Successful characteristics of leadership - Essay Example

Successful Characteristics of Leadership: Michelle Obama Being the first lady, Michelle Obama has been able to portray characters that her predecessors lacked or failed to portray. She has frequently been likened to Jackie Kennedy, but she has proven to be more that what Jackie was. As much as Jackie was quite a public figure in addition to being a supportive wife to JF Kennedy, Michelle is a true definition of a leader. In addition to putting her family first, she involves herself in leadership roles and publicly declares her Support for her husband.

She is a leader who is not just heard, and seen but also felt. Additionally she is accessible and has been able to define herself, which is unlike her forerunners who were often defined by their husbands. Michelle Obama possesses some of the best characters that one requires to be a successful leader. This is not just depicted by her character but also in her diligent speeches. This paper focuses on Michelle Obama as leader. The paper demonstrates how she has managed to portray the key characteristics of a successful leader by being compassionate, inspiring, and motivating.

One of such character is her authenticity, which makes many follow her opinion easily and voluntarily. Whenever she makes a speech, it gains popularity such that it becomes the topic of discussion for quite some time. This is a great characteristic particularly in political arena. She is able to define what leadership entails by being a god leader herself. Another of Michelle’s character that demonstrates her leadership capability is her assertiveness. This is depicted by how she frankly discourses what she expects of others.

By so doing, she is able to clearly reflect if others are achieving what she expects of them. This was demonstrated in her speech on what it means to be an American and a democrat. Additionally, she has been able to somehow convince the Americans that Obama is doing all he can to make things better and improve their lives. However, she has also been able to articulate what is expected of the Americans for this to be possible.She is very inspirational in both actions and speech. She often refers to her background when she argues that she came from a working class family.

This helps people identify with her as someone who are willing to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. She motivates since she portrays herself as someone who rose from someone of little significance to one of the most influential persons in the world. By so doing, she mentors the less privileged that they also have an opportunity to rise from their inadequacies. Her inspirational character became clearly spelt when she visited the Elizabeth Garret School in Islington. She made a speech in which she drew the similarities between herself and the girls.

She made it clear that one’s background could not define the person one ended up being. She inspired the students on the importance of education in addition to giving them hope for a bright future irrespective of their needy background. Being a good leader entails being able to inspire others by creating an atmosphere that makes them believe in themselves. Being inspirational is one of the characters that Michelle possesses in abundance.Another leadership quality that Michelle has managed to noticeably display is charisma.

Charisma entails being able to inspire and motivate others by who you are or what you convey. Michelle is charismatic as depicted by her timely speeches that seem to send the right message and at the right time. She has managed to make democrats to be passionately committed. Additionally, she has the capability of connecting with people from different capacities even without requiring her husband’s support. Irrespective of playing the role of the America’s first lady, she also has her plans, which she is often working to achieve.

She wants to unite Americans irrespective of their diversities but she still manages to be a supportive wife and mother.