Leadership is a continuous process of guiding a group of people in a given environment to achieve a common goal. Leaders have the responsibility of guiding their followers until they achieve their goals as the teams they lead determine their success. As a leader, one has to inspire the followers in order to succeed. Leaders use their knowledge and skills, under the influence of their beliefs, ethics and values to influence individuals in attaining the set goals. The assignment explains qualities of leadership in reference to Barrack Obama as political leader and San Walton as business leader.
There are factors that determine whether one is a leader or not. Leaders should first understand themselves in terms of who they are, their capabilities, and the knowledge they have especially about the people they want to lead and the environment in which they are. Barrack Obama who is the 44th president of the USA, is a leader because he understood what the Americans wanted and was, therefore, able to promise them what can be delivered. This helps leaders to gain the trust of their followers as well as the honor. For instance, he promised that he would create employment opportunities and, indeed, the USA unemployment rate has dropped by three percent.
Good leaders will always have good communication skills to win the minds of their followers. Obama in his sentiments encouraged the citizens of the USA to believe that they are capable of bringing change in their country by creating a better way of life. The healthcare system of the USA had issues in the security section where most citizens did not have the health cover but, through the motivation of bringing change, there have been improvements in the policy target to cover all citizens for better medication.
Obama was able to become the president of the USA because he was able to set examples for others to emulate. During his campaigns, he made people believe that they were one family by the use of the pronoun “we”. Obama was able to interact with people from different grounds, which enabled him to win the support of people from different backgrounds. This showed how inclusive he was in the activities that were going on. Leaders should be clear on what they want to achieve for others to follow. This gave Obama a winning edge during the competition because he made his vision clear to the citizens about Change as compared to John McCain who also wanted to improve the living standards in the USA but people failed to understand him.
Sam Walton the CEO of Wal-Mart has changed the view of business in the world through his unique characters. Walton managed to be a leader though his values of being the model for the organization. He formulated rule to be followed by leading as an example. He is a leader who could mind the welfare of the employee since he knew the nature of human beings. For instance, he gave discounts to employees who purchased from Wal-Mart. This motivates employees and makes them feel that the leader is a part of them. Walton views leaders as people who should aim at achieving the goals set by enabling the followers to work effectively. Leaders should have the passion to success and not the interests of getting money. In his business, he only focused on retail as a field to excel in without looking at the income generated.
Being a leader requires one to be involved in the process of achieving the set goals and not just supervising as most bosses do in organizations. Leaders have the responsibility to inspire their followers by providing direction and being role models as well considering the nature of human beings.