Barack Obama stays cool under pressure and is among the pantheon of great modern leaders. The former US president still enjoys a wide following in the world and is a trending influencer even today. Barack Obama uses very simple and powerful techniques that can help leaders.
Barack Obama shared his secrets to maintaining his composure & staying cool under pressure at a technology conference in Utah. Obama has a reputation for being cool and calm, someone who is level-headed under immense pressure, evident during the years of his presidency.
Obama made no bones about him being referred to, “No drama Obama” by the press and not always with a positive connotation to it. Obama opened up on how he remains steady and even tempered in the most grueling situations.
Obama said, “I have an even temperament and I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low. But that doesn’t mean that throughout the presidency and throughout my professional career that there weren’t times when I was constrained by, man I don’t want to screw this up. I don’t want to let people down.”
Qualtrics, a software company, had organised the event where Barack Obama revealed this. The former president said, “I don’t want to be seen as having made a mistake or having failed.”
“There’s no doubt by the time I was in my second term I was a better president than I was in my first term and it did not have to do with analysis or policy.” Obama said.
“It had to do with what comes with any career – whether it’s sports or teaching or you name it – you get enough reps, enough repetition and familiarity with the nature of the problems that you start being focused on the task and not how are you doing on the task and the self-consciousness that comes with that.”
Obama learnt the art of getting uncomfortable, facing complex problems and focusing on the tasks at hand without being self conscious. You don’t matter at all, but the solutions you offer and the contribution you make is all that counts. Obama realized, “You know, I got this. And if I make a mistake we’ll figure out how to make up for it, we’ll learn from it.”
He focused on the vision, not on poll numbers or pundits, “advancing this vision that I have and I hope the country will share, that we create a better country,” he said.
Obama’s strategy focused on cutting down the noise from social media, he refrained himself from looking at the comments on social media, or watch the news pundits. It is a distraction to get caught up in either criticism or praise. Obama says, “”If people were complementary, people assume you know more than you did,” & that can lead to an inflated ego, which can cloud reality.
Obama’s learnings and lessons are pertinent to leaders who are looking to make a mark. It is not about individuals or yourself, but the problems you solve and the task at hand. When you get caught up in what other people are saying about you, you often lose focus of the real thing.
Obama figured out that public commentary on him was a distraction, Obama remarked, “Not useful to me in doing my job or solving a problem, but designed to feed possible anxiety.”
Barack Obama uses 3 simple and powerful strategies to cope with work & pressure:
i) Spend time learning, collecting information and assimilating data from people who are more knowledgeable than you. Obama has great ability to ask questions from experts to collect the information. He asks questions and makes experts explain things in the layman terms to get a grasp of the situation.
ii) It is important to get moving and focus on the task at hand. Do your best and trust that things will fall into place. If a mistake happens, it can be fixed and you can learn from it. You cannot know everything in advance.
iii) People form their opinion about you based on the limited information they have. It is a weakness to get caught up in what people are saying about you, praise or blame. Your work is more important than you are. Don’t be obsessed with yourself, but with your work. Make your work about the work, not about yourself.
Obama’s wisdom shines in his advice to his daughters, “One way I describe it to my girls is, ironically, by taking your ego out of what you do, it will liberate you and you can ultimately perform better and more comfortably,” he said.
Ultimately, it is not about you, but the work you do. Don’t fall into the trap of your own ego & personality. Your work is always more important than you are. The greatest accomplishments speak for themselves. The best antidote for anxiety is action with full commitment & focus. The greatest work in the history of mankind has been accomplished by those who were obsessed with their work, not themselves.
