Research Paper on Leadership: The Key to Lasting Success in Institutions

Introduction

Since time immemorial, success in States, public or private institutions have, to a large part, been attributed to effective leadership. For instance, the Americans' triumphed during the Revolutionary War largely due to George Washington's resilience and astuteness a leader. Following the aftermath of World War II, Harry Truman's decisiveness and influence across Western Europe was crucial in resolving post-war issues that were affecting Americans. From these examples, one can deduce that an effective leader possesses qualities such as decisiveness, shrewdness, influence over others and resilience. These qualities, arguably, correlate with leadership styles such as participative and autocratic. While leadership qualities may be inherent, leadership styles are mostly shaped by circumstances. To better understand this view, this essay explores Barack Obama's leadership as the Senator from Illinois and the President of the US focusing on his use of leadership theories, styles, power and influence, and effectiveness in both leadership positions.

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Leadership Theories, Styles, and Power and Influence

Leadership Theories

Senator from Illinois

Born in Hawaii to an African American father and White mother, Obama's leadership path started in 1991 at Harvard Law School when he was elected as the head of the Harvard Law Review. This platform later steered him into the Illinois State Senate between 1997 and 2004, and the US Senate between 2004 and 2008 ("U.S. Senate: Barack Obama", n.d.). Taking into account Obama's term in both the State Senate and the US Senate, Obama can be viewed as a transactional leader.

Obama was elected in the Illinois Senate following the decision by Alice Palmer, his district's state senator, to contest in the Congress elections. His path to the Illinois Senate was rough since he had to challenge the legitimacy of Palmer's petition after she lost the congressional vote. Even after getting elected, Obama's rough leadership path continued due to hostility from the Republicans, who controlled most of the senate's proceedings. During this time, Obama had to play hardball tactics to quell the Republicans' tyranny even though his Democratic colleagues opposed this approach. Later on, however, Obama adjusted and developed cordial relationships with the Republican and Democrats congresspersons. He also nurtured one of his Democratic leaders as a mentor.

This strategy is consistent with the transactional leadership theory. McCleskey (2014) purports that transactional leadership occurs where a leader seeks obedience from his subordinates and, without changing institutional structures, emphasizes the improvement of efficiency by all stakeholders. Ultimately, the transactional leader allows his followers to accomplish their interests, reduce anxiety among them and focus on attaining the set objectives. By being steadfast at first, the Republicans respected Obama and he was able to contain their power. However, he was later on tasked with enacting crime legislation and finance reforms, and passing several bills meant to help the underprivileged, labor unions and children. Accomplishing these tasks required consultations with all senate members thereby prompting him to become accommodative and supportive.

As the Senator for Illinois in the US Senate between 2004 and 2008, Obama continued employing transactional leadership. McCleskey (2014) maintains that transactional leaders strive to realize performance objectives by promoting synergy and motivating their teams. Following his election in the US Senate, Obama's motives to synergize all ethnicities in America were clear in the way he affirmed the existence of a United States of America as opposed to a Hispanic, Asian, White or Black America. Eventually, he managed to instill hope and harmony among all Americans and across the liberal and conservative political fronts.

President of the United States

As opposed to the transactional leadership that Obama showed in the Senate, he transitioned to a transformational leader during his presidency. He faced less opposition from Republicans and defiant Democrats compared to his term in the Senate. Moreover, Americans needed amendments, in various statutes and foreign policies as well as a solution to the 2008 economic crisis. Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 was propelled by the slogans "Yes we Can" and "Change we Believe in". He persuaded the youth to volunteer in this campaign where they pushed for the "Change" movement across the US and globally (Elkatawneh, 2016). While in office, President Obama focused on restructuring national and foreign affairs and reforming the US electoral laws. America's diplomatic relations had faltered significantly during Bush's leadership. Obama, therefore, also had to restore America's image, especially among Arabs and East Asians who were aggrieved by Bush's administration. He accomplished these tasks mainly through developing amicable relations with Americans and foreigners.

McCleskey (2014) acknowledges that transformational leadership is about creating awareness among followers on the essence of desired outcomes and how to achieve them. To this end, one key tool that the transformational leader utilizes is an idealized influence, where followers admire his leadership attributes while he impresses them by epitomizing those attributes. Americans and people across the world admired Obama's charisma and liberal gestures, which were the reasons why he was able to attract, cultivate relationships and influence multitudes, and invoke moral principles in them such as humanity, integrity, equality and freedom. Eventually, by persuading people to embrace his ideas, Obama instigated and impelled the changes mentioned above for Americans and the world.

