This month is Power of Love month, but this week takes a slight detour because of the biggest movie of the year so far- a true cultural phenomenon.  Black Panther features examples of both the light and dark side of Power of Conscience, and it tackles themes of what is right and who gets to decide that issue.

Black Panther

Black Panther tells the story of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the recently coronated king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Built around the world’s rarest metal, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on earth, and centuries ahead of everyone else in every respect. At its heart, it’s a story led by Power of Conscience character.

Power of Conscience Characters follow their own moral code and expect others to do the right thing. They operate on their own level of justice and think solely about what is right and what is wrong. Most importantly they are compelled to tackle in injustice and correct what they perceive as wrong-doing.

T’Challa’s Moral Dilemma

T’Challa must compromise his moral code to become the leader that his country needs.  He is challenged by a Power of Conscience antagonist that is the seeming opposite of everything he stands for. He learns to become the kind of leader who makes decisions that are for the greater good, despite opposition.

I will try to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the movie- Go see it yourself!

Too Good To Be King

“You’re a good man, with a good heart — and it’s hard for a good man to be king.”

One of the central dilemmas that faces King T’Challa in Black Panther is whether he should cooperate with the rest of the world and share with them what Wakanda has to offer. Many in the nation he now leads believe that the world is not ready to interact with Wakanda.

Throughout the film, T’Challa does the right thing no matter the cost. Members of his family and his heads of security disapprove. When he learns of his father’s dark past, and his connection to film’s lead antagonist, Erik Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan), he sympathizes with Erik and realizes he must lead Wakanda in a different direction to his ancestors.

T’Challa’s journey is going from being an uncertain man who does not feel ready to carry out what he knows the be right, to a King who has conviction in his actions.

Mirror Image

Erik Kilmonger (Michael B. Jordan) represents the dark side of Power of Conscience. Some people have already compared T’Challa and Kilmonger’s approaches to that of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X respectively. He is an outsider to Wakanda, determined to use Wakanda’s resources to benefit others. However, his vision is far more violent than T’Challa’s.

Erik takes it upon himself to take revenge for the injustices that the world has perpetrated on all his African forebearers. He believes that Wakanda has an obligation to help the oppressed outside of the nation. He is willing to shed blood to make sure that they rise up against inequality.

Erik shows how far Power of Conscience Characters will go to do what they believe is right. Although his intentions are noble, T’Challa knows that it will result in a scenario of endless bloodshed where no one truly wins. Erik is so blinded by his moral code that he becomes the kind of villain he wants to destroy.

Doing The Right Thing

Black Panther features both ends of the spectrum for Power of Conscience Characters. The film shows how far people are willing to go for the greater good, as they percieve it.

T’Challa becomes a better man when faced with constant challenges to his authority and beliefs. Erik is so blinded by rage and tragedy that he believes the ends justify the means. He goes too far in his attempt to conquer Wakanda and wage war on the world for past oppression.

Power of Conscience

Power of Conscience Characters provide plenty of opportunity for conflict in drama. They work well in serious or comedic stories. For more examples of Power of Conscience characters, check out my eBook about this Character Type at the ETB store.

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This month is Power of Conscience month, where most of the website’s content is dedicated to those who are justice seekers. They believe they know best what is right or wrong, and will go as far as they have to do ensure that wrong is punished or set right.

Today we’re looking at Whistleblowers. These are the men and women who call out injustice and conspiracy for the good of the people. In the real world, we have recent examples like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who were forced into exile for exposing Government wrongdoing.

Whilst it may have broken the law, sometimes laws are outdated and no longer work to protect the people. When this is the case, sometimes, you need to go outside the law in order to do what it right. This is exactly what any Power of Conscience character would do.

There are also Whistleblowers who don’t break the law but are suppressed and finally risk everything to do what is right. Most recently we saw Rose McGowan, among others, who drove the momentum after the accusations came out against Harvey Weinstein.

The movement became bigger than one predator because of Whistleblowers like Rose McGowan who were bullied into silence but spoke out because it was the right thing to do. Whistleblowers are always Power of Conscience characters.

An excellent example of a fictional Whistleblower is Captain America (Chris Evans), in the 2014 movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America is frozen in time after WW2 and defrosted in the present day. A soldier with a boy scout mentality has his morality severely tested when he discovers that SHIELD, the espionage organization he works for, has been infiltrated by HYDRA, the villains he thought he defeated back in the 1940s, since the beginning. He has been working for the bad guys and decides to reveal this information to the public.

