Barack Obama’s Communication Drove Career Growth and Retained a Strong Following

Former President, Barack Obama

Barack Obama certainly has his longstanding admirers and loyalists and arguably a bigger devoted following than any living former president.

He is known and appreciated by many for his public communication skills and charisma, which may play a significant role in his popularity. Yet what specifically makes him stand out as a communicator, what lessons can be learned and what opportunities are available to us if we can teach ourselves — or get assistance — to become more confident, influential and persuasive?

This Communication Intelligence magazine roundtable includes the professional insights from Dr. Louis Perron of Perron Campaigns; University of Kansas Professor of Communication Studies and presidential rhetoric specialist Robert Rowland, Ph.D; Peppercomm CEO Steve Cody and author, historian and political scientist William S. Bike.

Dr. Louis Perron of Perron Campaigns

“Obama is one of the most talented politicians alive,” says Perron, a political scientist and consultant. “He built his entire career around public speaking.”

He elaborates on how Obama elevated his reputation, opportunities and career around his influential and persuasive ability and skills.

“It was the speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 that catapulted him onto the national stage. His long-shot bid for the presidency in 2008 was built around speeches, and so was his reelection campaign. Once in office, and when Congress was controlled by Republicans, he tried to advance policy by mobilizing public opinion trough speeches.”

While effective public speaking is a skill, Perron says in this instance, it’s much more.

“For Obama, a lot of this is talent,” he asserts. As for what ‘talent’ means, Perron explains.

“The foundation of his communication skills is his ability to deliver great speeches. As a candidate running for office, several skills are needed: debating, giving interviews, public speaking. Obama does not excel at all of them. He was ok at debates, but not great — remember for example the first debate during his reelection campaign 2012. He didn't give all that many high-profile interviews when he was in office. He however did build his entire career around speeches.”

There are comparisons Perron likes to make to prove his analysis.

“George W. Bush was not a particularly gifted speaker. He knew it and dealt with it by rarely speaking longer than ten minutes. Joe Biden is not a good public speaker, yet his last State of the Union Speech was the best speech of his presidency. I’m sure he has invested quite some time into preparing the delivery. Nobody would have said Bill Clinton had charisma after his disastrous speech at the 1988 Convention. He dealt with it, took action, and got himself elected president of the USA twice. Mitt Romney was not a particularly gifted speaker, yet in the first presidential debate against Obama, he clobbered him. Romney did ten mock debates before going on stage. George H. W. Bush also was a mediocre speaker, but the speech he delivered at the 1988 Republican Convention was the speech of a lifetime. It was the start for an unlikely comeback and ultimate win,” he states.

Leaders can assign many tasks while advancing in their careers yet there is one big one, especially as a politician that can’t be outsourced.

“Improving speaking skills is something that cannot be delegated,” Perron says. “You have to do it yourself and invest the time pushing your own comfort zone.”

There are communication takeaways from how Obama is still experienced, perceived and judged by a segment of the media and public as a person and leader.

“The key takeaway,” Perron says, “is that Obama made an objective assessment of his strengths and built his entire career around it. He could also have become a TV pastor and would maybe also have been tremendously successful. That said, not everybody of us has such a talent.

“For those, the takeaway from the other cases, and how they dealt with it is, is equally if not more important.”

Robert C. Rowland, Ph.D., communications studies professor at the University of Kansas

“Barack Obama is among the most skillful communicators in American history, in the same group with Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan,” says Robert C. Rowland, Ph.D., a University of Kansas professor of Communication Studies, argumentation and rhetorical scholar and
expert in presidential rhetoric.

“Like Roosevelt and Reagan, Obama is very skillful at using narrative to emphasize basic values that are shared by all, or nearly all Americans,
Rowland says. “He provides a vision of a nation trying to make the American Dream a reality for all citizens. At the same time that Obama skillfully retells a community-oriented version of the American Dream and appeals to shared values, he also builds a strong argument for pragmatic liberalism.”

“He argues not for big government, but for government to do for the people what no individual can do by themselves. It is also worth noting that Obama consistently appeals to what Abraham Lincoln called the ‘better angels of our nature,’ that is to positive unifying values, rather than fear or grievance.

“I see Obama as a pragmatic liberal counterpart to the pragmatic small-government conservatism of Ronald Reagan.”

Communication does influence an audience’s feeling and judgment about authority, as a leader, their credibility and as a person.

“Leadership communication plays a crucial role in driving perception,” Rowland says. “It is important to remember that Obama was virtually unknown when he presented the Keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. When he gave the Keynote, he was a state senator running for the United States Senate in Illinois. The speech made him an instant national star. Fifty-one months later he was president-elect.  None of that would have happened without his skill as a communicator.”

