EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The main idea of this assignment is to highlight on the leadership qualities of two well
known personalities: Barack Hussein Obama and George W. Bush.

At the beginning was with an introduction, which showed the definition of leadership
attached with a short analysis about goals kinds in terms to be good or bad, or to be
personal or for people. Then has been mentioned the importance of leadership and how
its influencing to achieve objectives and goals. Ultimately finished by answer the
question: it could be learned or not?

Then second topic was about the background of these personalities, started by Obama’s
biography, which includes his social, educational and occupational life. Then has been
showed the biography of Bush, which also includes his social, educational and
occupational life.

Third topic was about literature survey, which includes the main eight theories of
leadership: Great Man, Trait, Contingency, Situational, Behavioral, Participative,
Management and Relationship theories. In addition to a short explanation for every
theory.

Forth and fifth topics were comprehensive show on leadership qualities for these
personalities. It showed the similar and the different qualities for both of them, in
addition to compare between them about what qualities are featured for every one of
them. The similar qualities are achievement, choose good people, integrity and
confidence.

Last point was about a reasoned analysis and approach for the personalities, it started by
mentioning the definition of the leadership and analyzed it, then tried to find the elements
of the definition in the personalities. In other word, according to the definition are they
successful leadership or not? And from the analysis for the personalities I highlighted on
weaknesses points of the personalities and how could be fixed.

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CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION 2
BACKGROUND OF THE PERSONALITIES 6
LITERATURE SURVEY 8
LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF THE PERSONALITIES 10
COMPARE AND CONTRAST 14
REASONED ANALYSIS AND APPROACH 16
CONCLUSION 18
REFERENCES 19

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INTRODUCTION:

Definition of leadership: is the ability to move people toward the goal.

Goal or objective is an essential element in the leadership, a leader which has no goal, he
is not a leader.

Goal might be good or bad, there are leaders have bad goals and people follow
him to achieve this goal. Hitler was a brilliant leader and had a lot of followers, but his
goals, as many know were bad. While on the other side there are leaders with good goals
and people also follow them to achieve these goals, for example, known leader which has
good goals, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, because of his skilled
leadership, Malaysia became a well known country and a lot of people wishing to visit
Malaysia due to the efforts of this leader.

Goals which leader seeks to it might be a personal goal of his own or might be
overall goal of him and his followers. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, was
aimed at the development of Singapore and Singaporeans to be developed people. While
on the other side there are the heads of some countries who were originally the heads of
the army, leading the country by military way and for personal goals.

Importance of leadership:

Most important problems of nations and civilizations in 4 major problems:

 Deficits and delays from other civilizations.

 The lack of effectiveness and weak achievements.
 Thought.
 Leadership.

If we look deeply, we find that if there is a good leadership, all problems will be solved.
Leader can solve the problem of underdevelopment and inefficiency and the problem of
thought.
The leader can be like the head of a pyramid in any organizational structure, if the top of
the pyramid reformer of the problems and move people to the goal, it is the successful
and effective leader. Leadership has become the most important criteria of modern
human resources, and become more factor which organizations are looking for in its staff,
especially those who are responsible. It has become a conviction and awareness of the
organizations that leadership is helping to achieve goals.

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Is leadership fungal or could be learned?

The theory of the bell distribution:

2% of people are leaders by nature. This means that they have leadership qualities while
they were still young, and in the future do not need to gain leadership skills. This kind of
people can exercise leadership with ease and without making any effort to apply them in
their life.

2% of people are not leaders by nature. This kind of people cannot exercise leadership in
any area of life, so that some of them cannot even lead his children. They cannot exercise
the leadership and even if they received all kinds of training in leadership skills.

Remains 96% of people, all those are not leaders by nature but can become leaders if they
received the necessary training in leadership skills. This means that making leadership is
possible and effective results if there is a good caring for people of this ratio and
especially the youth of them.

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BACKGROUND OF PERSONALITIES:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA:

Is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to
hold the office. Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from
Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in
November 2008.

Originally from Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community
organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney
in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from
1992 to 2004.

Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an
unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he ran for
United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the
campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary and his prime-
time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He
won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in
February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential
primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008
general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as
president on January 20, 2009.

