Obama. Wow. And one thing about work.
I was in the process of setting up Dora the Explorer for my four-year-old so that I could make breakfast. But when Yahoo popped up on the screen, I paused. Then I said, “Look. There’s President Obama. He won a big award.”
My son said, “For what?” Then he pointed to an advertisement for Target — a boxing glove that punches images of the flu. He said, “Did Obama win for killing that stuff?”
I saw a teaching moment. I tried to think of something good. I said, “He won for being nice to people and reminding us all to be nice every day.”
The Nobel Prize Committee said something interesting about Obama’s award: “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”
And this, I think, is what good leaders do. They help us a see a future that we like, that we’re a part of, and that we can help create. In the case of Obama, his combination of strong values and intellect and charisma are mesmorizing to watch. And to me, his lack of BS in politics is almost as revolutionary as his skin color in politics. I love the whole package, and he makes me proud to be a US citizen.
I feel a similar way, on a smaller scale, with the new CEO of Brazen Careerist, Ed Barrientos. I spent almost a year convincing him to love the company and then to be CEO of the company. There were other people who had offered to take the job. But I wanted this guy because he inspires each of us at the company to be our best selves. That’s what leaders should do.
Sure, it’s early for Obama to win the prize, but it’s an acknowledgement that people are already stepping up and acting differently because Obama has set the stage for people to be their best selves.
Very few of us feel that we can pick our country, but we can each pick our company. Companies with leaders who put people, the planet and profits on equal footing are companies that are most likely to give you that same feeling of pride that we feel today. When you choose your job, you choose your leaders. Today’s Nobel Peace Prize award is a reminder to us that good leadership inspires everyone to be good. Find that in your career.
Hat tip: Melissa Mansfield
Obamanomics is bad news for American entrepreneurs: http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0303jm.html
If you return as a political blogger, try to be objective.
Maybe it’s me, but I think that the real performers in life don’t need to be ‘led’ or ‘inspired’ by a figurehead.
I understand the cult of Obama. He’s physically attractive, has a deep mellifluous voice, and has the practiced ability to deliver a pre-written speech very well. But, to me, his popularity explains what is wrong with much of the self-identified intelligentsia today. They value style over substance. Even worse, they excuse shortcomings in Obama that they would never excuse in, say, a Sarah Palin or a George Bush.
Obama has executed a brilliant plan to become president, and was and remains a great candidate. He is failing as an executive. The man can’t make a tough decision to save his life, and that is the key quality of a leader. Can’t decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or pull everyone out. Can’t decide whether to close Gitmo down or keep it open. Can’t decide if we should have a public option on healthcare, or not. Can’t decide whether we should raise taxes on the middle class or not… so let’s call them “fees” instead of taxes and that will make it okay.
If Obama is such a great leader then why can’t he get anything through a Democrat-controlled Congress with veto-proof majorities in both houses? If he’s such a great leader, then why did the Russians stiff us on Iranian sanctions even after we unilaterally gave up on our missile defense sites in Europe? If he’s such a great leader then why has he totally alienated the political leadership of both the UK and France? Dude, when the French president berates you for not showing enough resolve….
I think Obama never expected to win the presidency, and that his run was preparation for the real effort in 2012 or 2016. No one was more surprised than he when Hillary’s campaign crashed and burned like the Hindenburg. Unfortunately for America the Obama presidency is crashing and burning. If he would get over himself and stop being so arrogant he’d go a lot further. It certainly worked for Bill Clinton after the ’94 elections.
Penelope, I love your blog. But beware of charisma!! Remember, Hitler had charisma, too. All Obama did was campaign on vague promises of “hope” and “change we can believe in”. People just projected whatever they wanted to onto those vague slogans.
Too funny. Right-wingers still think they’re making a good point when they compare Obama to Hitler. They must not realize how crazy they appear to be.
“Beware of charisma.” Oh yeah. That makes sense. (rolling my eyes)
Our latest pro-war president who hasn’t kept his promise in getting out of Iraq, who’s increasing the war in Afghanistan, who failed to keep his promise on closing Guantanamo bay, who hasn’t ended torture, who’s been bombing Pakistan since his second day in office, who’s begun mlitary operations in Somolia, and has don’t little to assuage real peace-lovers’ fear of war in Iran — he wins a “peace” prize? Huh?
This is obviously about Nobel’s agenda to promote internationalism, and people’s tendency to want to feel good about someone in leadership after the bad taste left in most people’s mouth from the last president, but the reality is he’s not been much different so far.
In fact, his feel-good persona seems to have actually done more harm than good: where did the screaming anti-war left go? All the sudden war is good and justified? What changed?
Bring the troops home!!
Not many people like Obama. That’s make me think how the next president? What kind of leader do we really like?