Obama knows the value of high-level communication, behind the scenes as much as in front of the media and public. Rowland provides a quick example.

“Obama wrote a personal note to Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, who picked the keynote speaker in 2004, on Kerry’s invitation to the January 20th 2009 inauguration ceremony. 

“The note said, ‘I’m here because of you.’ What Obama meant was that he never would have been elected president in 2008 if Kerry had not given him the opportunity to present the Keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Skillful communication can make a very big difference indeed!” Rowland says.

Steve Cody, CEO of Peppercomm

Obama’s ability to lighten a moment was also a strength, says Steve Cody, CEO of Peppercom, a communications and marketing firm, and a co-author of a book on laughter that will be published by HarperCollins in early September.

“…along with Clinton, Reagan and JFK, Obama had the best sense of humor of any president in the last 50 years,” he boldly declares. “He also possessed the awareness of how and when to use humor to emphasize a point, diffuse an intense press conference, etc.”

This is an undervalued — and not often talked about trait — of many public speakers.

“The very best leaders know, whether instinctively like JFK, or as they mature in their role as chief executives, that it can be used to further emphasize a critically important point,” Cody says. “Lincoln was an absolute comedic genius at leveraging sometimes lengthy, but always witty, anecdotes to either explain a decision or deflect criticism.”

In short, when it came to Obama and having people pay attention to his communication, there was his strength to relax an audience.

“Obama’s comedic genius was in reading a room and understanding which witticism would be most effective in gaining the acceptance, if not adoration, of an audience,” Cody says.

There was also Obama’s willingness to allow humor at his expense.

“He was always at his best in front of the White House Press Corps and at the eight White House Press Correspondents dinner and has the self-assurance to poke just as much at himself as his opponents across the aisle or in the far-right media,” Cody says.

Does being self assured and exhibiting an easy sense of humor drive allegiance and earn support for leaders? Cody says it can.

“When everything else is equal and politicians are vying for those vital, undecided votes, Americans will choose to support the man or woman who made them nod in approval, smile at an observation or laugh out loud at the absurdity of a question,” he says.

Charisma often matters, maybe even if in an out-weighted measure, in how we are perceived and judged.

“And that gift is why so many historians continue to rank Obama in the top fourth quartile of greatest American presidents.

“Like most of our chief executives, he accomplished great things while failing mightily at others. Regardless of the outcome, Obama’s upbeat, can-do and often lighthearted persona made hundreds of millions of us proud to say we were Americans.”

William S. Bike, author and political scientist

Successful communication involves skilled listening and that was something, one expert says, Obama possessed as a strength.

“I met Barack Obama when I was active with a group called Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century when he was an Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator,” says William S. Bike, political scientist, senior vice president of Central Park Communications and author of Winning Political Campaigns, a how-to guide on all aspects of political campaigning.

“One aspect of his communication skills was that he was a good listener. When you spoke to him, you got the impression he was really listening instead of just waiting his turn to speak, like so many people.

“When he was a State Senator my wife and I had a conversation with him about a candidate we thought was going to win. He listened thoughtfully to what we had to say. He disagreed with us and backed up his opinion with facts. So we didn’t feel like he was talking down to us, but we actually had a good, old-fashioned, back-and-forth conversation, which is increasingly rare these days.”

There was also his poise, at least publicly, that stood out, Bike says.

“Another aspect of good communication is being calm and cool, and that was Barack Obama. He appeared completely unbothered when Congressman Joe Wilson screamed at him, ‘You lie!’ in a speech to Congress, making people feel that the calm, cool Obama was the sensible one — and wondering what was eating Wilson anyway,” he says.

“Because he was calm, cool and prepared with facts, Obama came off as confident, but not arrogant,” Bike adds. “Confidence is an attractive quality in communications.”

Another meaningful trait to an audience happens to be another one Obama was skilled at, Bike contends.

“Thoughtfulness. Usually when Obama was asked a question, he would pause and think about the answer, instead of blurting one out to prove how smart he was,” Bike says. “Consequently, he almost never misspoke and that track record of seldom making a mistake made him an effective communicator as well.”

Then there is his skill in remembering well.

“A good memory is also part of good communications. Obama’s good memory not only gave him a good command of facts that he could communicate, but it also made him more likable,” Bike says.

He points out a personal experience that illustrates his point.

“My wife and I saw Obama in the U.S. Congress when he was a Senator, years after that conversation when he was a State Senator and he remembered us by name. That impressive act of remembering us made anything he said immediately more credible.”