Barack Obama – a Great Leader

A great leader is the one who sets standards for others and leads by example. He is the one who uses his interpersonal skills to be able to motivate others to act in a certain way in order to achieve specific objectives. Barack Obama is one such leader. The SDI model exhibits that he shows signs of a strong red while he also has certain characteristics that relate to green and yellow.

To begin with, Obama puts in conviction and perseverance in whatever he does, which holds true why he is a fiery red. He believes that if someone has a strong belief that something is right, then you can motivate others and make them do what you want them to do. For instance, his campaign slogan when he contested for elections for the first time was “Change we can believe in”. He was able to inspire others with his commitment in bringing a change and that led him becoming the first ever African American to serve as a president. He was of the opinion that even if many are against us, we can turn the odds in our favor if we truly believe in the change we are seeking. Further, just like a successful leader he was focused and unshakable about anything he had an opinion about. He believes that no change can happen overnight and in order to achieve the objectives we must remain consistent. For example, he stuck to his core values and beliefs when he openly supported same-sex marriage. By showing this trait, he highlighted that there should be justice for everyone and that a true leader stands for the betterment of all. Obama also had another inherent quality of a leader of a risk-taker. During his tenure, he took many foreign policy risks. One of them was when he went beyond the line and carried out an operation to kill Osama Bin Laden, which was against the will of many in power at that time.

There are certain qualities of Obama that correspond to a yellow. A leader cannot be a successful one unless he is a great communicator. In order to be a great communicator, a person has to have good listening, writing and reading skills. Being a good listener is as important as being a good speaker as a good leader respects the opinions of others. Obama has certainly mastered the art of communication as he knows well how to talk to any person or a group irrespective of their age, gender, caste, etc. He can draw up anyone’s attention to his words by his charisma and charm, and his fantastic comedic timing. Another trait professed by Obama was that not only was he was not just compassionate towards the people he worked with on a daily basis but also, he made the citizens feel that they were cared for by his actions. He has always taken decisions that were for the greater good of many, and even if it meant losing support of the influential and wealthy. He also practiced equality as he put emphasis on just one race that was the human race.