The Importance of Barack Obama

Posted on | March 25, 2008 | Comments Off on The Importance of Barack Obama

Positive leadership on full display

Last week I was running some errands and found myself in front of the Home Depot when the radio switched to live coverage of Sen. Barack Obama’s speech on race. Rather than move, I settled in to listen, because I felt the moment was historic, and it was. Whatever your point of view or political persuasion, if you have not heard this speech, I would suggest you “settle in” now, listen, and then come back to read the rest of what I have to say here.

(Listen to the speech.)

Obviously, the nub of Senator Obama’s speech is that it’s time for a new dialogue about race in America. But as I listened in my car Tuesday, the force of something else hit me fully: For the first time in a long time, I realized I was listening to the rhetoric of positive leadership. In stark contrast to the rhetoric of fear – which our national leaders have wielded like a blunt instrument for years – Barack Obama’s message on Tuesday was uniquely positive. Thirteen years ago, I wrote a book called “Positive Leadership” that explores the polarity between positive leadership and negative leadership. It is now in its fourth edition. It discusses 10 cornerstone themes and 52 personal values that distinguish positive leaders from negative leaders. Others have described the book as a “moral survival manual.”

After hearing Senator Obama’s speech, I drove home, went through the entire book and pulled several passages. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the words below, and consider this point in our history. I believe the spirit Senator Obama invoked in his speech — so vital to a national dialogue on race — can also guide us as we seek to transform health care.

In Senator Obama’s speech on Tuesday, he said:

“The (Constitution) was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished…Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time…. I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren….The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation…It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper… I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.”

Those are his words. These are mine from 1995:

“Positive leaders use all their natural skills to connect. Their actions seem effortless, though non-leaders ﬁnd these traits difﬁcult to replicate. Their secret is that they love people and feed off the contact. To touch and embrace is not reaching out for them, but pulling in. They are pleasers and ﬁnd their own happiness in others’ smiles. They laugh easily. They are not Pollyannas, but courageous in surfacing difﬁcult issues and combating collective fears which they do not fear themselves. They are personally secure, but not complacent. Rather, they are driven by passion for they believe strongly in many things. They freely expose their strengths and weaknesses. Their humanity is on full display.”

“Negative leaders have great power in our world and in our daily lives because fear is a powerful currency. Fear is easy to exchange and easy to access. It can be counted on in most environments to draw an immediate response. The negative leader, when challenged about his methods, will frequently respond, ‘I’m just being brutally honest.’ Yet, as one man has said, these individuals ‘get more satisfaction from the brutality than from the honesty.’ Those who cower in fear also bear responsibility. They have not defined what will be the ethical limit for them. How far will they be pushed before resisting? The job of positive leadership involves not only confronting the source of fear, but also liberating its subjects.”

“When positive leaders make a point, people listen and remember. These leaders possess exquisite timing, persistence and the unique ability to seize the moment. They are courageous, often opposing a majority point of view, but never without some certainty of a successful outcome. They pick their battles wisely and only when they believe that a significant issue is at stake. At those times, they hold on as tightly to an issue as a dog on a pants leg. This determination, combined with an aura of ‘being right most of the time,’ is a large part of their success. But their real ability to penetrate the mind and spirit lies in their verbal skill of painting vivid pictures that graphically display the potential good and bad outcomes of the decisions at hand. When their listeners ‘see it,’ they usually see it their way.”

“Power is all about inﬂuence and what you do with that inﬂuence. The desire to deﬁne the agenda and move individuals to one point of view is universal. In fact, the dynamic tension that we commonly feel at home, at school, or at work, reﬂects our competitive instinct and desire to ‘carry the day’. But what distinguishes the positive leader is as much the process of inﬂuence as it is the ﬁnal outcome of inﬂuence; for she recognizes that the end does not justify the means, since that ﬁnal outcome is a product of the means or method and the end itself. Positive leaders are alert to opportunities to advance important goals, but consistently exercise the high road in that pursuit. They are conﬁdent but never over-conﬁdent, and they scrupulously avoid reckless competition. In the exercise of power, the positive leader’s rewards must be lasting rewards.”

“Negativity is pervasive in our world. And negative leaders compete with positive leaders in every organization. In rapidly transforming industries, change adds fuel to the ﬁres of fear, creating within the people a state of active receptivity to a negative message. Martin Luther King said, ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.’ But if positive leaders are to prevail, they must be vigilant. On the one hand they must create a vision for the future that guides and stabilizes transition, while on the other be prepared to challenge the negative messages of the day.”

“Positive leaders are used to being initially underestimated; for on the surface, they may appear different, out of touch, and vulnerable. But beneath, they are focused and resilient, capable of laboring against great odds with little reinforcement. Their strength is a reflection of their unerring faith in a greater good. Their secret is that they find good in all, and are able to consistently forgive and seek forgiveness. They disarm and convert by their example. Their dreams expand to include the dreams of others. Their seemingly limitless energy streams in from those who love them and commit to regularly revitalizing them. But their lasting trait is a deeply seated confidence in themselves, for positive leaders like who they are.”

“No matter how positive you are, you must confront uncertainty, for life and loss are interwoven. Positive leaders feel deeply and are as vulnerable as they are durable. Their responsiveness to crisis places them in great demand. Their ability to survive and thrive reflects a unique attitude toward loss. At their core, positive leaders are learners who seek out the lesson with each experience. They see the world as overflowing with opportunity for all and understand that delaying an opportunity in the interest of honoring more pressing obligations is not an opportunity forever lost. They have great faith and memory, which allows them to feel and experience the presence of loved ones even in their absence. Finally, they uniquely fill the voids in their lives, finding productive ways to contribute. The positive leader is at peace.”

Barack Obama finds himself, along with us, at a turning point in the history of this nation and this planet. It is clear that we are worn out with fear and worn out with negative leadership. What remains to be seen is whether we have the courage to take the risk to move ourselves, our institutions, and our nation in a different direction. There is much to be done, but to find success we must have a sufficiently powered vision, and leaders with the capacity to unite rather then divide.