President Obama's Personality Profile

Sarah Moore and Angela Rodgers, students at the College of Saint Benedict in St.
Joseph, Minn., did a research project on The Personality Profile of President Barack
Obama: Leadership Implications and presented the results at the 6th annual
Minnesota Private Colleges Scholars at the Capitol event, Feb. 19, in the State
Capitol rotunda, St. Paul, Minn.
The profile revealed that Barack Obama is ambitious and confident; modestly
dominant and self-asserting; accommodating, cooperative, and agreeable;
somewhat outgoing and congenial; and relatively conscientious. The combination of
ambitious and accommodating patterns in Obamas profile suggests a confident
conciliator personality composite.
Leaders with this personality prototype, though self-assured and ambitious, are
characteristically gracious, considerate, and benevolent. They are energetic,
charming, and agreeable, with a special talent for settling differences and a
preference for mediation and compromise over force or coercion as a strategy for
resolving conflict. They are driven primarily by a need for achievement, but also
have substantial affiliation needs and a modest need for power.
The study offers an empirically based framework for anticipating Obamas
performance as chief executive. The following general predictions
regarding Obamas likely leadership style can be inferred from his personality
profile:

Ambitious, self-assured, gracious, considerate

Preference for mediation and compromise over force or coercion as a strategy

for resolving conflict

High need for achievement; moderate need for affiliation; low need for power

More pragmatic than ideological

More task- than relationship oriented

Likely to act as a strong advocate in his administration, using his powers of

persuasion to advance his policy vision

Preference for gathering information from a variety of sources rather than

relying solely on advisors and administration officials

In dealing with members of Congress, may show preference for avoiding

unnecessary conflict by trying to remain above the fray in heated, highly
divisive debates

Preference for articulating and defending his policies in person rather than
relying on staff and administration officials to speak for him

An interesting perspective on Obama. His concern for transforming is highly

welcome. Yet in the middle of all this there is a need for caution the degree of
inclination to transform may not be high in some nations. The reasons may be
many. Good article.
RamKkasturi

mattttttttttttttttttttttttt 6 years ago

obama obama obama obama

kayla 6 years ago

hes so hot

Ben ILoanusi. UK 6 years ago

I have followed Obama from the campaign up till date. The guy is quite admirable. I
am in the UK where there are hardly any decisiveness in dealing with issues, yet in
the States, where there are more hidden powers/hands and wheels that turn the
political motions than you have true policy makers, Obama has made some reall
tough and powerfull decisions that has affected the corporate America and
American citizens (case in point: Goldman S & health care reforms) Primarilly, the
key thing is that the guy is really and genuinely trying his best to bring about
positive change and reforms to the coporate America in particular and the average
joe blogs in the street. It is not and will never be easy, and he will face very tough
oppositions, and importantly his success/failure will be relative, however the one
thing that clearly stands out is that he is genuinely trying to make the required
positive change. You guys in the States do not know how lucky you are to have
Obama. I truly and genuinely wish him all the best and i strongly advise you all do
the same and work with him to bring about the Change you desperately need.
Cheers
Ben UK

joab 6 years ago

i think he's doing his best and he's an amibtional guy and i think people need to cut
him some slack coz he's probably the best president we've had ever and he's only
just started plus he's BLACK lol

Proud parent 6 years ago

Damned if he do damned if he don't. Ignorance will remain to be the barrier to why

people can not or will not see the President's worth and what he is doing to help
America, as well as other countries. Even if he did stop the war, so many will find
ways to be displeased with that as well. It does not matter what good he does, that
group of ignorant people will find fault in him regardless. You can not name 1
President who was "PERFECT" in every way, shape, or form. They all are unique and
share many differences as well as some similarities. So much concentration on what
he has not done, or how he completes a task, and very little thanks for what he has
done and is doing. Obama is for ALL people not 'one' people. Not he, nor any other
future President will ever totally satisfy everyone all at once. People are going to
forever complain no matter what degree of progress has taken place or has not.

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

Proud parent, Thank you sharing your heart. I agree that a President is stuck
between a rock and a hard place. I hope you found my article to be a positive
reflection on the Office of the Presidency and Obama as well. My other article about
American's Waking up to the Limits of the Presidency covers what you share in your
post.

