When President Obama was voted into office some years ago, two things went through my head and heart.
First, I was proud. Proud that a black man has finally become President of the United States of America.
I was also apprehensive. Apprehensive of how he would lead. Of the image he will create of leadership by a people who have been considered less and treated as such.
I took a look at his wife giving that now famous speech at the DNC in 2008 and I wondered how they, as a couple, will influence both America and the world.
Fast forward 8 years, and I was still proud. Even prouder.
Proud of the man Obama has shown to the world.
Proud of the father he showed the world.
Proud of the husband he showed the world.
And, proud of the leader the world has seen.
There might have been some wrong choices he made, but that also showed his humanity. A good majority of the world’s population and I have watched him lead. We have seen him have fun, play and goof around whether with kids, or the man he met on the street, or in the cafeteria.
Watching him over the years, I sensed that Obama was the kind of leader who could keep his head when others were losing theirs. I sensed he was the kind of leader who could handle people blaming him for things he had little or no control over. From the 2008 financial crisis and on to the hard, lasting words he spoke at the memorial service held for the slain police officers in Dallas.
When Obama strutted into the race to the white house, a lot of people didn’t know, in fact, they could not have predicted that he would win that race. Tenacious, strong, witty, confident and oh so full of charm, and poise, he did win that as well as so many other challenges. He has overcome so many hurdles and difficulties since then.
I am sure he also had his fair share of losing, while in office and after. But he and his wife successfully showed up a face to leadership that seemed relatable.
The world watched his every move. People everywhere wondered how someone so young, so black and so new to the impossible task of living round-the-clock under the glare and scrutiny of the entire world, would hold up as a man, a husband, a father and as a leader.
In many circles, especially if you’re black or a woman, it is said that you had to be twice as good to succeed. And no matter what you think of Obama the President, it’s hard to argue that Obama the human being has been anything less than a model of class and dignity. You will agree with me that Obama’s personal behaviour has set a standard few presidents of the United States have ever reached.
You see him singing happy birthday to his daughter Malia, on the day she turned 18, or coaching his daughter Sasha at hoops, and you see his ambition, still, to be “the father I never had.”
You see him teasing, bantering or dancing with his wife of nearly a quarter-century. And while no outsider can know what goes on inside another’s marriage, you can’t help feeling some of the joy of that union. They still finish each other’s sentences.
It’s only fair to give him his due as a person, his high grade for character, for being scandal-free in his private life.
And I strongly believe that those who praise Obama as a model father or husband for the black family do him a disservice. He’s a model, without asterisk for race. It is not about the race. It goes beyond the colour of his skin. It is about our collective humanity. And whatever your sentiments to any race or group of people are, I am hoping that you can lay it aside and look at that which we all do have in common; our humanity.
It’s a hard thing to go nearly eight years as the most powerful man in the world without diminishing the office or alienating your family. He’s done that, and added a dash of style and humour and a pitch-perfect sense for being consoler in chief.
As we saw during the memorial service, when he took that deep breath, and begged America and indeed the whole world not to let hearts turn to stone when the world is a quarry of hate, Obama was a kind of leader who is at his best when the most people are struggling at their worst.
The world will long remember him singing “Amazing Grace” at that service for people slaughtered in Charleston church, their deaths a hate crime. And we may well remember him trying to wring something teachable from the ambush of police officers; their deaths also a hate crime.
“All of us, we make mistakes,” he said. “And at times we are lost. And as we get older, we learn we don’t always have control of things — not even a president does. But we do have control over how we respond to the world. We do have control over how we treat one another.”
This for me summarises a few of the things that makes Obama an admirable leader, whether you agreed with his policies or not.
He was human. And no matter what he did, he showed the world that his thoughts were humanity.
Historical comparisons will be kind to him.
You respect John F. Kennedy for his flair and wit, but wince at how he hurt his wife through numerous affairs.
You admire Lyndon B. Johnson for his courage in civil rights, but are appalled at how bathroom-level bawdy he was in private.
You appreciate Ronald Reagan for his charm and friendships across the aisle, but can’t ignore how dysfunctional his family was.
Under Richard Nixon, the White House was a crime scene.
Under Bill Clinton, it was a place of monumental self-indulgence.
Obama is, till today, the only president to have his Americanism challenged, his roots and heritage questioned. He is the only president to be heckled with “You lie!” before a joint session of Congress. And during and after his years in the White House, the smears kept coming.
Fox News flashed pictures of a young Obama attending his African half brother’s wedding in Muslim garb — proof, Bill O’Reilly said, of the president’s “deep emotional ties to Islam.”
For Obama, holding it together as a person has only occasionally translated to political triumph. There has been many areas where he has shown us his vulnerability. He has shed more than a few tears. Acknowledged mistakes and failures.
But, it must be said that the first African-American president left office at a moment when more than two-thirds of Americans think race relations are bad — a sharp increase from the dawn of his presidency. He acknowledged some of this failure in Dallas, with that same seamless panache he is known for.
“Now, I’m not naïve,” he said. “I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been.”
We know that as leaders, managing change is tough. We know how difficult it could be to navigate during times of crisis or turbulence. And while we know that talking to people is necessary as a leaders, Obama reminded us again that words alone mean nothing.
On eleven occasions — Newtown, Tucson, Charleston, Dallas, among the venues of despair — he’s tried to summon words to heal a wound. If the words have sometimes failed him and us, the man, in his personal behavior, has not.
As we review leadership and change Management, it is important to look at leaders who have led the world through changes or crisis, of any kind. It is important to identify patterns as you define yours.
#TME
