Major Psychological Foundations Affecting Your Chosen Leader

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Major psychological foundations affecting your chosen leader
Introduction
Leadership entails having a certain goal and influencing others towards achieving that goal. Successful leadership therefore, simply entails the efficiency in exacting this influence on people or followers. There are various traits that successful leaders possess. However, there isn’t really one particular one that stands out as the main trait. There is no special formula for effective leadership. Instead, a blend of these traits is what helps determine a successful leader. Society is usually good at identifying bad leaders but how are good leaders identified? Through leadership models, the specific behaviors and traits of a good leader can be described. Therefore, using leadership models, it is easy to establish how every leader will behave in a particular environment. In the case of Obama, the trait-based leadership model and situational leadership model exemplify his flexibility and ability to inspire others. Therefore, using these two leadership models, this essay aims at describing the psychological foundations that affect Obama as a leader.
Fundamental leadership traits of Obama
By becoming the 44th president of the United States, Obama sent a strong message to the people around the world that they too can achieve their dreams. According to Wattenberg (2015), Obama’s campaign of 2008 inspired so many young people to get involved in politics that the age of youth apathy is now a remnant of the past. His usage of the slogan ‘yes we can,’ has been quite an encouragement for millions, that they can also do it and achieve their dreams in their own small ways. He has continued to inspire people through lectures in colleges and universities globally. In addition, Obama’s high degree of flexibility has enabled him to successfully maneuver the harsh political landscape. Perhaps one of his key strengths was and still is, his strong mental and emotional ability.
He has gone through a lot of things in his effort to rise to the top office in the U.S. There have been various questions about his descent and color, which automatically resulted in some racial connotations. Additionally, he has had to endure some open criticism about his parenting. He managed to take all this in and still remain as determined as always. Among other challenges, Obama has been tested to the extent of people questioning the validity of his birth certificate in public. Nevertheless, while handling each challenge, Obama always portrays a different dimension of his perso...