As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009. The U.S. economy has grown for the
past two successive fiscal quarters after several quarters of a severe economic recession,
although unemployment remains high. On October 8, 2009, Obama was named the 2009
Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In March 2010, Obama signed the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act into law, the first comprehensive health care reform legislation in
decades.1

1
Wikipedia.org/barack_obama

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GEORGE W. BUSH:

Served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th
Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

Bush is the eldest son of President George H. W. Bush, who served as the 41st President,
and Barbara Bush, making him one of only two American presidents to be the son of a
preceding president. After graduating from Yale University in 1968, and Harvard
Business School in 1975, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses. He married Laura
Welch in 1977 and unsuccessfully ran for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter.
He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the
1994 Texas gubernatorial election. In a close and controversial election, Bush was elected
President in 2000 as the Republican candidate, defeating then-Vice President Al Gore.2

However, he spent most of his childhood years in Houston, Texas. He went to

Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts, to education, which was a boarding
school. He then went to Yale University in Connecticut and also served as a fraternity.
However, during his years out of school, he added, should the average student.

By Bush and graduated from the university, and the Vietnam War broke out during the
time he was training with the Air National Guard in Texas. In July 1968, he was also
commissioned a second lieutenant, and was certified as a fighter pilot. Bush then went to
Alabama to pursue his interest in politics. Was from Alabama he began his political
career. Also, before to assign his interest in politics altogether, and he applied to Harvard
Business School, and obtained the acceptance of the session that begins in the autumn. As
a result, he had to lose nearly eight months of duty, which led to his suspension.

He also failed to renew his contract records and average, and then he did not go to the
armed forces. This has become a subject of discussion in the elections of 2000 and 2004,
and to make people pointing fingers at him.3

2
Wikipedia.org/georg_w_bush
3
famouspeoplebiographyguide.com/ georg_w_bush

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LITERATURE SURVEY :

Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century.
Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and
followers, while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situational factors
and skill level. While many different leadership theories have emerged, most can be
classified as one of eight major types:

1. “Great Man” Theories:

Great Man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent – that great
leaders are born, not made. These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic,
and destined to rise to leadership when needed. The term “Great Man” was used because,
at the time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of
military leadership.

2. Trait Theories:

Similar in some ways to “Great Man” theories, trait theory assumes that people inherit
certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Trait theories often
identify particular personality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. But if
particular traits are key features of leadership, how do we explain people who possess
those qualities but are not leaders? This question is one of the difficulties in using trait
theories to explain leadership.

3. Contingency Theories:

Contingency theories of leadership focus on particular variables related to the

environment that might determine which particular style of leadership is best suited for
the situation. According to this theory, no leadership style is best in all situations. Success
depends upon a number of variables, including the leadership style, qualities of the
followers, and aspects of the situation.

4. Situational Theories:

Situational theories propose that leaders choose the best course of action based
upon situational variable. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for
certain types of decision-making.

5. Behavioral Theories:

Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are
made, not born. This leadership theory focuses on the actions of leaders, not on mental
qualities or internal states. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders
through teaching and observation.

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6. Participative Theories:

Participative leadership theories suggest that the ideal leadership style is one that
takes the input of others into account. These leaders encourage participation and
contributions from group members and help group members feel more relevant and
committed to the decision-making process. In participative theories, however, the leader
retains the right to allow the input of others.

7. Management Theories:

Management theories (also known as “Transactional theories”) focus on the role

of supervision, organization, and group performance. These theories base leadership on a
system of reward and punishment. Managerial theories are often used in business; when
employees are successful, they are rewarded; when they fail, they are reprimanded or
punished.

8. Relationship Theories:

Relationship theories (also known as “Transformational theories”) focus upon the

connections formed between leaders and followers. These leaders motivate and inspire
people by helping group members see the importance and higher good of the task.
Transformational leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also
want each person to fulfill his or her potential. These leaders often have high ethical and
moral standards.4

4 psychology.about.com - 8 Major Leadership Theories.

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LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF PERSONALITIES:

OBAMA:

The Gallup Organization has reached statistical knowledge to the more personal qualities
that have characterized President Barack Obama.

Of seven personal characteristics, Americans rate Barack Obama most highly for those
that reflect on his leadership skills. Seventy-two percent say he "is willing to make hard
decisions," and 66% describe him as "a strong and decisive leader." Sixty-four percent
say he "can get things done."

