According to Glary (2012), leadership is an art where one person (a leader) inspires and motivates their subjects to work towards a certain goal. Some leaders such as Obama have been successful in achieving this endeavor through his integration and engagement of his subjects. Obama’s success at leadership is evident through the way he organized a variety of people to come together and turn around the economic crisis in America. Obama’s leadership is successful as he created bonds of understanding with supporters from an expansive political base, and varied aspirations and goals.
In the area of science, technology and intervention, Obama reinvigorated a group of people working under President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST consists of a group of advisors and government employees working together to improve the area of science, technology and innovation (Edwards, 2012). During the first years of his presidency, President Obama brought a strong connection between the public and federal governments. He issued a Presidential Memorandum that elevated openness and transparency in governance. Federal governments were expected to work in openness to ensure that they worked in transparency.
In another area, Obama brought together National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The three agencies worked together in the high-risk and high-reward research (Edwards, 2012). A major achievement of President Obama is in the area of medicine. He introduced the Precision Medicine Initiative that was used to accelerate a new area of medicine that allows healthcare providers to deliver the appropriate treatment at the right time. Obama’s passion to the environment led him to start the Climate Action Plan (CAP). CAP is made of three major components: working with a variety of countries to achieve climate protection, reducing the emissions of heat-trapping pollutants and developing the resilience and preparedness of the United States of America. Each of these goals were met through integration.
Leadership style and major achievements
Obama ca be classified as a transformative leader because he always worked with other people to identify the most important change, create a vision to guide the proposed change through inspiration and propose how the change would affect the people (Glary, 2012). During his regime, he attained extra ordinary things that made Americans to live a better life. He attained this by establishing a relationship between various divisions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
As the first black-American elected head of state, Obama became an essential figure in the American history because of his exemplary leadership skills. After winning his second term during the 2012 elections, his outstanding achievements have made him one of the most transformative heads of states for the last one hundred years (Edwards, 2012). He assumed office with the country at peril of various issues such as great recession, civil unrest, two wars, a rash of mass shootings and the changing cultural demographics.
In his term of office, he faced numerous challenges including intense distrust from most of the people and concerns of the future of their country under his leadership (Glary, 2012). Being a good leader, he overcame these challenges and led the people in a manner that made them to trust his leadership and thought he deserved another term.
Just like other successful leaders, Obama had a plan and a dream for this country. This is evident from his campaign slogan “change we can believe in.” According to his plans, he wanted the government to have a platform that would unit all people, and establish a positive change that would assist the country to come out of the worst financial crisis that began after the great depression.
He also made a major achievement in the area of medicine through introducing the Precision Medicine Initiative that plays a key role in making healthcare providers to deliver the appropriate treatment at the right time. He also minded the wellbeing of the less fortunate by launching the ambitious affordable care act. According to Glary (2012), this act made healthcare to be cheap to everyone because it focused on making insurance services to be available to as many people as possible. He also improved relationship with other countries such as the trans-pacific partnership, US-Cuba relations and so forth.
Obama leadership focused on teamwork. His idea of working with other people can be shown through his move to develop and strengthen a team that would work with to accomplish some of the things he thought would be important for the country (Glary, 2012). This team is known as group of people working under President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and is made up of group of advisors and government employees working together to improve the area of science, technology and innovation.
The ideas of working with other people can also be demonstrated by his notion of “we” rather than “I” attitude. This was seen by his idea of using “we” in most of his speeches to make the people believe they have all contributed towards making the United States a great country (Edwards, 2012). Obama had a perception that for the USA to become a better nation, he needed to work with the people across all domains. For instance, to make the country gain better economic condition, he required all industries to be in operation, and that is the reason he played a great role in jumpstarting those that had failed especially in the automotive sector.
On the issue of equality, Obama made various moves to ensure opportunities and resources were distributed equally (Edwards, 2012). For instance, he signed an executive order that made it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate people based on their sexual orientation or on basis of their gender identity.
Under the presidency of barrack Obama, the American public opinion concerning the government changed significantly (Glary, 2012). As a result of uniting the people and minding the wellbeing of all, public trust towards the government improved. His leadership made most people to believe the country had a government which would lead them in the right direction and one which would also make them attain great success.
Conclusion
Obama’s leadership transformed America in different ways. For instance, his passion to the environment made him to start the Climate Action Plan (CAP) which comprise of three major components aimed to collaborate with other nations to enhance climate protection, minimize the emissions of heat-trapping pollutants and develop the resilience and preparedness of the United States of America.
His believe and passion for good environment enabled him to establish developments in the production of energy through solar and wind, a situation which led to environmental conservation and enhancement of energy supply in the country. It also made him to collaborate with other countries to come up with measures that can reduce global warming and other factors that pose threat to the environment. Obama also worked hard to ensure the issues of crime and justice were addressed. Under his leadership, various issues such as arrest-related death, law enforcement officers being killed in the line of duty and violence crime rate reduced significantly
References
Edwards, G. C. (2012). Overreach: Leadership in the Obama Presidency. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Glary, R. G. (2012). Transformational Leadership in a Postmodern World: The Presidential Election of Barack Obama. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 11(1), 89-112.
