This past week President Obama finished his first ninety-days in office by attending the Summit of the Americas conference held in the Port of Spain. As the leaders from western Latin American countries, sans Cuba, gathered and greeted for the event, there was a less than heralding reception for President Obama. Latin American leaders such as President Evo Morales of Bolivia and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, spoke of a harsh and grueling politico-economic history between the United States and other Latin American countries in attendance. At the forefront of this criticism was President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. As posted in the San Francisco Chronicle, President Chavez gifted President Obama a copy of, "Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina," or "The Open Veins of Latin America." The work, published in the 1970s, is by Eduardo Galeano, an Uruguayan writer. It discusses the history of European colonization and what Galeano sees as the malign influence of the United States. These hard feelings toward the United States from this part of the world are neither new nor inconsistent.
What was a new break from the past was President Obama's reaction to these passionate and provocative remarks from the Latin American contingent. President Obama, who was presenting the United States as an "equal partner," to the Latin American countries, embraced this reception by attempting to be both self-effacing and genuine. This was especially noticeable when receiving President Chavez's gift of the book detailing 500 years of alleged Latin American oppression. President Obama appeared to receive the book graciously, thanking the giver, opening to a center page and sharing a passage with the person sitting next to him.
President Obama appears to be practicing what I described in my last blog post as an emerging model of leadership appropriate for our present era. With this model leaders choose to look past their impulsive reactions while focusing on the shared long term goals of the larger group or system of which they are a part. As we see in President Obama's reactions to his global colleagues, this model of leadership builds power through giving it away in pursuit of empowering all stakeholders with shared responsibility and autonomy, therefore increasing both motivation and engagement. This model of leadership, quite different from the command-and-control model relied upon throughout history, is more appropriate for mounting the challenges we face in the evolving global environment.
For a host of reasons, I've noticed numerous leaders in both for-profit and Federal environments struggle to make the transition from command-and-control style of leadership to the empowering leadership model. In these cases what is often helpful is for the leader to become acquainted with a new strategic mindset for leading, which will later help them to make the necessary tactical adjustments to their daily practices and decision making. One foundational platform for this new mindset is the theory of Appreciative Inquiry, which is more commonly referred to as AI. AI, which can be applied to a number of core management practices such as strategic planning or performance management, empowers a new inter-organizational dialogue that is centered around building on what works as opposed to fixing what doesn't. As this dialogue evolves, the creative element within an organization, which often is oppressed by the command-and-control model, is enlivened and empowered, therefore enhancing the individual's and/or organization's ability for collaboration and change. Over time, many organizations realize increased innovation and focus by implementing the AI platform.
Organizations such as Southwest Airlines and Google, which seem to embody similar platforms to AI, are a testimony to the heightened results that can be achieved from making the transition away from command-and-control to the empowering leadership model. In my experience as a leader in my field, I've found platforms and models similar to and including AI to be quite helpful in helping command-and-control leaders transition with greater ease to this more relevant and effective leadership style. In my next blog posting, I'll discuss more of these models and platforms.
The empowering leadership model and AI can help leaders increase their effectiveness at working through the new global challenges being faced today. As for President Obama, it appears he is using a similar approach to work through the many challenges that we face as a country...and as an evolving global society. I believe that if he continues to use this approach we may see one of the greatest case-studies for empowering leadership yet.
