Obama vs Trump: Interpersonal Skills
The interpersonal skills may be described as the skills employed when persons interact with each other (Klein; 81). It includes a wide range of concepts, such communication, team-working, conflict resolution and decision-making skills, which are all crucial for a person, who wants to become a good leader, let alone president. The former president Barack Obama and the current one Donald Trump have very different approaches in terms of communication with other people, and therefore, towards presidency.
It is very important for a good president to successfully interact with three sets of people: those, whose support he or she needs to gain elective office, those, whose analyses and advice he or she relies on to make sound policy judgments, and those, whose approval and friendship he or she wants for other reasons (Wayne; 9). As far as the first set of people is concerned, the key of successful presidency is the president’s ability to appeal to a large number of people, that is to say, not to make statements that may outrage some group of people. Obama took this attitude, being very careful about what he had to say, whereas Trump is famous for his scandalous quotes, such as calling negative polls during the election “fake news”, commenting on building a wall between Mexico and USA and making Mexico pay for it, his ‘birther’ comments towards Obama, when he was regularly questioning the former president’s citizenship, not to mention all of his sexist comments. Thoughtful politics helped Obama be elected twice, while Trump’s constant triggering the crowd has resulted in almost everyday scandal involving the current president, his words or actions.
Another interpersonal skill, crucial for a good president, is his ability to communicate with his colleagues both in the native country and abroad. This includes verbal communication (what and how is said), non-verbal communication (without words, including body language) and listening skills (interpretation of both verbal and non-verbal messages from other people). Barack Obama possesses this interpersonal skill, as he proved that he was able to successfully communicate with leaders from other countries, as well as his subordinates in the White House. Donald Trump, on the other hand, does not often seem polite in terms of his communication skills – for instance, his infamous handshake with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. According to the body language expert Darren Stanton, the purpose of such handshake is to convey power and confidence to the other person, the same with Trump’s disregard of personal space (Hosie; n.p.) This indicates lack of one of the most important interpersonal skills.
One more interpersonal skill, very important for a good leader, is team-working skill. In the presidential scale, this skill becomes even more important, while a smooth-running team means better results for the sake of the country. Obama’s presidency is sometimes referred to as “scandal-free”, which also indicates smooth work of his team, which managed to resolve their possible issues inside. Trump’s team, however, is already known for few scandals, such as the …