Negotiation Skills Training 6 years ago

I believe he is one of the most inspirational leaders of our current times. Sure, he's
not all that the campaign made him look to be, and there's a lot to be criticized
about him. But given the circumstances, he's doing quiet a good job - surely much
better the Dubya did before. He's an excellent leader, because instead of using fear,
he uses vision to inspire people.

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

Negotiation Skills Training, thank you for your comments. Every President has his
challenges, I admire President Obama not because I necessarily agre with all his
policies, but because he is attempting to fulfill the promises he made during the
campaign (even if he had to compromise and accept something less than his
original vision).

james 6 years ago

obamas cool

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

james, thank you for visiting and sharing with me.

gordie 6 years ago

President Obama has demonstrated thoughtful leadership that America can be
proud of.
I believe all candidates for president should be given IQ test to verify at least 120
i.q!

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

gordie, thank you for stopping by and sharing your insights. I agree with you that
President Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the country.

Jillian Barclay 6 years ago from California, USA

Saw your comments regarding all of the disrespectful, yes, shameful billboards that
are popping up with anti-Obama sentiment. Decided to check out some of your
blogs because you seem thoughtful and balanced. Seems that is what is missing in
this current, hateful environment. Respect for others seems to be gone or
disappearing quickly in our country and it makes me ashamed. In my opinion,
Obama has done nothing to destroy the "American way" of life; my taxes have not
gone up; indeed, they have gone down and I am obviously not living in a country
where the rights of the people have been destroyed if the freedom to print or say
anything is still allowed. People carrying guns to political rallies? Unbelievable!
Thank you for being thoughtful and respectful to our President. He is in a tough
spot-so many things, not of his making, have happened at once that it is almost

impossible to make people happy. I guess that whenever the economy goes south,
people go a little nuts. Even understanding that, it is difficult for me to see the
intolerance and hatred that many people have for this man.

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

Jillian, you are right. I do not have to buy completely into his policies or agenda to
respect him. He is my president even if I don't agree with him in everything.
America likes to hold itself up as an example for the whole world in terms of
freedom and democracy and how to run a country for the people by the people. In
some ways, we want to think we are more enlightened than others around the
world. Sure, England has its tabloids and love to lampoon their political figures more
for entertainment than anything else. But, such hateful billboards are anything but
enlightened and show that America is not what it claims to be.
With that said, I believe the USA can be that nation. I believe it can be an example
of a free society that governs its own affairs well with each citizen doing their part in
the election process and no member of its citizenry being left out of the process
because race, color, ethnicity, or creed.

javrsmith 6 years ago from Courtenay, BC, Canada

President Obama has had the misfortune of becoming president at possibly the
worst time in the history of economics. The pressures have been building for years
in a variety of areas. Energy cost, food cost, mortgage lending practices,
unemployment, war. Add to that the worst oil spill in history that happened on his
watch. None of this has been President Obama's fault, but he has to lead the
responses to them. Most of the past presidents had at most one or two of these
crises happen at a time. President Obama has them all at once and any of them
could completely destabilize the economy. I mean catastrophic destabilizing.
President Obama is not alone as he leads a nation with fractured governing system.
Britain, Canada and now Australia have each elected coalition forms of government,
which is rare for each, unheard of for 3 to happen at once. I don't know how
President Obama is going to fix it all, or if he even can. There are 24 years of
damaging economic actions that brought the world to the present situation. Purely
negative or hateful reactions to the president are certainly not going to work.

ecoggins 6 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

dear javrsmith, thank you sooo much for your post. What you say is true. No one
could expect this president or any other to fix this mess in such a short time. I even
said so in my hub Americans Awaken to the Limits of the American Presidency. And,
purely hateful reactions to Mr. Obama will not help the situation.

javrsmith 5 years ago from Courtenay, BC, Canada

Now it seems that Sweden has also failed to elect a majority government. This will
mire their government as well.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Swedish+election+...

liberal2010 5 years ago

ecoggins, you are very itelligent, you reject the thinking of most americans that
every negative situation that occursis simply obama's fault. If Obama made 1/4 of
the serios mistakes that george bush made he would be impeached on site. we
need more people with your style of modern intellectual rational thinking.

ecoggins 5 years ago from Corona, CaliforniaAuthor

liberal2010 - thank you for your encouraging comments.

Oulath 5 years ago

I think I like President Obama in the way that he has a high need for achievement,
moderate need for affiliation and low need for power. This makes him quite different
from other US presidents.