This action destabilizes national security and leaves the espionage community, and government, in chaos.

He may not have been a Whistleblower if he wasn’t a Power of Conscience character. He always does the right thing, even if it may have catastrophic results in the long term.

In this case, he was right to do so, but in the 2016 sequel he goes the other way and keeps information from his friends, and violates international law because he believes it is the right thing to do. Captain America is every bit as much as Power of Conscience character as Manning, Snowden, and McGowan.

This key speech from the film perfectly sums up Captain America’s motivations:

“The Price of Freedom is high, and it’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

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In the war between emotion and reason, emotion always wins. Always.

Why? Emotion leads to action but thinking leads to conclusions.  If you want to motivate people you must engage their emotions.  You don’t need them to think.  You need them to GO!

This is something the Democrats will have to accept and utilize– again.  Hope, President Obama’s slogan, is a powerful emotion. It drove a wide and varied electorate to the polls and changed history.

Anger and fear are also powerful emotions. Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” implies the country is no longer great and it is, in fact, slipping away.  Outsiders are flooding in.  Social values are changing. “Real” American citizens are being marginalized and pushed out of positions of power.

Those feelings drove unhappy, mostly white, voters to the polls to reclaim their superiority and assert their privilege. They wanted to change history back before the truly marginalized got “uppity” and forgot their place. They wanted a “strong man” to bully and aggressively “put down” those who want social change.

Power of Will characters, like Donald Trump, divide the world into aggressors and victims, hunters and prey, and the strong and the weak. They believe it is better to be feared than to be loved. They never want to be seen as “soft” or vulnerable. They show no mercy to anyone.  But, in the end, it’s all about their own survival.

Power of Will Characters will throw anyone under the bus if it comes down to a threat to their own survival. This is something Trump’s family might want to keep in mind. Love doesn’t figure into the equation.

Tony Soprano, another Power of Will Character, proved this with chilling dramatic effect.  Christopher Molisante is arguably one of the people Tony loved most in this world.  During a time when Christopher relapses and starts taking drugs again, he and Tony get in a car accident.  Christopher is babbling and Tony, afraid his secrets might be betrayed, kills Christopher with his bare hands.

In an earlier episode, Christopher says, “That’s the guy Adrianna, my uncle Tony. The guy I’m going to hell for.” Little did he know Tony would personally send him there. Love is ancillary, promises are meaningless, assurances are worthless, as we’ve seen over and over in Trump’s White House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6t08B37ugA

Both Tony Soprano and Donald Trump share the characteristics in the infographic below.
The only way to defeat a Power of Will Character is with integrity.  It’s kryptonite to bullies.  Watch Robert Mueller quietly building a case. No leaks. No showboating. He is slowly assembling the evidence. True integrity will win out. I believe in what Theodore Parker said before the Civil War.  I believe in hope.

We cannot understand the moral Universe. The arc is a long one, and our eyes reach but a little way; we cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; but we can divine it by conscience, and we surely know that it bends toward justice. Justice will not fail, though wickedness appears strong, and has on its side the armies and thrones of power, the riches and the glory of the world, and though poor men crouch down in despair. Justice will not fail and perish out from the world of men, nor will what is really wrong and contrary to God’s real law of justice continually endure.

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I found a fantastic clip of Tracy and Hillary intercut in a scene from Election.  It is a wonderful sketch of everything that is most important to this Character Type.  The clip refers back to Clinton’s run against Barack Obama (a Power of Imagination character) in 2008.

Power of Conscience characters believe that leadership must be earned by dedication, hard work, thorough preparation, and devotion to duty.  Leadership must be deserved. One must be worthy in order to lead. At their worst, these characters can become rigid, accusatory, sanctimonious, judgmental, and hypocritical.

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Here’s the bottom line: An increasing body of science suggests that we disagree about politics not for intellectual or philosophical reasons, but because we have fundamentally different ways of responding to the basic information presented to us by the world. These are often ways of which we are not even aware– automatic, subconscious– but that color all of our perceptions, and that effectively drive us apart politically.

What’s more, what is true for how we come to our opinions about politics is also, assuredly, true for how we approach “facts” that are perceived to have some bearing on (or threaten) the validity of our political opinions–whether those facts are scientific, economic, historical, or even theological in nature.

