'Different Strategies,' Barack Obama Talks About Leadership Lessons He Learned From Raising Daughters

Oct 02, 2019 by apost team

Former President of the United States Barack Obama is renowned for his impressive leadership skills. Recently, the 58-Year-Old revealed he has his daughter to thank for that.

At a recent event in San Fransisco organized by the data-analysis company Splunk, Obama gave some insight into parenting, which he compared to having plants: they need nurturing. 

“They’re a bamboo or they’re an oak or they’re a chestnut,” he said, as cited by Business Insider. 

“They all need water, sunlight, some TLC, but how they grow and what pace, when the branches sprout, when they flower at any given time, it’s just different. And so, our daughters were different, and as they got older, they became identifiable.”

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He went on the explain that Malia, 21, inherited her father's calm temperament while 18-year-old Sasha is much more like her mother. 

“What that meant was, in parenting, the idea that you do the exact same thing with each child the same way actually doesn’t make sense,” Obama continued.

“There has to be equity and fairness in terms of wanting them to get to the same outcomes, but we had to take sort of different strategies with our girls on certain things.”

Realizing these things as a parent meant he could transfer these skills into the professional space.

“What I found with my staff is, there’s some people where I could be more blunt with, and some people, I have to be a little more, what do the girls call it, ‘compliment sandwiches,’ trying to wrap it around the criticism where you’re like, ‘You’re wonderful. That was a terrible memo. I love you.’ There’s a little bit of that.”

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