Obama as a Leader

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Solar, Anyone?

Not long ago, I heard T. Boone Pickens say that Obama should “step up and lead” regarding energy independence for America. According to Pickens, Americans have many sources of alternative energy to choose from: solar, wind, propane, natural gas, ethanol made from algae or switchgrass, geothermal, electricity, and more. If Obama were to call on [...]

29Jul2010 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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Obama a Weak Leader? No Way!

As you surely know, the Health Care Bill became law today. Obama led us to this point, and we have arrived. No, it’s not a perfect bill — but we don’t need a perfect bill. We need a foundation upon which to build — and now we have that. As a person who has had [...]

23Mar2010 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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Railroads, Anyone?

People learn about having a strategy in many ways. One way I learned about strategy was playing Monopoly as a kid. My goal was always to win, of course, but also to build enough wealth to withstand landing on a hoteled Park Place or Boardwalk. Making various sets of choices in different games — from [...]

25Oct2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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Obama Will Lead on Wednesday

It sounds downright silly to say “Obama will lead on Wednesday,” doesn’t it? How can a person lead on just one day? Wednesday is the day President Obama makes his speech to both houses of Congress about health care. He will use his superb communication and leadership skills to move us as a country beyond [...]

7Sep2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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Where Is Bold Leadership?

Here is a quote about leadership that Miss Brown and I like, by David Lloyd George, a British politician and World War I hero: “Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.” It’s a great image: the little steps would lead to [...]

19May2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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Lead! Communicate!

The potential flu pandemic has got people nervous — and needless to say, they want reassurance from their leaders .  And they want to know what to do, in simple, practical terms. I listened to several scientists and disease-control specialists on the radio yesterday.  They all seemed to be blinded by the complexity of the [...]

29Apr2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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More Obama Thoughts

I listened to presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin on Morning Joe this morning talk with Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC about Obama’s leadership. Comparing Obama to Ronald Reagan, the president that conservatives seem to remember so fondly, Goodwin commented that people trusted both him and Obama as people even more than they necessarily agree with them.  [...]

28Apr2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 1 comment | Continued
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Obama Is a Strong Leader, or So It Seems Now

All this talk of torture in recent news stories, with people justifying awful things and even joking about them,  is appalling — yet it causes me to think about leadership. It causes me to have many questions, such as these: Hasn’t history proven over and over again that bad things tend to happen under weak [...]

27Apr2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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More on Obama’s Leadership Philosophy

Blogger Erica Anderson, in “The Simplest Thing that Works,” comments on the same Obama quote on leadership that I thought was so wonderful. Take a look at her recent entry titled “So Proud of Obama.” Her key point is that listening is a tremendously important leadership skill.  Tremendously important — and unfortunately, more rare than [...]

7Apr2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 1 comment | Continued
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Obama: “We lead best when …”

In response to a question at a news conference after the G20 conference was over, President Obama had this to say about leadership: “I can tell you that what I’ve tried to do since I started running for President and since I was sworn in as President, is to communicate the notion that America is [...]

3Apr2009 | Jo Ellen Roe | 0 comments | Continued
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