Leadership Styles

Senator from Illinois

At the beginning of his term in the Senate, Obama employed an autocratic approach owing to the hostility by Republican legislators and Democrats who criticized the nature of his election and viewed him as a junior senator. Holding meaningful consultations was quite difficult since Republicans, who underestimated his leadership abilities, formed the majority group in the Senate. This situation was bound to frustrate Obama's senatorial role. He, thus, had to adapt by being uncompromising and firm in decision-making. With time, however, he developed close connections with the Republicans and rebellious Democrats. These connections significantly lowered the level of opposition that he faced afterwards. Therefore, he switched to a participative approach that suited the accomplishment of tasks assigned to him in senatorial committees.

For example, at the beginning of 2005, Obama was tasked with improving foreign relations, the state of public works and environmental integrity. For this reason, he focused on building government transparency, nuclear nonproliferation, energy conservation, veterans' welfare and petitioning for ethics reforms. These assignments required input from all legislators thereby prompting him to employ a participative method.

President of the United States

Compared to the Senate, the presidential role posed a bigger challenge for Obama. On one hand, Elkatawneh (2016) acknowledges that the US is known for its decentralized governance structures, which imply that more people have to be involved in making decisions. Besides, decision-making was not any easier for Obama since Congress often opposed his propositions. Secondly, his presidency was plagued by considerable security, affordable health, economic issues, crises, heightened anxiety and overlapping domestic and foreign changes. Addressing these challenges required making swift decisions even though most of them were unpopular across the political divides.

For instance, before Obama's presidency, reforming healthcare laws was a difficult undertaking in the US owing to opposition from interest groups, insurance companies and the American Medical Association. Furthermore, the political arena was significantly polarized making the passing of healthcare bills extremely difficult. To enact crucial healthcare legislation, Obama had to be autocratic by neutralizing fierce opposition from political parties and the above institutions (Oberlander, 2010). He remained resolute in rallying Democrats to vote for the bill even though the Republicans and interest groups felt that their criticism of the bill warranted much consideration. Ultimately, the affordable healthcare bill passed making it one of the noteworthy achievements of Obama's presidency.

Power and Influence

Senator from Illinois

While in the Senate, Obama was known for his ruthlessness, especially when dealing with rebellious Democrats and the Republicans. Some Democrats disapproved Obama's hardnosed method that he used to get into the US Senate and petition the amendment of electoral laws. Moreover, Republicans controlled most of senatorial affairs (Nelson, 2019). Obama, therefore, exerted coercive powers to assert his leadership and enable him to tackle crucial economic, healthcare, environmental, public works and statutory issues. DuBrin (2013), however, argues that leaders who use coercive powers can achieve mixed results. In as much as coercing followers to comply with one's stance may motivate them to work towards achieving organizational objectives, they may become aggrieved and plot to oust the leader from power. Thus, knowing that his coercive tactics would prompt defiant Democrats and Republicans to conspire against him, Obama would later adopt a discreet and harmonious approach to lobby members from both political parties to endorse his ideas.

President

During his presidency, Obama resorted to the use of referent powers. DuBrin (2013) defines referent power as the desirable qualities that enable a leader to influence his team. Obama's main referent power was his charisma. Leanne (2009) notes the words of Pat Robertson, an evangelical leader, who admired Obama's charisma and acumen and claimed that these traits would be crucial in uniting Americans. Moreover, local dailies such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times regarded him as an exceptional, charismatic and magnetic leader whose leadership potential was unmatched. This reverence played a critical role in rallying the support of Americans and foreigners as he strived to address economic, housing, healthcare and education challenges domestically, and commercial, security and environmental issues globally.

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Leader's Behavior in each Role

Senator from Illinois

Before evaluating Obama's leadership, it is prudent to understand the contingency theory, which is a vital tool that provides a conceptual framework to underpin the evaluation. This theory maintains that the best leadership approach depends on the context upon which a leader is working. In this line, leaders care considered to be most effective when their actions are dictated by prevailing circumstances such as follower characteristics (DuBrin, 2013). For instance, if the followers are professionals, their leader would most likely employ a consensus approach. However, if the followers are defiant and unethical, their leader will tend to be autocratic. Therefore, the most effective leaders are flexible in their approach to handling varying organizational situations. With that in mind, Obama's leadership will be evaluated in the context of tasks, follower characteristics and organizational goals.

In the context of tasks, Obama was, arguably, a task-motivated leader since he played hardball tactics with the Republicans and rebellious Democrats. Fiedler's contingency theory maintains that task-motivated leaders work most effectively when they...