13. William Jefferson Clinton's
Leadership Style
Margaret G. HermannThis leadership profile of Bill Clinton, forty-second president of the
United States, is based on an analysis of his responses to the domes-
tic and international press in fifty-four interviews between 1992 and
- The description that follows is derived from an at-a-distance
assessment of some 36,750 words. The words were examined for evi-
dence of seven different characteristics that have implications for
how political leaders will behave, the kinds of actions they are likely
to urge on their parties and governments, and the way they structure
and interact with their advisory groups. An individual leader's traits
are put into perspective by comparing them with similar scores for
other political leaders from their region and around the globe. The
characteristics are contextualized further by exploring how stable
they are across issues, audiences, and time. The attributes that define
the profile are those that historians, journalists, political scientists,
and other students of leadership have found to be influential in shap-
ing what leaders will do politically. The traits that are examined are
(i) the belief that one can influence or control what happens, (2) the
need for power and influence, (3) conceptual complexity (the ability
to differentiate among things and people in one's environment), (4)
self-confidence or self-esteem, (5) in-group bias, (6) general distrust
of others, and (7) the tendency to focus on problem solving and
accomplishing something versus maintenance of the group and deal-
ing with others' ideas and sensitivities. The at-a-distance technique
is described in more detail in chapter 8.
Several types of verbal material were available on Clinton:
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