Obama and Ubuntu Leadership

On February 3, 2012, the Cincinnati Enquirer published a piece by Julie Pace of the Associated Press that quoted President Obama as saying that "faith and values should play as much a role in tackling the nation's challenges as smart policies".  He was specifically speaking of his Christian values and I couldn't help but notice the alignment with the African concept of Ubuntu.  Although not everyone links Ubuntu to a Christian concept, and we do not link Ubuntu Leadership solely to a Christian concept, it is interesting to make the leap from Obama's comments to thinking that perhaps Ubuntu is a guiding force for him.

Roughly defined, Ubuntu means "I am who I am because of who we all are".  Thus, if I do something harmful to you, I not only hurt you, but I hurt myself and all those in both of our spheres.  Of course, the same is true if you do something positive.  Leadership anchored in values is something we have also discussed in this blog regarding Bob McDonald of P&G and also Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton and Former President Clinton. 

For years now we have advocated that values based on the Humanistic Philosophy of Ubunty would make a great starting place for leadership of all levels!  We have actually designed a theoretical model and operationalized it as well so that we could "test" the application of Ubuntu concepts with organizations.  So far, the results are positive.

What a service Obama would be doing to the world if he pubicly spoke about his position on Ubuntu!!!

Ann Dinan, Ph.D., M.S.S.A., C.P.C.C.

ann@TheDeeperLeadershipInstitute.com

www.UbuntuLeadershipInstitute.com

www.TheDeeperLeadershipInstitute.com