Former US President Barack Obama addressed Thursday at an event exploring the parallels between global leadership and commercial acumen. Here’s what he had to say about it.
President Barack Obama spoke at an event in New York City Thursday night hosted by Klick Health, an independent healthcare- and life sciences-focused marketing agency, where he opined on the state of American politics, instilling public trust in science, the benefits and drawbacks of technology, life after the presidency, and his hopes for the future.
The former president also spoke extensively about developing business leadership and positioning firms for success in the face of increasing pressure to engage in social and political debates. Here are five of the most important lessons Obama learnt as president for modern business leaders:
- Maintain laser-like focus on the mission
Obama began his ideas on leadership with a note on the universality of leadership concepts, stating that certain realities apply whether one is operating a business, a basketball team, or a nation. One such fact, he indicated, is the necessity to have a clear objective and stick to it.
Keeping his focus on the purpose was always a priority for him during his presidential campaign and during his presidency, he said. “I believe we accomplished this successfully during the [2008 presidential] campaign.” And we did it successfully – albeit not always as effectively as I would have liked – during my presidency.” Business leaders would do well to start here, he implied. “[Have] a vision about, ‘What’s the mission of the organization? Where are we going?’ That’s the job of the leader,” he said.
- Balance purpose and bottom line
Under increasing consumer pressure, modern corporations increasingly feel compelled to take public positions on contentious social and political topics.
According to Obama, this pressure is “really a return to what used to be” in many aspects. He noted that in the twentieth century, significant organisations were mostly based on geography; major automakers were in Detroit, and publishers were in New York. These organisations were accountable to other members of their communities. “There was a recognition that if you are in charge of a big institution … then you had some stakeholders beyond just your shareholders. I think that was a healthy thing. It meant that a CEO had to think, ‘How is this going to affect my city, how’s this gonna affect my workers? I might be going to church with people, so maybe I’m not smart to lay them off if we have a downturn.’” Now, while communities have become more global and interconnected in nature thanks to digital connectivity and the forces of globalization, people still expect corporate leaders to care for and support the interests of the community at large. “A lot of younger workers are saying, ‘We’re still part of a community … so we expect you to care about gender equity, we expect you to care about race relations, we expect you to care about climate change,’” the former president said. He cautioned, however, against virtue signaling, and stressed the importance of walking the walk rather than simply talking the talk. “Sometimes, I think companies feel pressured to make gestures in part because they haven’t really taken care of these underlying measures internally,” he said. “It’s easier to post, out of your PR shop, some statement about Black Lives Matter than it is to examine your own hiring practices. Are you investing in a diverse workforce, and what has been done to promote people of color into management ranks? Sometimes these gestures become a shortcut. And if you have confidence that you are in fact, doing the right thing in your company, that you’re paying attention to, ‘How does the way we do business align with the values we say we are about?,’ then you don’t have to comment [on the issue], because you have confidence that what you are doing each and every day is an expression of those values.” But he stressed that businesses still have business to attend to; getting bogged down in getting values-based messaging right can’t come at the expense of fulfilling the company’s overarching goals. “I don’t believe that a company should simply be sort of a bulletin board or litmus test or a seminar about global issues – because you’ve got a mission.” Instead, he said, if leaders build a mission-driven organization that prioritizes the values it claims to stand by, the rest will fall into place. “You shouldn’t have to examine what the role of your company is in the world, and in your country and in your community. Your values should align with the things that your employees feel are important. But that doesn’t contradict the notion that if you’re making widgets, you’ve still got to make widgets. I don’t think those things are necessarily contradictory.”
- Prioritize different points of view
According to Obama, inviting diverse voices and opinions to the table is critical to the success of any institution. “I was always a believer in having diversity on my team,” the former president said. “And I don’t simply mean racial or gender diversity – I mean just having people with lots of different points of views.” Of course, tapping into these diverse perspectives isn’t always frictionless; sometimes, it requires frameworks for better facilitation. “One of the things that I learned during my presidency was how important it was to be able to create a process in which you are constantly getting different points of view,” Obama said. “I had to learn … that sometimes even when you’re in the room, there may be barriers to a full exchange of ideas.” For instance, he said, “We had a really powerful women in the White House. But about six months [into my presidency], it was brought to my attention that the men had a bad habit … of talking over women, or a woman makes a suggestion that nobody notices, and then 10 minutes later, the guy says this exact same thing, and somebody says, ‘Jim, that’s a great idea!’” Correcting for these barriers, Obama said, means putting in work to create an equitable environment for all people. “Not only do you need different perspectives in the room – you also have to make sure that you’re constantly creating a culture in which their talents and gifts and skills are being lifted up and encouraged.”
- Maintaining Institute processes
It’s time to start things moving, added Obama, once all the right pieces are in place – an organisation that has coupled mission and competent leadership with a culture of diversity and inclusivity. Putting solid processes in place, he says, is the oil that lubricates the entire machine. And this is especially true when dealing with tough decisions. “There’s an expression that some things roll downhill, [but] in the presidency, things roll uphill. If things were easy to solve, somebody else would have solved them,” Obama said. “I’ve often said that the decisions I had to make as president – whether it’s saving General Motors or making a decision to order a raid on where we think bin Laden is – those decisions typically were not 100% sure. I was constantly dealing with probabilities,” Obama said. Luckily, he found that a well-established process helped to mitigate risks and lead the group to the best possible outcomes. “I set up a process in which I knew I had excellent people, that they were all focused on mission – not ego – and that everybody was expected to engage aggressively with each other and challenge each other’s assumptions, but do it in a way that was focused on results,” Obama said. “And even if I couldn’t be sure that we had the right answer, I could be sure that we had … the best process to arrive at the right answer. And we might have to live with things not working out, but I slept easy at night knowing nobody could have made a better decision than the group that I gathered together.”
- Surround yourself with smarter people than you.
Rarely does a single leader possess the breadth of experience required to make every decision correctly. As a result, Obama stated, it is critical to secure professionals from across the board who can collaborate to support leadership and flesh out robust policies that address a wide range of issues. “Surrounding yourself with great people, and not being afraid to have people who are smarter than you as part of your team,” is critical, he said. He warned against thinking that “you’re the only authority or font of information,” instead encouraging leaders to embrace the intelligence and perspectives of others. “You will benefit from having excellence and people who can teach you things. That worked well for me. Setting a culture that insists on mutual respect and a sense of mission is more important than ego.”