Haywood and Obama -- Leadership Term Paper

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Both people and organizations want leaders. People want leaders to assist them in accomplishing their goals. Organizations want leaders to not only motivate, but to provide organizational direction for employees to follow. According to Kouzes and Posner (1994), five key behaviors for what is wanted of leaders from both people and organizations are: "(a) challenge the process, (b) inspire a shared vision, (c) enable others to act, (d) model the way, and (e) encourage the heart" (Kouzes and Posner, 1994, 960). This is the basic rubric we will use to evaluate the efficacy of Obama and Hayward in their overall approach to the oil spill issue.

Tony Haywood Background and Response -- Tony Hayward is a British businessman and joined British petroleum as a rig geologist in 1982, quickly rising through the ranks in a number of increasingly complex roles, finally becoming the CEO of the company in May 2007. His tenure ended with BP in October 2010, largely due, most believe, because of the circumstances and his management of the BP oil crisis in the Gulf (Milmo, 2010). Perhaps Hayward was hoping for a quick fix, or did not quite understand the enormity of this crisis, because he initially downplayed the incident by referring to a "very big ocean" and a "relatively tiny" amount of oil leaked with a potential impact as "very modest" (Webb, 2010). Needless to say, over the course of the next several weeks, that "very modest" impact seemed like an inappropriate response. It was not that Hayward lacked empathy for the situation, but it seemed the crisis so integrated his personal life that he found that an appropriate example for the world. On May 27th he changed his view from modest to an "environmental catastrophe," and on May 30th told a reporter, "we're sorry for the massive disruption [the spill] caused to… lives… There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back (Durando, 2010).

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Widely criticized as a selfish comment, it was likely not made in that vein, but certainly phrased in a way that may have seen more victim than leader. Subsequently, on June 2nd, Hayward apologized for the "hurtful and thoughtless comment when I said that I wanted my life back" (BP Chief Apologizes, 2010).

Hayward's appearance before a Congressional Subcommittee in mid-June was also less than stunning. While he acknowledged that BP would address the situation in a responsible manner, he refused to take ownership of the problem, stating, "This is a complex accident, caused by an unprecedented combination of failures. A number of companies are involved, including BP, and it is simply too early to understand the cause" (Mouawad and Krauss, 2010). Subsequently, BP's Board removed Hayward from day-to-day management and public scrutiny of the situation, and within months Hayward was no longer CEO of the company.

Barack Obama Background and Response- History was made in November 2008, not just American history, but world history as the United States elected its first African-American President. but, the election of a Black man as President, as unheard of as it might have been just 50 years ago, or even 25 years ago, was history because it was a national catharsis -- a repudiation of the greed, avarice, and selfishness that had so characterized American society for the past eight years. Obama's election was a referendum on a new America -- a younger America with an optimistic, but not Pollyannaish, view of the grave.....

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