ObamaMama - Building Gender Balanced Business

January 23rd, 2009

Barack Obama is not your typical male leader. He is every inch the ‘new man’, groomed, we suspect, by a wife who is every inch a modern gal. Remember that his gender balance at home is 75% female, a very important metric for male leaders.

Just as Obama sought to be a post-racial candidate, we suspect he’s aiming to be a post-gender one too. The result is what I call a ‘gender bilingual’ leader, one who can connect fluently with both men and women. A million miles from George Bush’s macho swagger and swashbuckling warrior ways, Obama’s Inauguration Speech sounded like mom on the Mount talking to her wayward brood.

In Touch With His Inner Woman
ObamaMama, hands on hips and loving smile, told us we hadn’t been very good. Big brother (banker) had been particularly bad, he admitted, but we’d all joined in the naughtiness… S/He coaches us to “pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off”, let our “petty grievances aside”, “set aside childish things”, be ready to “extend a hand if you unclench a fist.” And of course, reminds us that we know “kindness, selflessness, a parent’s nurturing a child.” ObamaMama’s “watchful eye” will measure the “prudent use” of power, and balance it with “humility and restraint.” And that’s not just for our family, but for the folks next door and the temple down the street too.

This sounds suspiciously like my mom. Probably like yours too, if you were lucky. It is language that is deeply appealing to both men and women. It is a million miles from your average male leader facing a crisis, calling on a vast array of military metaphors to get his troops to align for battle. So while Obama has not appointed a particularly gender balanced team (see previous post below), he may be thinking that he can right the balance from the top.

Classic Contrasts
Hillary felt she had to lean towards the masculine in order to get elected. This is exactly what President Sarkozy’s rival, Segolene Royal, did in France in the final, crucial election debate. It doesn’t work. Not more in politics than in the corporate world. Today, the public wants their women to be womanly. Tears touch them. Men, however, have more leeway.

Obama is using a wide range of reputedly ‘feminine’ leadership skills in his successful push into power. He is a good listener, a builder of bridges and consensus, a pragmatist, etc. He speaks of peace, not war. Of responsibility and service, not tax cuts. He talks puppies, not power.

You heard it here first. Obama is every inch the female leader… He’s the uberMom we’ve been yearning for, at a time in history where leadership criteria are becoming ever more feminine. Obama is like the latest raft of model CEOs: authentic, modest, quiet leaders who build consensus and work ‘in service of’ a greater good.

Ambitious women around the world take note. The guys are getting good at our stuff. I always suspected this tipping point would come. Once the feminine is hip, the hip get feminine. But beware all the women who have spent the last couple of decades accepting the received wisdom that to take power you better get tougher. Obama is a leadership model for both men and women. He is the iPod, Hillary the Hummer…

The Ultimate Dual Career Couple
And the first couple? Well, while Obama was gadding about with getting elected, his wife was bringing home the bacon. Not an unusual scenario in these gender balanced times.

Equal of height and, one suspects, much else, they are the first First Couple who represent a modern ideal of marriage. Two highly accomplished professionals who seem, unlike the Clintons, to be good for each other. A couple in love, at peace, at work and in balance.

At last America has (like France and the UK before us), an attractive, dual career couple at the helm. Comfortable in their roles and their relationship. A beacon if ever one was needed in these complicated marital times.

As we have long been told, behind every exceptional man, there is a wonderful woman. Today we can conclude that behind every extraordinary Mom, there is an exceptional man.