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Leadership Approaches in Real Life Situations

Marcus Bibbs

Excelsior College

Leadership Approaches in Real Life Situations

One of the most effective public service leaders in the past few decades has been Barak Obama. While an individual’s political beliefs could impact whether they believe that his accomplishments had a positive impact on economy and society in the US, Obama’s presidency provided substantial evidence of his efficacy as a leader. As president, Obama’s administration began in the wake of one of the most significant financial catastrophes in the history of the US. Amid a high level of resistance from political leadership on the opposition and growing sentiment in the US for measures tantamount to austerity, President Obama was able to influence people in his party and others in the opposition to accept policies which would inject money into the economy (Freie, 2015). President Obama was also able to influence legislators to accept policy related to what was one of the most significant overhauls to the way in which the government handled healthcare policy in the history of the US and did so with a lack of support from the opposition. These events are significant in that they are evidence that Obama is able to organize people in his party to act on public policy that will have a substantial impact on the country. It is also evidence that Obama will lead based on his convictions and will not allow opposing forces to stand in the way of his success of getting things done that he believes will have a positive impact for the country (Freie, 2015). These are factors which contribute to the foundation of how it is that Obama functions as a leader and is evidence of his ethical compass.

Leadership is the ability to influence and persuade surrounding people to accept direction and to follow (Froelich & Oppenheimer, 2014). As an administrator representing the Democratic Party, President Obama has shown his capability as a leader in his ability to take on large ideas and projects and influence others to buy into his ideas while encouraging them to be agents influencing the changes that must be accomplished. The aforementioned influence of Obama on acceptance of the policies wrapped into the American Recovery Act in 2009 was substantial because at the time there was a high degree of uncertainty involved with the future of the US economy and it was assumed that the debt that would be assumed would only do further damage to the economy (Freie, 2015). Relying on advisors and having strong decision-making, Obama maintained the course of using government debt to pay for public programs which would contribute to economic growth picking back up. In the end, his influence on policymakers resulted in overcoming the problems associated with the financial system meltdown and was able to have a positive impact on spurring economic growth once again occurring. His strong leadership was a key factor impacting the capability of the US economy’s growth after the economic meltdown.

Obama’s leadership was also a key factor and played a positive role in the transformation of the US economy in the scope of the establishment of healthcare policy transformation. The transformation of the healthcare policy in the scope of changing it to one where there was a greater requirement on employers to take a role in paying for the health insurance of employees was difficult and had several opponents (Freie, 2015). Obama’s leadership was integral as he was able to gather a small group of people who would be agents of change who could use their own influence as a way to change the minds of other people in the party who opposed it (Rhodes & Hart, 2014). At the same time, he was able to overcome the opposition against the policy by negotiating and speaking with people on the opposing side. He took the role of leader and set the example for how it was that discourse should happen in the scope of the fight for healthcare policy.

In closing, as president, Obama showed a high degree of leadership character. Obama was able to influence people around him and have a high level of control over the way in which the trajectory of policy he pushed for would be formed. Obama was also successful in encouraging members of his party to accept policy that they may interpret as being potentially politically dangerous and to encourage them to fight for these policies even when there were uncertain political winds.

References

Freie, J. F. (2015). Making of the Postmodern Presidency: From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. Routledge.

Frohlich, N., & Oppenheimer, J. A. (2015). Political leadership and collective goods. Princeton University Press.

Rhodes, R. A., & Hart, P. T. (Eds.). (2014). The Oxford handbook of political leadership. Oxford University Press.