Transformational leaders are good at driving organizational change. They motivate followers to work for idealized goals and go beyond their own self-interest for the sake of the organization. (Penn State). All transformational leaders are charismatic, and as such they have a strong affect on their followers who identify with the leader, they become emotionally involved with the leader’s goal, and gain confidence in the goal’s achievements (Northouse, 2013). President Obama, as a presidential campaigner, acted as a transformational and charismatic leader.
Obama learned how to drive organizational change since early in his career. In the 80’s President Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in the Roseland, a low-rise housing project called Altgeld Gardens where he said that he received the best education he ever had (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/obama-poverty.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). The role of the community organizer is to enable people to gather to advocate and secure the attainment of specific goals. A community organizer has the job of educating its followers. He helps them understand that those problems have an aspect of power, and from this understanding he helps the community to mobilize to achieve change (http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/tcn/valocchi.htm).
By understanding what the job of a community organizer is, we can better understand Obama’s motivations and why he said about his experience working in Reseland and Altgeld Gardens that he “received the best education I ever had” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/obama-poverty.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). The skills Obama acquired as a community organizer helped Obama to organize his campaign as successfully as he did. That experience helped him to organize his followers to volunteer for his campaign. He motivated his leaders to act as change agents (Penn State). We could assume this was a consequence of his strong desire to influence others, his self-confidence and dominance, all personal characteristics of a charismatic leader (Penn State). He emotionally appealed to his followers with a positive attitude through strong speeches. And he motivated voters to share his vision as only a good transformational leader could do (Penn State). And through his work and the work of his followers he achieved success, while his followers felt they did too.
Many describe President Obama as a charismatic leader, considering charisma as a trait. However, he is not only charismatic but also transformational with some defined characteristics. According to the transformational theory, rhetorical and organizational skills, as many behaviors, can be taught and learned (Penn State). As he previously stated, he learned many of those skills. But, President Obama has a strong need for affiliation and a higher need for power (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-personality-analyst/200905/does-president-obama-have-the-motivation-succeed). Perhaps, the reason why he became the leader of the country was because these two underlying qualities or traits drove him to behave the way he did.
People motivated by power need to influence others to direct, guide, reward or punish them. On the other hand, they have a need for affiliation that generates desires to unify people and reach out (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-personality-analyst/200905/does-president-obama-have-the-motivation-succeed) President Obama seems to have all these components. He unified and influenced people across the entire country to work on his campaign, and even reached people from the Republican party (http://www.policymic.com/articles/10088/the-reason-i-will-abandon-the-republican-party-and-vote-for-obama-in-election-2012). He used powerful and influential speeches such as his “A More Perfect Union” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU) to unify people. And he guided his followers to organize and mobilize. The campaign used “20th-century tools for tracking public opinion” (http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/508836/how-obama-used-big-data-to-rally-voters-part-1/) and his followers volunteered all over the country spreading Obama’s message through different kinds of media technology to bring him to success. I met many of his followers, people so motivated to work for idealized goals and go beyond their own self-interest (working long hours for free) for the sake of the organization. Only a great transformational charismatic leader would accomplish success in that manner (Penn State).
Reference:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (5th edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Penn State World Campus (2012). PSYCH 485 Lesson 6: Contingency and Path Theories. Retrieved on August 30, 2012, from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa12/psych485/002/content/10_lesson.html.
AMY N WALSH says
President Obama is a transformational leader. “As its name implies, transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms people”(Northouse 2013 p.185). From the start of his career as a community organizer to the President of the United States, Obama has changed the minds of several people that he was worked with. Barak is a charismatic leader that acts in unique ways that have specific charismatic effects on his followers (Northouse 2013). He has a dominant personality when he needs it, has the strong sense of being able to influence the country, exhibits self-confidence in face of adversity, and portrays his strong sense of moral values.
His speeches are extremely moving. When he first ran for presidency in 2008, I remember him making me feel like I was listening to Martin Luther King Jr. He had the same compassion and determination that made me feel like I was watching history being made. As one of his supporters at the time, it was an extremely influential moment. Wither he learned these skills of being charismatic or wither it is a special gift that he has, it has produced extraordinary things. Charismatic leaders demonstrate certain types of behavior, like being a role model, proving to be competent and articulating goals that have moral overtones (Northouse 2013). President has done this with speeches like his 2009 inaugural address when he took office.
He exhibited confidence in his follower’s ability when he appointed Hillary Clinton as the head of the State department and communicated his high expectations of her and that role. “Throughout American history, there have been moments that call on us to meet the challenges of an uncertain world, and pay whatever price is required to secure our freedom” (www.obamaspeeches.com) When Obama said this he aroused task-relevant motives that influenced people about the affiliation, power, and esteem of the Iraq war. His followers have unquestionable acceptance of him as their leader, have affection towards him, obeyed by his policy’s, identify with what he is trying to convey, and have increased their confidence in obtaining our country’s goals (Northouse 2013). His ability to influence and motivate his supporters to accomplish and produce more than they would on their own proves the success of his transformational leadership.
Reference:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (5th edition).
“The Complete Text Transcripts of Over 100 Barack Obama Speeches.” The Complete Text Transcripts of Over 100 Barack Obama Speeches. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 June 2013.