Leadership Lessons of Barack Obama

In this posting, I am going to share some leadership lessons I have learned from Barack Obama. If you have read my other postings to this blog, you no doubt have noticed that I do not consider Barak Obama a great leader. So why would I write a posting touting leadership lessons I have learned. The answer is simple, we can learn from someone else’s accomplishments as well as their mistakes.

The first lesson I have learned is that leaders must be decisive. The generals in charge of the war in Afghanistan have requested additional troops but the President has not made a decision yet. While he is acting indecisively in making this decision, the enemy is killing and injuring our troops. The lesson learned here is that in life and death situations, leaders must be decisive.

Another lesson I have learned from Barack Obama is that leaders cannot do everything themselves but they are responsible for everything. They, therefore, must be careful to surround themselves with competent people. When leaders fail to do this they can quickly find themselves involved in a scandal that is not their doing. Since the leader is responsible for the actions of their subordinates, they may incur some legal liability. However, even if the leader escapes any legal liability, his or her involvement will be an embarrassment causing the constituents to loose faith in the judgment of their leader.

When President Obama began selecting his cabinet, they failed to thoroughly vet people and appointed individuals with questionable backgrounds and even tax delinquencies. For example, Tim Geithner, Obama’s selection for Treasury Secretary owed back taxes for work he performed as a contractor. There is no withholding of taxes for contract labor so it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to report it as income on their tax return and pay the appropriate amount of tax.

Mr. Geithner claimed he was not aware he was required to report this as income and that it was just an oversight. However, when he was hired for this position, he was informed in writing of his responsibility to report it as income. Since Mr. Geithner will have oversight of the Internal Revenue Service, this became an embarrassing situation for the President and caused his constituents to begin doubting his judgment.

However, the most valuable lesson I have learned from President Obama is the importance of being honest. The administration has claimed to save and create thousands of jobs through the stimulus program. They even published information about these jobs on the website www.recovery.gov. An example of the information on the website claimed to have created jobs in the 15th congressional district of Arizona.

I live in Arizona and know that there are only eight congressional districts in Arizona so I want to know the name of the representative for the 15th district. This is only one of many examples of jobs created in fictitious congressional districts. The administration claims that this was an error and even if it was it raises doubts as to validity of the information this administration gives to the public.

I want to encourage voters to assess candidates for their abilities as a leader. It is our responsibility as voters to select leaders who are decisive, use good judgment in selecting their subordinates, and are honest with the public. President Obama has failed in these three areas thus far. Either he now has to improve in these areas or the voters will need to replace him in the next election.