Situation Swagger

there are many storylines encapsulated in what is now the most heavily visited photo on media sharing website flickr. while we’ve all heard about “the stare” and hillary clinton’s gasp, there’s a more subtle communications lesson in all of this. the situation room shot speaks directly to a new form of swagger — especially at the presidential level. if you didn’t know better, you might not identify president obama as the commander-in-chief. his position in the room is not central. he’s not in the largest or highest chair. this communicates some signature characteristics in his leadership style. he’s self-assured. he seeks out the opinions of his advisers. he believes in collaboration. all of this, while he’s taking down the most wanted man on the planet in osama bin laden. the single clearest stroke of swagger stems from avoiding the “top gun” flight jacket to project strength. this is leadership without machisimo. for more on this, visit a cnn article on same.