The poll also shows that Obama gets high marks for empathy, as he has done since he
rose to national prominence. Sixty-four percent say Obama understands the problems
Americans face in their daily lives. No less than 63% of Americans have said this about
Obama since the characteristic was first measured in March 2008.

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His weakest traits, according to Americans, are those most closely tied to his politics --
"shares your values" (52%) and "has mostly chosen good advisers and cabinet officers"
(52%). Still, a majority of Americans attribute these positive characteristics to Obama.5

in addition to previous qualities, he featured by:

Integrity
Integrity is the act of keeping to your personal morals or ethics.

Respect
President Obama, before he was even named the 2008 Democratic Candidate for
President, supported diplomacy as the first measure to be taken in response to any
suspicious activity. In particular, Obama supported the re-initiation of diplomatic action
with Iran. He opposed the bill that would regard the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a
terrorist group, thereby allowing the president to position troops in Iran, which could be
interpreted as military action against the Iranians. This shows that the President respects
all organizations, regardless of their history or relationships and that his first thought
when approaching foreign organizations, is diplomacy.

Fairness
The introductory paragraph to the Obama Administration's tax plan states: “Barack
Obama’s tax plan delivers broad-based tax relief to middle class families and cuts taxes
for small businesses and companies that create jobs in America, while restoring fairness
to our tax code and returning to fiscal responsibility.” Fairness is an especially
important trait for any leader because a good leader must treat everyone with equality,
regardless of race, gender or social status.

Citizenship
Citizenship is the character of an individual viewed as a member of society or
their behavior in terms of the duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen. President
Obama demonstrated very eloquent citizenship when he worked as a community
organizer in the south side of Chicago.

Caring
In my opinion, one of the most difficult tasks that any world leader will face is balancing
time with their two major obligations; the population that they are leading and their
actual family. There's no hiding the strong bonds between the members of the Obama
family; the family reserves time for a sit-down dinnertime every night. Barack Obama is
certainly a family man; he's seen in public all of the time with his loving family.

5 gallup.com- Obama's Leadership Qualities Stand Out to Americans

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Confidence
With the 2009 inauguration, Mr.Obama inherited two wars, one of the worst economic
disasters in American history, and a multi-trillion dollar debt. President Obama has
displayed that he knows how to inspire confidence in people, and he will have to if the
United States is going to make it out of these challenges intact.

Mindful Decision Making

A deliberate decision of Mr. Obama was to surround himself with people that don't
necessarily agree with his views. This way, the President will gain different perspectives
on difficult issues. If his cabinet were to contain people that constantly agree with him,
he could make purely 'Obama' choices all of the time, and the right decision might not
always be made- nobody's perfect. 6

BUSH:

Leadership and management consultants Carolyn Thompson and James Ware identify ten
timeless qualities that have made Bush a great leader, breaking down each one so that
you too can use these techniques in your own leadership quest-whether you are running a
Fortune 500 company, the local school board, or your condo association.

Each thought-provoking chapter highlights a unique leadership lesson gleaned from

Bush's political, professional, and personal endeavors.

From owner of the Texas Rangers to President of the United States, these principles have
propelled George W. Bush to the top and can do the same for you:

 Identifying core values

 Building alliances
 Having a vision
 Communication
 Building trust
 Discipline
 Bringing in the right people
 Intuition
 Allowing those hired to do their jobs
 Getting results

Find out how you can apply these principles in your own life by getting The Leadership
Genius of George W. Bush.7

6
jcsd-cl-obama.weebly.com - Barack Obama's Leadership and Character Traits.

7
archive.newsmax.com - Find out George Bush's Leadership Secrets.

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 George Bush was also charismatic, integrity and dominance. In the televised
Republican presidential debate held in Des Moines, Iowa on December 13, 1999 where
all of the participating candidates were asked with the question "Who is the political
philosopher or thinker do you most identify with and why?" While other candidates
mentioned past presidents and prominent political figures, Bush responded that the most
important philosopher in his life was Christ since Christ changed his soul (Kessler, 2004).

