William Jefferson Clinton's Leadership Stylesituations require action, and the person will be viewed as lacking
leadership if he or she does not do something.
Is the Leader Open or Closed to Contextual Information?Political leaders have been found to differ in their degree of openness
to contextual information based on their levels of self-confidence and
conceptual complexity. These two traits interrelate to form a leader's
self-other orientation—how open they will be to input from others
in the decision-making process and from the political environment
in general. Leaders like Clinton whose scores on these two traits are
relatively equal and higher than other leaders are generally open to
information. Indeed, they are likely to be quite strategic in their
behavior, focusing their attention on what is possible and feasible at
any point in time. Their high self-confidence facilitates having
patience in the situation and taking their time to see what will suc-
ceed, while their high conceptual complexity pushes them to search
for information from a variety of constituents and perspectives.
These leaders combine the best qualities of both these traits—a sense
of what they want to do but the capability to check the environment
to see what will work.
These leaders seek both confirmatory and disconfirmatory infor-
mation from the context to know what is feasible. They want to
become the center of any information network that will provide
them with a sense of what is happening and who is supporting or
opposing what options and activities. In their minds, information is
power. If they can maintain themselves as the hubs of such networks,
they know more than any other member. Such a role allows them to
be in the middle of all decisions.
One dilemma such leaders have is that their behavior can seern
erratic and opportunistic to the outside observer. If one does not
know the goals or understand how such leaders are perceiving the
situation, their decisions and actions may seem indecisive and
chameleonlike as they try to decipher what is doable at any point in
time. To gather information, these leaders may lead particular con-
stituents and groups to believe that their position is supported when,
indeed, all that the leaders were doing was considering options and
getting reactions.
Political leaders like Clinton who are high in conceptual com-