Businesses could take a lesson from Obama

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New York: it was so general, an inability to make good on what everyone interpreted was something for them.”

Chief executives could borrow a page from Obama’s responses to two hurdles in his path to the US presidency—his loss in the New Hampshire primary and the maelstrom over his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright, said Koehn.

In each case, Obama responded with an “emotional competence” that leaders could use, especially in today’s troubled financial climate, to cope with currents such as fear of job losses or anxiety over poor performance at their organizations, she said.

“Business leaders need to be very conscious of those aspects to their people and their organization that are more than just, ‘What are our tangible resources?’ ‘What’s our head count?’ ‘What’s our market?’ ‘What’s our customer?’” she said.

CEO coach Deb Dib can tick off a list of traits she sees in Obama—caring, confident, consistent, commanding, calm and more—traits she tries to teach business executives.

“If you look at any really effective CEO, they almost all share in one way or another almost every one of those attributes,” said Dib from her office in Medford, New York. “It transcends politics. You really have to look at him and say, ‘Wow, I can learn something from this.”