What Does Barack Obama Have That Hillary Clinton Doesn’t When It Comes To Leadership Persona?

And Why do you care?

If you’re Taking the Reins of leadership or have the desire to become a leader then paying attention to this 1 leadership lesson, which you see played out in the media each and every day, is by far one of the most important lessons in leadership you will ever learn.

To take the reins and attract followers you need to have leadership persona! What is persona and how do you get it?

You begin your path of learning leadership skills by learning about your-self and how your whole self which includes your body language, body carriage and body energy affects others before you ever even open your mouth. Taking the reins of leadership means you must take the responsibility for self growth, self-awareness and management.

Regardless of Hillary or Barack’s politics, their views on the war in Iraq, homeland security or health care in America… you are either attracted to them or you’re not. That is persona! And what’s more no matter how smart you consider yourself or how up on the candidates particular political views you are…again you are either attracted to them or you are not. If you’re not then no matter how much you might want to follow that person or vote for that person you will find it difficult or almost impossible.

I dare say that Hillary Clinton has more experience than Barack Obama and therefore may be considered by some to be the best candidate, but she doesn’t seem to be well liked and therein lays the problem. People do business with and follow individuals they know, like and trust. Individuals that have persona! Though sometimes illusive this one thing can make the difference in our presidential elections and in your successful taking the reins of leadership.

A list of synonyms for persona is: character, personality, faade, front, face, qualities and guise. When you look at this list you don’t see anything that tells you why people respond to Hillary one way and Barack another. In my previous articles I stated that leadership comes from within and has to begin with knowing who you are and what effect you have on people. You either effect them positively with your persona or negatively and it certainly behooves you to find out which if you choose to be a person who takes the reins of leadership.

While it’s imperative that you be who you really are, in other words you must be authentic or people see through you and do not trust you, you may need to adapt your style to meet the needs of the situation and the people you want to lead. In learning your leadership skills you may need to learn to soften your tone or posture or voice.

When I feel deeply about something then I tend to come across very serious and stern which is not always appealing…so I understand that Hillary might be feeling very deeply about her role and the responsibilities that come with that role. She may be…now trust me here, I have no inside track to Hillary…I am merely surmising, that she is a caring, hard working, and serious minded candidate. The problem seems to be that again regardless of either political candidates views they are either just plain easy to be around and likable or they are not. Therein lays their success and yours as a leader.

Do you know how you come across to the people you want to lead? Do you know what your persona is? If you don’t then that had best be the first step in your learning leadership skills because no matter what else you do…whether individuals follow you as their leader or choose to follow someone else…it will come back to your Persona!

My suggestion is to take the first step in learning leadership skills by learning about your-self and then learning more about managing your-self so that you come across as the leader you choose to be. In other words when you decide to take the reins of leadership then growing your Emotional Intelligence is essential.