During his Presidency, Bush has also hosted celebrations at the White House for
non-Christian holidays such as Ramadan (Kessler, 2004). The charisma of the president
can be seen when he addressed the troops and the American people in the deck of the
aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln while wearing a flight suit. In his speech, he
stated that all armed conflict in Iraq has ceased and that the U.S. troops were successful
in deposing and capturing Saddam Hussein (Thompson, 2003). To further strengthen
himself as a leader, he surrounded himself with persons and individuals that would
clearly support him and advise him in certain issues and topics. Among the person he
trust are his father, George H. W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Condolezza Rice, Karen Hughes,
Harriet Miers and Karl Rove (Thompson, 2003).8

8
ivythesis.typepad.com - The Leadership Qualities of President George W. Bush.

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST :

OBAMA BUSH
Qualities Achieved Getting results
Similar

Takes a good advisers and officers Bringing in the right people

Integrity Integrity
Confidence Building trust
Makes a hard decision Identify core values
Strong and decisive leader Building alliances
Understands the daily problems that Having a vision
Americans face.
Manages government effectively
Different Qualities

Shares values Discipline

Empathy Intuition
Respect Communication
Fairness Charismatic
Citizenship Allowing those hired to do their jobs
Caring Dominance

We note from the above table that the personalities George W. Bush and Barack Obama
are similar in 4 leadership qualities:
Achievement: the process of terminating the tasks or at least start the practical steps to
accomplish the task, Bush wanted to remove the Iraqi Baathist regime and was completed
this task, Obama wants universal health insurance for all Americans starting in the
practical steps to achieve them.
Appropriate use of assistants: a leader to take the same staff with high efficiency and that
help to achieve the accomplishments and the tasks depending on the vision and direction.
George W. Bush put Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Obama put Hillary Clinton
in the same position.
Confidence: a self-confidence first, and then trust those who are around him of assistants
and then trust the Americans.
Integrity: In other words, over the credibility of the leader's followers.

Featured qualities by Obama:

Decision-making capacity: the skill must be provided in an effective and successful
leader. Leader gets a lot of positions and situations that require decisions to take decisive
and correct. Leader cannot make the right decision if two elements are not available:
Steps of right decision "knowledge", and experience. Meanwhile, followers in many
cases they cannot take the decision because it ultimately the responsibility of the leader,
if were not to have this skill well, the impact will be very limited. Obama to take the
example of a difficult decision is implemented in the campaign is to stop the war in Iraq.

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Knowing of people problems: Americans have raised their voices of complaint: the
greatest country in the world at this time and some of its people have no health insurance
or cannot afford treatment cost!!! Among the indicators that show that Obama is a good
leader is to know one of the most important daily problems faced by Americans in their
lives is the problem of health insurance, and to prove to his followers that he is a good
leader put a plan to fix this problem of the most important plans in his campaign.

Respect: simply ask ourselves: How can leader gain respect of people if he had not has
this quality, whether self-respect or followers or to his opponents? Thus a good leader
how treat people respectfully in order to respect him too. We find that quality in Obama's
position on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Someone may say: the leader can use the
authority and power to earn people's respect to him, here we can say Do you want a real
respected or fake? Easy to get people's respect by force and power, but will probably be
fake.

Fairness: When we show how the emergence of Obama since his childhood until became
old, notice that much over the conditions that were planted the value of equality among
people and they all deserve all kinds of giving, including recognition and differentiation
depends on the performance of each individual. Successful Leader, which deals with all
people by the principle of justice gives every individual his rights without any shortages,
and thus would be benefits to the leader of absolute loyalty to him.

Featured qualities by Bush:

Building alliances: as they say "unity is power" The more allies, more powerful for the
leader, and that means the effect is increasing and desired results will become a reality.
When the growing number of allies and associates and supporters the opponent will think
about every step and every action done in order not to fall into collision with this group.
On the other hand the alliance gives members of the group an importance in the field, and
this applies to politics and trade, then any member from outside the group will try to
cooperate or to satisfy or at least taking the opinion of this alliance and this in the long
run improve the relationship between the outer edge of the group and the same group.
Example of this cooperation between the United States and Britain in the case of the "war
on terrorism"

Vision: It is considered the most important and the first prescription must be available in
the effective leader, a "vision". As such, it is would inform the leader what he wants?
And how to reach the goal? What are the means available to reach this goal? What are the
obstacles ...... etc.. Vision helps the leader to focus in his work and especially in the long
run, because many of plans decrease its focusing within time, but if the vision was clear
and available, the leader can seek it constantly.

