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Minimum 1200 words, maximum 1800 words excluding references and cover page. APA format Please read the attached instructions carefully. You only have to choose 'one leader' from the list to talk about. Essay format with good explanation is needed.

Leadership

Leadership 1
The leadership is all about the act of an individual to influence followers and
members of an organization. Leadership comprises making sound decisions and establishing
attainable goals and offering followers with the information and tools essential to attain goals.
This essay comprises the leadership of Barack Obama and his behaviour has been analysed in
the light of the theories.
The personality of Barack Obama is relative to the trait model of the leadership as it
helps in predicting leadership effectiveness. The capabilities of Obama are compared to the
potential leaders in order to assess the likelihood of success or failure. Obama has definitely
abilities, interests and personality traits which are quite different than other leaders. The traits
which make Obama different from other leaders is a desire to lead, self-confidence, honesty,
intelligence, drive and the job-relevant knowledge (Lay, Chotisukan & Kochasit, 2018). The
traits possessed are little more than the characteristics which are possessed naturally by the
persons. Obamapracticed trait leadership in every aspect in order to evaluate his position. It
even helped Obama in identifying the strengths and weaknesses along with developing the
leadership qualities (Wasike, 2017).
Barack Obama has always been a leader whereas assisting the community made him a
public figure and later a well-known politician. The leadership skills that made him an
excellent politician and leader are conviction and perseverance, change, taking risks, we
attitude, the art of communication and turning ends into the new beginnings. Obama always
believed that if something is appropriate and you realize that you are on the right track then
you should influence others and get the message across. The change as a leadership skill
helped in the campaign initiated by Obama becoming successful. The word change was not
just used by Obama for the campaign but in his eight years tenure. Obama attained so much
by just executing change in every facet of running the country. Whenever Obama delivers a
speech, he always represents the aspects as ‘we’ than ‘I’. It is a smart way to engage the
audience in a conversation. It makes the audience to believe that they have contributed
something positive to a source (Lehmann-Willenbrock, et al. 2015). As a part of the
leadership skills, Obama commended people to take risks. The people persuaded to take risks
in life are benefiting from the act than being a fail. The art of communication is reflected in
the way he talks to a person. Along with the communication, listening, writing and reading
are deliberated to be important skills of Obama. His Excellency can be observed in the way
he talks regardless of the age, gender, and race of a person. Obama uses positive public

Leadership 2
reaction and emotion to instigate a fresh project which assists in completes a new task with
the ease (Kotzé & Nel, 2015).
The leadership of Obama is relationship focused as he believed in creating a culture of
openness, integrity, and fortitude throughout the campaign. The messages conveyed are
powerful and creates a sense of unity among people. The behavior of Obama is influenced by
personal characteristics. It helped him in staying above and strengthens the strong reputation
(Storey, 2016). Obama’s good behavior helped in staying above the dispute and enabled him
to construct successful leadership. His statement “leadership you can trust and change you
can believe in” reflects his leadership and accomplishments. His approach to avoiding
negative behavior helped in burning the bridges. He validated the strength in several ways
and stood strong in his convictions. The highly ethical behavior of Obama has assisted in
serving a solid foundation for leadership. He even persuaded millions of people in attaining
their vision (Hargrove, 2015).
The behavior of Obama best fits the employee and work environment to attain a goal.
The goal of Obama has always been to increasing motivation of people along with the
empowerment and satisfaction. It even helped people in becoming productive in their life and
they contributed more towards the organization. The leadership of Obama leans towards
specific elements from Path-Goal theory as he has done everything for the people comprising
black Americans. His presidential changed the world people live in. he believed in the
changes as it helps a society to progress. He motivated people by working hard and meeting
responsibilities. A person can go ahead with this kind of perspective. He guided people to go
above racism, segregation, and discrimination (Carter & Dowe, 2015). It helped them in
overcoming adversities and become pioneers. They got freedom in the human race and got
equality in the human race. Obama even set personal goals to attain achievement for the
country. He even inspired to take risks and face challenges in order to attain the goals. During
the tenure, Obama faced several challenges yet endured by making decisions. He continued
to serve as an example of courage and leadership (McGuire, et al. 2016).
Obama was elected as forty-fourth presidents of the US in 2008. During the tenure,
the leadership of Obama was defined at times as servant, transformational, dysfunctional,
charismatic, non-existent and extreme. Obama treated all the followers in the same manner.
Irrespective of the several insights, Obama interacted with many in order to attain goals and

