Unmasking Obama leadership style

Barack Obama’s foot is said to be size 10. And the way he carries that foot can betray his thought process.

When the US democratic nominee for president landed in Nairobi and proceeded to the vice-presidential pavilion at JKIA to accept the courtesies that go with protocol, a local journalist noted that he would intermittently tap his foot on the carpet.

He could have done something worse: swing both feet up and plant them on a table. Those who know him say that would indicate things are good.

At meetings of his closest advisers, says Newsweek, Obama likes to lean back, put his feet on the table and close his eyes.

You will know if he is happy with what you are saying — or not saying — by how long his feet stay up there.

If he doesn’t like what he is hearing, he will lean forward, put his feet on the floor and adjust his socks, kind of start tugging at them.

Obama likes to have people talk. He doesn’t want to intimidate people. If you haven’t said anything, Newsweek quoted aides as saying, he’ll call on you.

“He usually thinks if somebody is very quiet, it’s because they disagree with what everybody is saying … so Barack will call on you and say, ‘You’ve been awfully quiet’.”

One feature stands out in Team Obama: there are no screamers. A senior aide told Newsweek that he’s heard Obama yell only twice in four years.

In his choice of officials, he issues one stern instruction: no drama. “I don’t want elbowing or finger-pointing,” an aide quoting him told Newsweek.

“We’re going to rise or fall together.” No grandstanding. No internal division or infighting. No leaks to the news media — small leaks are quickly investigated.

Most high-level gatherings are held either in his kitchen or at an office away from campaign headquarters in Chicago, and are expected to unfold in an orderly manner.

Written agendas and concise briefings are preferred. Obama’s style, as he told a US TV network this week, is a great formula for running a campaign — or a presidency.

Management and leadership questions have dominated this year’s US presidential campaigns.

Even the newest entry on the scene, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Republican nominee for vice-president, this week dismissed Obama’s experience and mocked his much flaunted experience as a community organiser.

For nearly two years, Hillary Clinton similarly pooh-poohed Obama’s community-organiser background as not important.

And Republican nominee John McCain and his party have summarily dismissed the Land of Lincorner’s readiness for office.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani put it more starkly this week, that Obama is a Chicago “machine politician” who “has never led anything. Nothing. Nada.”