner Side Of Greatness: A Philosophy For Leaders. New York: John Wiley and Sons.