Obama’s Yes We Can… Just a Slogan or Signal of Authenticity

We live in an era of synicism and skeptics. Our country seems to be drifting or crumbling. Then along comes Obama. Bright, articulate,  successful, and the embodiment of the All-American Horatio Alger story… He needs to brand himself and needs a vision and tag-line to sell himself to the American political pundits and the public at large. Write a couple of books… Focus on –Hope. Change. Yes We Can. What does this all mean? It means that a new leadership style and approach is coming next Tuesday. I think what we will see is more pragmatism and evidence based action and a push for results. It will be driven by a more authentic and open leadership style identified in Blake and Mouton’s model of Leadership, called Managerial Grid as a Team-Leader  ( leader is both concerned about and considerate of people and is also task focus).  Being authentic and open is at the heart of the Obama Leadership Effect that I have being blogging about.What authenticity means was well described by the well-known psychologist, Karen Horney, who defined being one’s authentic self as “wholeheartedness”

—”the ability to be without pretense, to be emotionally sincere, be able to put the whole of oneself into one’s feelings, one’s work, one’s beliefs.”  As far as openness I recently heard a Republican Senator say ” I have spoken more with Obama in the last two weeks than I did in eight years with Bush”.  Maybe the critical factor to Yes We Can leadership is going to be two-way communication and listening. Soon we will know.