Leadership 3
advance establishments (Dueck, 2015). Obama interacted with the minor group of close
advisors who offers guidance. The energetic of interacting with the minor group yet trusted
on the assistance of the large group which is serious to the leadership process and identified
as Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. LMX concentrated on the association which
develops between Obama and subordinates comprising role taking, role making, and
routinization. Obama made use of legitimate power and referent power. The legitimate power
comprised consultation, rational persuasion and legitimization. Whereas, referent power
comprised personal appeals along with inspirational appeals.
The theories like charismatic, contingency, leader-member exchange, team leadership
and cross-cultural leadership theory offer unique information which helps to identify Obama.
The charismatic theory validated everything about Obama from his personal equanimity to
masterful usage of the bully pulpit. The contingency theory was practised by Obama as he
captured the essence of the movement and delivered exactly what is demanded. For instance,
grabbing the movement to force GM and Chrysler to promote environmental policy by
accepting an augmenting table for the new MPG standards. The LMX theory was used by
Obama while working with the individual personnel members comprising Joseph Biden and
Chief of staff Emmanuel Rohm (Singh, et al. 2019). The team leadership theory provides
information of the working of Obama with the regular teams of presidency comprising White
house staff, appointed cabinet, National Security Council and specific task forces such as a
team of economic advisors (Phaneuf, et al. 2016). The cross-cultural leadership reflected in
the inaugural speech the way he spoke directly to the enemies of the western values and
promises for the poor countries of the globe. He also made a presence in G20 summit where
he made efforts to initiate ‘healing bruised associations with American allies’.
Obama practised the whole range of leadership during his presidency. He could miss
on the transformational leadership. Obama’s promise rested on the stimulating prospect of
reaching a long wanted turning point in the troubled racial history. People elected Obama
with the intention of a ringing symbol that racism will no longer rule to the land. Obama
represented himself hardly transformational (Rich, 2016). He abandoned his inspiring and
visionary orotundity. On the other side, he continued to blend hearts and gain praise when he
spoke in a moral register. He could not gather new copses due to presidency progressed. He
also realised that it is hard to sustain the loyalty of the old ones.

Leadership 4
References
Carter, N. M., & Dowe, P. F. (2015). The racial exceptionalism of Barack Obama. Journal of
African American Studies, 19(2), 105-119.
Dueck, C. (2015). The Obama doctrine: American grand strategy today. Oxford University
Press.
Hargrove, E. C. (2015). Effective Presidency: Lessons on Leadership from John F. Kennedy
to Barack Obama. Routledge.
Kotzé, M., & Nel, P. (2015). The influence of trait-emotional intelligence on authentic
leadership. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 13(1), 9.
Lay, C., Chotisukan, S., & Kochasit, S. (2018). The Development of Leadership Trait Model
for University Senior Administrators in Cambodia. Journal of MCU Buddhapanya
Review, 3(3), 281-296.
Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Meinecke, A. L., Rowold, J., & Kauffeld, S. (2015). How
transformational leadership works during team interactions: A behavioral process
analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(6), 1017-1033.
McGuire, D., Garavan, T. N., Cunningham, J., & Duffy, G. (2016). The use of imagery in the
campaign speeches of Barack Hussein Obama and John McCain during the 2008 US
Presidential Election. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(4), 430-
449.
Phaneuf, J. É., Boudrias, J. S., Rousseau, V., & Brunelle, É. (2016). Personality and
transformational leadership: The moderating effect of organizational
context. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 30-35.
Rich, G. J. (2016). A cross-cultural perspective on creative leadership and change
management: a case study of the influence of Barack Obama's early
years. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 7(1), 15-23.
Singh, S. K., Mittal, S., Sengupta, A., & Pradhan, R. K. (2019). A dual-pathway model of
knowledge exchange: linking human and psychosocial capital with prosocial
knowledge effectiveness. Journal of Knowledge Management.

Leadership 5
Storey, J. (2016). Changing theories of leadership and leadership development. In Leadership
in Organizations (pp. 17-41). Routledge.
Wasike, B. (2017). Charismatic rhetoric, integrative complexity and the US Presidency: An
analysis of the State of the Union Address (SOTU) from George Washington to
Barack Obama. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(6), 812-826.