Leadership 101: The Obama Way

Barack Obama’s becoming the 44th President of the United States has generated a huge buzz in the papers, on blogs, and on the TV in the past week. There’s the historic significance of his being the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land. There are big questions about whether his foreign and domestic policy agendas will stack up against the daunting challenges of a global recession, multiple war theatres, health care shortcomings and a whole host of other problems.

I’ve been most impressed with how he has decided to lead.

Whether you voted for him or not, he’s been doing something right. On election night he received 53% of the popular vote. Ten weeks later, 83% of the people in a Gallup Poll approved of how he’s handled his transition into the White House. What’s led 30% more people to get on the bandwagon?

I think it’s been “Leadership 101: The Obama Way.”

Here’s a great example of what I’m talking about. As soon as Barack Obama’s hand came off the bible on Inauguration Day, the new Whitehouse.gov website was unveiled. A fellow named Macon Phillips, Director of New Media for the White House, posted the first entry.

He cited three principles that will guide the website and the Administration.

• Communication
• Transparency and
• Participation

They’re clear. They’re smart. Any leader would be wise to use them to guide their decisions and actions.

Communication

Whitehouse.gov has been designed to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. You can even sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions in real time.

Transparency

President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history. All Presidential executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review. They’re even going to have stories about the senior leadership in the new administration so we can get to know them better.

Participation

Citizen participation is serious business in this Administration. They are going to publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, allowing the public to review and comment before the President signs any of them. We’ll have to go to the website, read it and comment…but participation is a two-way street.

Macon wraps up his first blog entry by soliciting other ideas on the sorts of things we would find valuable from the Presidential website? There’s a form included so you can get your oar in the water in designing the site.

President Obama is leading his more than 300 million-person “organization” based on these three principles. What difference do you think they’d make if every leader used these as well?