Obama’s superior leadership approach

By Jesse B (me)

For me it really comes down not to their policies but to the superiority of Obama’s (proposed) leadership style.

Hillary’s approach very much embodies the “managerial” style of governing that we are used to from both our politicians and our business leaders, in which the president surrounds herself with technocratic experts who work in very narrow fields of knowledge to advise on individual policy issues, and then tries in a superhuman way to micromanage the economy and the enactment of policy themselves to fit their grand individual visions. This approach has also been dominant in many corporate cultures for a long time, but businesses can now agree that for the most part it has been a failure in today’s world ( see Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/feb2008/ca2008028_331189.htm) Why? Due to the stifling of creativity and limiting of productive autonomy that top-down control is liable to produce and which is critical to growth and development.

Obama’s approach is more in a “transformational” leadership role that emphasizes decentralized, collaborative change and the responsibility of all people to their society. He has been blunt from the beginning of his campaign that his approach would be less to micromanage legislation than to provide vision, judgment, and inspiration for the conduct and quality of government and society — that which legislation (we hope) aims to improve. It aims to let people in Congress and the bureaucracy do their jobs but motivate them to do their jobs WELL, guide them in an evolved direction, and in a responsible and informed fashion.

Two kinds of leaders. One (Clinton) offers to lead by legislating (in fact, all the other candidates), the other (Obama) by guiding.

Both are potentially dangerous. Leading by “inspiration” can quickly deteriorate into substanceless fluff, or worse spawn egomaniacal demagogues who charismatically appeal to peoples prejudices and fears in order to solidify power.

Of course I don’t believe Obama is capable of that, otherwise clearly I wouldn’t be supporting him. At the same time I think the true danger facing our society today is that we may be legislating ourselves to death. Every year = 1000s of new city laws, state laws, federal laws, by-laws, tri-laws, out laws. Laws laws laws. And what do we have ourselves? A failing economy, an environmentally precarious planet, worldwide violence and poverty, and a total lack of moral credibility for the U.S. government, as the self-appointed world’s protectors.

Health care is still totally messed up (let us not forget that Hillary failed to get HER and Bill’s plan through in the first 2 years of Bill’s term); the mortgage and lending industry is a corrupt joke; and the special interest lobby groups who fill McCain’s pockets most of all and plenty to Hillary have littered the road ahead of us with insane numbers of unnecessary regulations, complicated and excessive taxes, and other economic barriers that benefit them at the expense of all of us. Money in their pockets while we still don’t have healthcare for all our citizens in the supposedly greatest country in the world.

Obama understands that not one person, not even the president, can micromanage the consequences of the activity of 300 million people in the modern world. The money, knowledge, and technology is in place for meaningful change to occur on a large scale, but it is going to require the efforts of many, many, many hardworking people at all levels of society, from the President to the pizza boy.

In my opinion, Obama’s transformational style is superior because he knows that it is more effective to get people to do their jobs correctly and in the spirit of the public good than to try and enforce a command style of power wielding. And transformational leadership at its best is “viral” in the best sense — it is contagious — the virtues and good practices that it can inspire spread all the way up and down the hierarchies of societies. It’s a lesson Plato and Confucius were teaching thousands of years ago with concepts like the rule of philosophers over generals and bureaucrats, and the “moral force” of the people and their leaders preeminent over aggressive force. We have still yet to embrace their wisdom.

There are many reasons to support Obama. For me, from all I can tell from his rhetoric, the endless analyses, the many conversations, my own introspection, and the sorry state of the world right now, Obama is the right step forward toward a more responsible and sustainable way of governing, and one which this world direly needs at this moment in time. Submitted humbly, servant of the populace Jesse

~ by Jesse B on February 11, 2008.