Exactly one year ago, November 11, 2007, I published an online article on HR.com that discussed how Barack Obama was doing a good job of truly engaging people in his campaign, but that he had a slight miss on a particular exchange on LinkedIn. In the article I suggested, ” From my work as an advisor to corporate executives it is clear that CEOs who engage their workforce move from having a group of passive followers to people who are active in driving for a cause and willing to take personal accountability for results. Isn’t that what a Presidential hopeful needs in terms of getting out the vote and eventually leading our country?”

Now that the election is over, Barack Obama’s campaign so clearly showed the power of a leader getting people engaged in their cause it is worth calling out again and sharing some key tips to leverage in your own leadership.

If you were an Obama supporter it is likely that you really felt that his win, was a win for the country and a personal win, not just a win for him. If you weren’t an Obama supporter you likely at least saw this in the faces and heard the comments of people gathered in celebration for the win. And it wasn’t just the USA voting public that he engaged, he has engaged the world.

If you are asking people to buy-in on something, it means that you are selling something, and people don’t like to be “sold”. Candidates who are trying to sell themselves and their agenda or executives trying to sell a strategic decision will at best win agreement. But what won’t be won is the passion of groups of people to execute the strategy or get involved in the process under their own initiative.

Obama was extremely successful in getting out voters in numbers never seen before. It is because he engaged people in his campaign. At some point they were individually working for their own win. This meant that on Tuesday, November 5th, 2008 that people took the time to vote and did not change their mind in the voting booth. The executed the strategy, for themselves as well as for Obama and the country.

In his acceptance speech, Obama claimed the win for everyone, not himself, because he realizes that his supporters were engaged. He pointed out that he will listen carefully to those who disagree, which is again not the stance of someone selling for buy-in, but seeking to engage.

Now, the next challenge will be how to take all of those highly engaged people and keep them engaged in his Presidency. If Obama can find ways to leverage technology and other means as he did in the campaign to maintain the engagement, he and our country will generate breakthroughs that we never thought possible. Perhaps I’ll send President Elect Obama a copy of BIG Ideas to BIG Results and see if he thinks he can leverage our process to do this. He probably already has a big stack of books and clearly ‘gets it’ already, but I’m moved to try to engage and do my part for the success of our country.

Obama has provided a great example of generating engagement and investment versus pithing for buy-in. As you assess the success of his efforts so far, look at it with this lens of engagement and see what you can borrow for your own leadership. Here are a few specific tips:

- Don’t seek to sell people your ideas and have them “buy-in.” Rather, invite people to invest personally in a shared vision with you

- Listen well to everyone and especially closely to those who disagree with you

- Lead in service to others and share credit with everyone when the team wins

A free eBook titled “People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them” at Seth Godin / 800-CEO-Read’s ChangeThis site provides more ideas and details about the type of engagement that marked the Obama campaign.

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