In the Emotional Toolbox approach to character, a three-dimensional character actually has three dimensions

1) Immediate Response- where the character goes first emotionally

2) Long-Term Orientation- the character’s general philosophy on life and love

3) Strategic Approach- how the character plans and works to achieve a goal

In this post I will consider a character’s Immediate Response.  This is how a character viscerally reacts to an unexpected challenge, opportunity, or threat. (For example aggressive questions at a Press Conference.)

A character’s Immediate Response is where the character goes first emotionally. This response is a character’s automatic reaction when caught off-guard, questioned, or challenged unexpectedly.

For example, Power of Conscience characters instantly decide if someone or something is good and true— or bad, unjust, unfair or inhumane. Their first response is to attack any challenge, opportunity, or threat which they believe involves impropriety, immorality or wrong-doing.

These characters are instinctively propelled forward by outrage and moral indignation. Their judgment and action is swift and immutable. They refuse to compromise or back down. They are relentless in confronting what they perceive as evil, corrupt, bad, or ethically unacceptable.

Rick Santorum, a Power of Conscience character, is known for his impulsive comments and passing swift judgement when presented with anything that might violate his standards of decency, ethics, or principles.

Alternatively, Power of Truth characters instinctively step back or withdraw to observe, consider, or analyze an unexpected challenge, opportunity, or threat.  When presented with a situation, good or bad, their first response is to step back and consider what the situation really means.

These characters want to be certain that they know what is actually going on as opposed to what appears to be happening. They suspect and try to detect what the real motives are or what is hidden from the superficial assessment. It’s the measured MBA mindset as an Initial Response.

Mitt Romney, a Power of Truth character, is measured, cool, and distant in his response to anything.  He has been roundly criticized for his stiff off-the-cuff remarks and lack of passion when responding to challenges, questions, or difficulty. He is a cautious man who constantly hedges his bets, backtracks, and equivocates.

On the other hand, Power of Imagination characters instinctively lead from their heart in any unexpected situation. These character feel they can and will connect with something bigger or more extraordinary than themselves. They don’t have to ponder, think or decide. They are compelled to embrace others, bring them along to share their vision, and join their quest.

Barack Obama, a Power of Imagination character, has been criticized for instinctively seeking compromise and collaboration with even those unalterably opposed to him personally, all his policies, and everything he believes in.  Obama, in a crisis, believes in creating “teaching moments” in an attempt to establish common ground and bring people together. His first instinct is to promote a larger vision and inspire others to follow him as a unified whole out any emergency.

These Immediate Reactions are powerful automatic responses to any situation. These responses clearly distinguish characters in the political area and in every other aspects of their lives.

It has always seemed to me that one of a President’s primary responsibilities is to be a storyteller. We all know the importance of narratives, of stories; they are part of the reasons our brains are so damn big. We need stories, we thrive on them, stories are how we shape our universe. Tolkien could have been talking about the power of stories when he described his One Ring: stories rule us, they find us, they bring us together, they bind us, and, yes, they can pull us apart as well. If a President is to have any success, if his policies are going to gain any kind of traction among the electorate, he first has to tell us a story.

All year I’ve been waiting for Obama to flex his narrative muscles, to tell the story of his presidency, of his Administration, to tell the story of where our country is going and why we should help deliver it there. A coherent, accessible, compelling story—one that is narrow enough to be held in our minds and hearts and that nevertheless is roomy enough for us, the audience, to weave our own predilections, dreams, fears, experiences into its fabric.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/01/one-year-storyteller-in-chief.html#ixzz0dekBOJ4P

Power of Imagination Profile
President Barack Obama

“Out of (Obama’s) perceptiveness comes a distinct way of seeing the world. Obama emphasizes the connections between people, the networks and the webs of influence. These sorts of links are invisible to some of his rivals, but Obama is a communitarian. He believes you can only make profound political changes if you first change the spirit of the community. In his speeches, he says that if one person stands up, then another will stand up and another and another and you’ll get a nation standing up.”

Fictional Character Examples

Three Factors of Character Type

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A Character Type is made up of three key factors:

1. Immediate Tactics: This is how a character reacts to a specific challenge, opportunity or threat (often unforeseen). It is a character’s immediate tactical response or actions in dealing with a problem or obstacle in the short-term.

2. Long-term Orientation: This is how the character views the world, sees his or her role in it and is what a character believes is true about life and love. It is a character’s overall personal philosophy and view of self and others.

