Obama the Sovereign

The President's European trip provides a case study on his leadership style, which is about inspiration

By Nikos Mourkogiannis

In the wake of President Barack Obama's recent trip to Europe, many people have been left wondering what the new idea was. Some are looking for a new coalition that will extend change beyond the U.S. Others would have liked to see results.

They are all missing the point. His métier is neither new thinking nor the exercise of influence nor the use of power. He is in the business of inspiration. It defines his approach to leadership and speaks to the kind of leadership campaign at which he is a master.

For some time now, I have found that by applying the Jungian framework of four ideal characters as presented by Robert Moore, I could create a useful topology of leaders. Some leaders are recorded by history as magicians, for they tried to change the world by the brilliance of their ideas. (Henry Kissinger was a magician, although Richard Nixon was the originator of the key ideas of the era.) Lovers know how to mobilize people by just sharing their feelings and influencing them. Bill Clinton was second to none at that. A third category of leaders are warriors, always focused on exercising power and winning, like George W. Bush. However, there is another kind of leader: the sovereign. Like Obama, sovereigns are in the business of inspiration.

Redefining What Is Possible

Inspiration is the breathing of new air; it is about redefining what is possible. It stimulates both the heart and the mind, but it appeals to the soul. In the past 20 years, inspiration has been on the retreat in the West both in practice and in leadership literature. For several reasons, people have been enamored of the other three elements of leadership: thinking, motivation, and empowerment—often referred to as execution.

Yet, most collective action is the result of inspiration. Just ponder these questions: How would the U.S. have evolved without Lincoln; India without Gandhi; Africa without Mandela? When it comes to leadership, inspiration is more important than thinking, mobilization, or empowerment, although it is one of four components of what I call the TIME framework of leadership.

Each of these components corresponds to a different "campaign," a sequence of actions a leader undertakes to bring about collective action. Magicians are greatly skilled in leading "thinking" campaigns; lovers are naturals for "mobilization" campaigns; warriors for "empowerment"—including disempowerment—campaigns. And sovereigns like Obama excel in "inspirational" campaigns. In fact, I believe Obama`s recent trip to Europe provides a good case study of the do's and don'ts of such a campaign.

Obama inspired by actively listening, acknowledging, relating, confronting, setting boundaries, and defining an inescapable future—and in that sequence. He did not favor the new at the expense of the old; he did not favor friends at the expense of others; he was more concerned with impact than results. Obama impressed by listening to the arguments and demonstrating how much he knew of the issues on the agenda and how interested he was in understanding them. He solicited reactions to counterarguments that he offered and also took personal notes.

Understanding Others' Positions

Unlike Clinton, President Obama did not seek to relate mainly by warmth of personality and a sense of humor, but rather by his ability to understand the position of others. Several times, especially when talking either to audiences of younger people or in Turkey (a country with a Muslim majority), he used his personal story as the reason they should trust him. In doing so, he demonstrated that he knows that what sovereigns need most is trust and that the best shortcut to trust is the public admission of joint vulnerabilities. At no point did he apologize for American actions, but he did rely on the power of acknowledging mistakes—like starting the war in Iraq and starting the financial bubble—to create momentum for his campaign.

Business Exchange

Track and share business topics across the Web.