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REASONED ANALYSIS AND APPROACH:

If we go back to the definition of leadership: the ability to move people toward

the goal, and we dropped this definition related to persons in this assignment we will be
able to access whether they are leaders or not.

If the main criterion for leadership is a goal of the leader. All personalities have
goals, George W. Bush in his campaign announced that many of the goals such as:
increase armed forces, cutting taxes, improve education and aiding minorities. On the
other hand, Barack Obama also announced several goals such as: ending the Iraq war,
increase energy independence and universal healthcare. Thus, if the objectives were
available, the following criterion is whether these goals are good or bad? As is clear to all
that the goals are all good and useful for the followers of "the people". Remains the last
criteria, are these goals, especially for the leader or those around him or general useful for
the followers?

In many cases of leadership, the leader gives a lot of promises for the followers to
follow and support him, weather in the Assembly, trade union, company, ministry or
government, but unfortunately in many cases, once the leader is to get his objective, he
does not deliver on his promises.

In this case, we find that George Bush had promised the people in his 1999
Presidential candidacy promises, such as: improve education But since the September 11
transferred all his presidency and the government efforts towards the "war on terrorism"
and all his focusing to fight the U.S. military for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to wipe
out terrorism from the world, this method led to decrease interest preoccupied with the
daily life problems of the American people. The American people wished to end this war
as soon as possible in order they can live in peace, especially after the increasing number
of casualties from the army in this war, and became a lot of families want to sue George
Bush in the courts because it was the main reason for the loss of someone from their
family. All of these negative outcomes resulted when George W. Bush focused on
objectives are very important for him and the only officials in his government and not
important for the people.

Thus the lesson that we are gaining from this situation that the leader should be
the objectives overview of the followers, not of his own or special for who are around
him assistants, and these objectives must be balanced, this means that do not try to reach
to these goals through the loss, and loss will be greater when related to followers, and
leader is not as the previous case: the war on terrorism and other side loss some members
of American families.

While on the other side, we find Barack Hussein Obama put also promises for the
American people, such as: public health insurance, when we compare this goal the

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previous criteria: the existence of the goal, well and it’s for the followers, we will see that
they all apply to the goals of Obama. But if Obama did the same mistake that occurred
when George W. Bush was president, the result will be the same, especially that Obama
an African American, this element will help to lower Obama's popularity if he did the
same mistakes George W. Bush.

On the other side, the American people elected Obama they are in critical need of
solutions for daily problems, so if they did not see the practical steps to implement
promises made for the people, it certainly will increase the number of opponents and low
popularity, therefore Obama must in order to maintain the level of support has to rush to
fulfill promises to the people, especially as the percentage of supporters has decreased
with the end of 2009. It was Obama's approval rating in the beginning of 2009 43%, and
in the end of 2009 decreased to 26% and it is a serious indicator.

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CONCLUSION:

But what is the real role played by the leader in the success or failure? Is the leader bears
sole responsibility for its decisions or that the circumstances surrounding, is it the role
may be unable to control it?
We have conditioned people to try to link all events around them to specific reasons.
Since it helps in the interpretation of these events and understand future as well. This
blaming to the leader is more than usual. Leader is an element of the success or failure,
no doubt, is responsible for decision-making and take responsibility for the consequences
of its decisions, but he remains an element of the elements group. A lot of leaders made a
correct decision, but his followers carried out the failure because they execute it
incorrectly.

The nature of human simplify complex work and linked to the successes and failures
leader instead of just looking at the several of factors surrounding it, which collectively
lead to success or failure. Thus, we see a successful leader to succeed when the
organization that led even if success was due to external circumstances, or steps taken by
his predecessors and now come the time of their results, as well as in the case of blaming
the failure. And lose sight of the role and effort working with this leader, experience and
perhaps sacrifices in order to achieve success and reach the goal.

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REFERENCES :
 Wikipedia.org/barack_obama
 Wikipedia.org/georg_w_bush
 famouspeoplebiographyguide.com/ georg_w_bush
 psychology.about.com - 8 Major Leadership Theories.
 gallup.com- Obama's Leadership Qualities Stand Out to Americans
 Jcsd-cl-obama.weebly.com - Barack Obama's Leadership and Character Traits.
 archive.newsmax.com - Find out George Bush's Leadership Secrets.
 ivythesis.typepad.com - The Leadership Qualities of President George W. Bush.

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