3. Strategic Approach: This is how a character goes about leading or getting things done over the long haul. It is how a character works with others overall. It is how a character plans, takes charge or commands others to achieve a larger goal. Strategy deals with the art of of obtaining a grand overarching longer-term objective.

Each of these key factors results in fight, flight or embrace/submit response.  Character is action. There are the three possible actions a character can take in any given situation or circumtance. He or she can confront the challenge, opportunity or threat (fight). The character can withdraw from it (flee/flight) perhaps to regroup or do reconnaisence. Or a character can embrace something (submit) and perhaps co-opt, cajole or cooperate with the adversary.

As Power of Imagination character, President Obama consistently acts in the following manner.

Immediate Tactics

Power of Imagination characters embrace an immediate or unexpected opportunity, challenge or threat as something to be communicated to or with others. These characters are compelled to embrace others and ask them to share their perceptions as well. They want all parties to embrace the common good inspired by their vision.

That’s why President Obama constantly sees “teachable moments” in difficult unforeseen situations and circumstances.  During his candidacy, he responded to charges of anti-white racism on the part of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with a long thoughtful speech on racism, exploring the distrust and anger on both sides.  When another issue of racism came up during his presidency his response was to invite the white police officer (Sgt. James Crowley) and the black professor (Dr. Henry Gates) involved over to the White House to share a beer.

His automatic response to most unforeseen situations is to try to improve communications.  In his own words, regarding the U.S. financial melt-down he said in an interview on CBS’ Sixty Minutes on March 22, 2009:

“One of the things that I have to do is to communicate to Wall Street that, given the current crisis that we’re in, they can’t expect help from taxpayers but they enjoy all the benefits that they enjoyed before the crisis happened. You get a sense that, in some institutions that has not sunk in. That you can’t go back to the old way of doing business, certainly not on the taxpayers’ dime. Now the flip side is that Main Street has to understand, unless we get these banks moving again, then we can’t get this economy to recover. And we don’t want to cut off our nose to spite our face.”

Notice President Obama’s use of “on the one hand and on the other hand” discussion of the financial crisis— trying to see the issue from all sides, harmonize, unify and bring the two sides together for the greater good.  He is consistently criticized for this kind of rhetorical balancing act.  The conservative Heritage Foundation called attention to and took issue with this Power of Imagination speaking style in President Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech on December 10, 2009, saying:

“In many ways, the speech was typical Obama, a masterpiece of one the one hand, on the other hand… On the one hand, President Obama, appropriately defended the use of force in the interest of national security – as in Afghanistan — and correctly referenced the just war concept. On the other hand, he stretched the term security to include prosperity and welfare, not simply freedom from harm.”

Long-term Orientation

“People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.  In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone… That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another…  The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”

“Consider the president’s leadership style, which has now become clear: deliver a moving speech, move on, and when push comes to shove, leave it to others to decide what to do if there’s a conflict, because if there’s a conflict, he doesn’t want to be anywhere near it.

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Health care is a paradigm case. When the president went to speak to the Democrats last week on Capitol Hill, he exhorted them to pass the bill. According to reports, though, he didn’t mention the two issues in the way of doing that, the efforts of Senators like Ben Nelson to use this as an opportunity to turn back the clock on abortion by 25 years, and the efforts of conservative and industry-owned Democrats to eliminate any competition for the insurance companies that pay their campaign bills. He simply ignored both controversies and exhorted.

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Leadership means heading into the eye of the storm and bringing the vessel of state home safely, not going as far inland as you can because it’s uncomfortable on the high seas. This president has a particular aversion to battling back gusting winds from his starboard side (the right, for the nautically challenged) and tends to give in to them. He just can’t tolerate conflict, and the result is that he refuses to lead.”

Strategic Approach

A Power of Imagination character’s overall method of working with others toward a goal is to step back or withdraw for the good of the group. These characters don’t want to impose themselves on others too stridently. They are extremely patient and are willing to work through thorny problems or difficult issues by listening to all sides. These character don’t particular seek individual credit. They much prefer to be subsumed in the team.

Their challenge as leaders is to step forward decisively and make the hard and potentially divisive decision on their own. President Obama doesn’t personally exhibit a lot of passion, a sense of urgency or boldness. He is known as “No Drama Obama” and is famous for his patience calm personal style.

