Obama shows presidential leadership before he takes office

Dr. Sherman N. Miller

11/30/08

As I watch President-Elect Barack Obama form his cabinet, I find myself guesstimating his strategic path. The President-Elect appears to be taking his guidance from the teachings of two business leadership gurus. They are John P. Kotter, author of “Leading Change,” and John C. Maxwell, author of “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.”

President-Elect Obama is introducing his financial teams with the apparent approval of the American people and Wall Street because you hear no outcries and the stock market rose roughly 1000 points with his demonstrating leadership on the current economic crisis. However, some reporters want to criticize Obama for appointing retreads from former President Bill Clinton’s team. Obama makes it clear that we are in the greatest economic nightmare since the Great Depression; thus, it would be foolhardy to attempt to tackle such a complex situation with a host of inexperienced people.

Hence, Obama is opting for finding the best minds for his teams versus succumbing to political patronage for some political hacks that may not have the wherewithal to work at the level demanded by the nation’s crises. Maxwell’s TEACH concept appears to fit into Obama’s financial teams appointment effort:

If you notice in Obama’s late November 2008 press conferences, he showed a clear understanding of the importance of the current economic crisis scourging the nation. He took his time to identify a diversity of high caliber people and charged them to seek solutions to the economic crisis in a meaningful time period. These people are expected to brainstorm ideas and bring some options on which the President can decide. He will implement the best of these solutions.

Kotter offers a definition of what the Obama leadership role should be in this turnaround effort. “Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.”

Obama recognizes that “groupthink” can be nightmarish when getting a bunch of likeminded brilliant people working together. Groupthink might be defined loosely as a group of people deciding to go in a given direction when individually they may think it is lunacy. Therefore, Obama hopes to prevent this groupthink nightmare by appointing an Economic Advisory Panel that is outside of The White House loop to look over everyone else’s shoulders. Paul A. Volcker and future panel members should bring a sense of independent thought, thereby becoming Obama’s insurance against the groupthink gremlin.   

I am sure Obama understands that one of the key elements in change is creating a sense of urgency. Kotter offers, “Establishing a sense of urgency is crucial to gaining needed cooperation. With complacency high, transformations usually go nowhere because few people are even interested in working on the change problem. With urgency low, it’s difficult to put together a group with enough power and credibility to guide the effort or to convince key individuals to spend the time necessary to create and communicate a change vision. In those rare circumstances in which a committed group does exist inside a canyon of complacency, its members may be able to identify the general direction for change, to reorganize, and to cut staffing levels.”      

Obama is forming his leadership team with a charter for change, so it appears that he is creating Kotter’s third condition where there is a committed group in a canyon of complacency. Time will tell us if President-Elect Barack Obama is able to foster change in Washington.

It is common knowledge that the US has one president at a time.  On the other hand, would it not be disingenuous if President-Elect Barack Obama did not show that he is very capable of handling the crises that are being dropped into his lap?