Here are two more ideas that organizations can and should borrow from Obama’s example:
A. Inspirational leadership. When was the last time that you experienced goose bumps when thinking about your organization’s mission or the people who lead it? By powerfully defining aspirations, Obama has created goose-bump experiences for tens of millions of people of all backgrounds. These experiences then mobilized people to want to work jointly and with passion toward those aspirations, with all the hard work entailed in this endeavour. In organizations, creating the types of leadership that can show the way and mobilize people from within is key to success on all fronts.
B. True Collaboration. Obama did not invent true collaboration. In fact, in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has also been noted for his productive work with political and other adversaries. However, in many organizations collaboration is hindered by a `silo’ approach. These silos may follow formal organizational boundaries (Marketing staff compete with Sales, for example) or construct themselves along informal lines. The challenge for `silo’ organizations is to inspire people to collaborate both vertically and horizontally in ways that transcend differences in status, work-group, expertise, age and background.
It’s not easy, if course, to implement the five principles I’ve discussed. But if Obama could rally people world-wide, there really should be nothing to stop you from doing the same within your organization, should there?