His Power of Imagination Immediate Tactic: Embrace along with his Long Term Orientation: Embrace combined with his Strategic Approach: Withdraw creates a measured approach which is directed at building consensus rather than taking a principled stand that may be divisive or cause conflict.  The leap of faith required from this kind of leader is to stand up and do the right thing regardless of what turmoil, disruption or animosity it might cause.  Taking that kind of personal stand is President Obama’s biggest challenge as a leader.

Power of Conscience

In contrast to The Power of Imagination, a Power of Conscience leader is fearless about taking a divisive personal stand.  In the excellent film, Invictus, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) seeks to over turn a democratically arrived at and popular decision to disband the Afrikaner rugby team the Springboks.  In the film, Mandela says: “In this instance the people are wrong… The day I am afraid to tell them that is the day I am no longer fit to lead them.”  Power of Conscience leaders are always striding ahead of the crowd to do what is right regardless of the controversy or conflict their decisions may cause.  These Character Types have their own challenges and must make their own very different leaps of faith.  Read more about Power of Conscience leaders Nelson Mandela (as portrayed in Invictus) and Queen Elizabeth (as portrayed in The Queen) on my blog.

As a final note, no Character Type makes an inherently good or bad leader.  Each Character Type leads from his or her own world view and beliefs about what a good leader is or is not.  Each kind of leader has strengths, weaknesses and faces specific emotional challenges.  Each type of leader is called on to make a leap of faith in order to be truly great.

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly set out to identify some of the best-loved political films of all time. The publication combined staff choices with readers’ votes to come up with a list of 16.

Here are the top 10, with each film’s primary star:

– Election (1999): Reese Witherspoon

– The Man (1972): James Earl Jones

– The American President (1995): Michael Douglas

– The Candidate (1972): Robert Redford

– Primary Colors (1998): John Travolta

– Bulworth (1998): Warren Beatty

– Dave (1993): Kevin Kline

– The Distinguished Gentleman (1992): Eddie Murphy

– The Manchurian Candidate (1962): Laurence Harvey

– Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): James Stewart

To see the full list, and a slideshow summary of each film check out Entertainment Weekly Political Film List.  Let me know what your picks are!

The following article excerpt was written by Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks:

If we could counsel John McCain at this moment in history, when he has squandered much of the honor and good will Americans used to grant him, we’d embrace him, look him in the eye and say this:

“Go ahead and let yourself feel scared. It’s normal, it’s human and it helps you connect with the rest of us. When you feel scared, let yourself feel it. (Face it) Breathe with it. Dance with it. Above all, don’t tempt the universe by shaking a fist at fear and saying that you will not acknowledge its existence. Doing that puts you on a collision course with the forces of nature, like shaking your fist at thunder and saying you’re never going to listen to it again.

Instead, let your fear in. Speak about it to the ones you love. (Make yourself vulnerable and let intimacy and love in.) …Ultimately, love is the best cure for fear. If you really want to have a great relationship with yourself and other people, love your fear (face your fear) just as it is, and watch the miracles that unfold as a result.”

What happens when you let yourself feel your fear is that it opens up a direct connection to your creativity. The more you’re willing to open up (face) and embrace your fear (and be vulnerable), the more creativity flows through you. We would never have believed that remarkable fact until we experienced the truth of it ourselves and saw it work its magic on many other people.

An Integrity Problem

Being cut off from fear or any emotion puts you out of integrity with yourself. As one our mentors, Jack Downing, M.D., put it, “Integrity glitches cause body twitches.” The source of John McCain’s odd display of twitches, jaw-clenches and chilly grins is a fault-line gap of integrity (and authenticity) at the center of himself, a place where he has cut himself off from fear and the rest of us.

He wants to become a super hero, The Man Without Fear. That’s not a bad idea for a cartoon, but in real life (and in most storytelling) it would be a disaster. In real life (and in real stories), we need real heroes, people who are willing to acknowledge fear (and face fear) and look within it, to the gift it brings.

Read the whole article here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathlyn-and-gay-hendricks/body-politics-the-source_b_134900.html

Today let’s take a closer look at Barack Obama’s response
A Character Type is made up of three key factors:

1. Immediate Tactics: This is how a character reacts to a specific challenge, opportunity or threat.  It is a character’s immediate tactical response or maneuvers to deal with a specific problem or obstacle in the short-term.

