On this President's day, I thought I would share the most common trait I can find that former Presidents have had in leadership. Of course, this isn't really groundbreaking, so I don't think that I am going to share something that you wouldn't be able to guess, but I believe that all Presidents have had a VISION for the future of this country that, obviously, enough of the public bought into to get him elected into the greatest and most powerful position in the world. Now, not everyone has had a great vision, or one that they were able to pull off. In fact, most often the President has failed to fulfill their vision of the future for our country. Why is that? Why is it that a person has all this momentum, gets elected, gets into the White House and then BAM, nothing? One could certainly argue there has been no greater stoppage of momentum than the recent example of President Obama. Now, the purpose of this blog is not politics, so I am not pushing my political agenda here. However, even the democrats and others that have voted for him have admitted to being disappointed with the results so far. Why is that? Where did it go wrong?
1) He bit off more than he could chew. Sure, he had a big job ahead of him and he had an incredibly ambitious agenda. However, as many successful leaders will tell you, especially when a large part of your agenda depends on others (such as Congress), one way to keep the momentum going and get your agenda accomplished is to take small bites. Granted, national healthcare is difficult to do in small bites, but it took the greater part in two years and arguably caused the greatest voter revolt in at least the last 30 years. Perhaps if he had fulfilled some of the smaller campaign promises he had made first the public at least would have stayed behind him because they could see he was making progress.
Traitt
2) You must play nicely with others. When he came into power Congress was also heavily democratic and I believe there was a general consensus that democrats did not have to play nicely with the Republicans. This obviously proved to not be true and while Republicans were in the minority, they were still able to put enough pressure on everyone else to make noise in the media.
3) You still have to remember who you are working for. Whether you are the leader of a Fortune 500 company or the leader of the free world, you have a boss. Whether they are constituents or shareholders, someone is watching and if you aren't careful, you will get called to the carpet.
Can President Obama save his presidency in the next two years and get reelected? Yes, I believe he probably can. You have to give him credit for his ability to speak to the people and his outreach on social media. Plus, I am not sure at this time anyway that the Republican party has someone strong enough and charismatic enough to pull off an upset. However, to do it, he is going to have to make some big changes and prove to those that voted for him that it wasn't an accident.
What Common Trait Do Former Presidents Share in Leadership? Traitt
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