India First Edition

Barack Obama, The Best Man for President: Analysis

New Delhi, November 7, 2008: November 2008 has seen one of the most notable moments in world history for all times to come…the election of the first African-American President of United States, Barack Obama. A president today must be an insightful and competent leader on a number of different levels. Political leadership styles that were effective a hundred years ago are no longer adequate in today’s complex world.

InspireOne, the country’s leading people, organization and leadership development firm has Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD UK) as its partner for leadership development. Recognizing that political leadership styles that were effective a hundred years ago are no longer adequate in today’s complex world, CHPD addressed the Obama factor by asking: how do we know whether a particular candidate is likely to be excellent at the job in this kind of environment?

Their analysis highlights the critical thinking skills in Obama and looks at ‘how’ Obama thinks rather than ‘what’ he thinks. Their analysis predicts that Obama will be able to perform to a higher level at times of high ‘VUCAD’ (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and delayed feedback).
The analysis conducted a week before the Presidential Elections, reveals the instinctive characteristics and decision making skills that Obama possessed as a leader in the making.

The three primary levels of thought and action assessed are related to the skills of Differentiation, Integration and Crisis.
Differentiation is the ability to view events from multiple vantage points, to discover multiple underlying motivations or intents by others (including opponents) and to consider alternatives of action to make more appropriate choices. Obama thought process reveals that he proposes multiple and often associated solutions to problems and is able to see multiple interrelated antecedents to the problems.

Integration, which is the ability to form multiple interrelated systematic plans and actions that are optimally sequenced and goal directed. Obama’s actions and intended actions show sequential goal-oriented thought where multiple actions can lead to overall long term goals or where specific actions are used to approach more than one goal.

Also Crisis, which is the ability to think critically and strategically when novel challenges are presented and to respond effectively under conditions of emergency and stress. Obama thoughtfully considers antecedents of events before reacting (often strategically) unless an immediate response is needed in a serious emergency.

Overall in his approaches, he showed competencies in dealing with complex task settings. Obama generates thoughtful action at an appropriate rate. In relation to the VUCAD environment (outlined above) the analysis shows that Obama fairs better even in the most extreme conditions.