2.  Long-term Orientation: This is how the character views the world, sees his or her role in it and is what a character believes is true about life and love.  It is a character’s overarching personal philosophy and view of self.

3.  Strategic Approach: This is how a character goes about leading or getting things done over the long haul.  It is how a character works with others overall. It is how a character takes charge or commands to achieve a larger goal.  Strategy deals with the art of of obtaining a grand overarching objective.

Each of these key factors is motivated by the fight, flight or embrace/submit response.  These are the three possible biological reactions to anything.  A character can confront something (fight).  He or she can withdraw from something (flight).  Or a character can embrace or submit to something.

Each of these key factors is motivated by the fight, flight or embrace/submit response.  These are the three possible biological reactions to anything.  A character can confront something (fight).  He or she can withdraw from something (flight).  Or a character can embrace or submit to something.

Obama is a classic Power of Imagination character.

Interestingly, Obama’s tactical and strategic dynamics are exactly the same as McCain’s: Immediate Tactics (embrace) and Strategic Approach (withdraw). This combination manifests itself very differently because a Power of Imagination character’s overarching personal philosophy and view of self is poles apart from that of the Power of Idealism character like John McCain.

1. Immediate Tactics: Power of Imagination characters embrace an opportunity, challenge or threat as something to be communicated to others. Power of Imagination characters believe they have a big message, an important directive or urgent call from “somewhere out there” or somewhere “deep inside.” They know in their heart when they have connected with something bigger and more extraordinary than themselves.

These characters are then compelled to embrace others and share their perceptions. They want others to embrace the common good inspired by their vision. Power of Imagination characters are the most unlikely of messengers. They usually people who are normally overlooked. As a young black man, with only a two year tenure in the Senate, Obama is a very unlikely Presidential candidate.

Despite their improbable chances, the power of their idea, message or inspiration forces these characters to gather others in some kind of common quest or group journey. These characters want to simply embrace and be a part of the group but, in the end, they are thrust forward to take on the hero’s role.

In the recent US financial crisis, Obama took a background role. He quietly worked the phones trying to bring members of Congress together in some kind of compromise. He only came forward when forced by John McCain to attend the Presidential level meeting with Congressional leaders. Afterward Obama said: “It is a mistake to interject Presidential politics into sensitive negotiations.” McCain characterized Obama’s low key unifying tactics as not providing bold enough leadership.

2. Long-term Orientation: Power of Imagination characters see the world as a vast web of interconnection. They take an inconspicuous background role in order to embrace and validate others and more effectively weave together collaborators who ordinarily would have nothing in common. They stress that whatever personal differences there may be, a common purpose should unite the group.

The Power of Imagination character’s philosophy might be stated: “We must be inspired to work for the common good and the welfare of the whole.” They believe: “All for one. One for all.” They value unity, cooperation and collaboration above all else.

Barack Obama often uses the words “we” and “us” in his campaign. “America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.” “Now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out (of the financial crisis).” “We have a daunting task ahead of us.” He sees leadership as being an exercise in building relationships and using teamwork.

These characters’ worldview can make them seem impractical, quixotic, dreamy and disorganized. Their extreme aversion to conflict and confrontation often inhibits setting appropriate boundaries, standing their ground and making difficult choices. At their worst, Power of Imagination characters dither, compromise, and endlessly discuss needed decisions for fear of offending someone or not including everyone in the decision-making.. At their best, they bring people together to work toward a common goal.

3. Strategic Approach: A Power of Imagination character’s overall method of working with others toward a goal is to step back or withdraw for the good of the group. These characters don’t want to impose themselves on others too stridently. They are extremely patient and are willing to work through thorny problems or difficult issues by listening to all sides. These character don’t particular seek individual credit. They much prefer to be subsumed in the team. Their challenge as leaders is to step forward decisively and make the hard potentially divisive decision on their own.

Obama’s actions during the financial crisis seemed cool and distant. He doesn’t exhibit a lot of passion, a sense of urgency or boldness. His Immediate Tactic: Embrace along with his Long Term Orientation: Embrace combine with his Strategic Approach: Withdraw creates a measured approach which is directed at patiently building consensus.

McCain sees a challenge in terms of a personal call to step forward as an individual hero. Obama sees a challenge in terms of bringing people together as a unified group. If this were a romantic comedy sparks would fly as the two characters exchanged gifts and filled in the missing pieces in the other.