Obama and the Leadership of You

Obama and the Leadership of You

As our young, relatively inexperienced, African-American President assumes the responsibility of leading a nation in trouble, isn’t it time you stepped up to the responsibility of leading your life?

You are the protagonist of your own destiny and while we’re often buffeted by unknown and inexplicable forces such as disease and the economy, much of our destiny is in our own hands.  Just as only your saliva will break down a stain made of your blood, there are some things that only you can do – and charting your path is the most important. 

Watching someone as improbable as Barack Obama mount the stage before the world emphasizes the power of personal commitment to leading one’s life.  Obama has great talent, it’s true.  But he also has four other traits that you can develop: Realism, discipline, pragmatism and a devotion to preparation.

Realism:  This is the most important trait of the highly successful.  Titans in every walk of life have better and more efficient ‘reality recognition’.  They’re more willing to see the bad and the ugly as well as the good.  Practically speaking, they’re better information gatherers.  They shut up and listen.  Warren Buffett says Obama is “a listener”.  He listens to critics and adversaries as well as supporters; to conservative columnists such as George Will and even to his rival Senator John McCain.  Realistic leaders think like pollsters by looking for patterns in information and get this -- they “live more in the real world of nature” according to the great 20^th Century psychologist, Abraham Maslow.  Meaning they don’t confuse what’s real with the current zeitgeist or get sucked in to media and marketing pitches which are thrown at us from dawn ‘til dusk.

Discipline: We’ve recently learned that despite his long days campaigning, Barack Obama would get 60-90 minutes of exercise every day.  (If he can find the time, you can find the time!)  Shailagh Murray who covered Obama for eighteen months as a correspondent for the Washington Post says that Obama, “is almost monkish” in his discipline and habits.  On his campaign plane, Murray says the candidate didn’t engage in chit chat, didn’t gather friends or cronies around him, no need.  She also says he’s “not flirtatious, doesn’t have huge appetites, doesn’t play favorites.”  On the other hand, he did take an acute interest in details of his campaign right down to having all the rope line volunteers in ties and jackets for the men and skirts for the women.  Disciplined from top to bottom.

Pragmatic:  In a briefing for San Francisco family and friends, Murray also said that “Obama doesn’t have an ideological bone in his body.”  He is a practical, pragmatic policy wonk.  Try different approaches to your life’s tough problems.  We all dwell within our own paradigm of how we think our worlds work.  Ask your most admired friends and associates, (often not those to whom you are closest) how they’re charting their career paths, if you work with them, ask them how well they think you may or may not be doing at work.  You can quiz them as to how they’re readjusting their financial portfolios, how they’re relating to their difficult teenager.  Your wisest acquaintances will have ideas and habits that you can adopt; pragmatic ways that you may have never considered because of your ingrained way of thinking.

Preparation:  No less a success than Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway says that, “More important than the will to win is the will to prepare.”  This quote hit me like a ton of bricks!  Look what careful planning has done for Obama.  He and his team beat the most powerful Democratic machine in forty years.  In eighteen months, the man “who’d never run anything” raised more money than all of his competitors, built a national professional services firm with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and a creative approach to winning.  They rewrote the book on the South Carolina primary and by mid-January they had effectively outflanked the Clintons in terms of delegates.  For all of you with a little extra smarts or talent who’ve been coasting because of your gifts – this is a BIG one.  If you are willing to spend a little extra time and effort preparing for all those things that are important for your advancement in life, you will dramatically accelerate your progress.

Barack Obama – the 44^th President and a realistic, disciplined pragmatist who prepares for his own success.  Now you can too.

Cheers,

Donald

Donald Van de Mark is a speaker and writer

donaldvandemark@gmail.com