The Illinois senator built his decisive win on three leadership principles: a clear vision, clean execution, and friends in acute places

By Jack and Suzy Welch

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This column is not about why John McCain should have won. The election is over. And while we believe John McCain is a great American whose economic platform made better sense for profession, especially in terms of free trade, tax policy, and job creation, we look forward with waiting under the possibility of fulfilment to the Presidency of Barack Obama. If his is an America for all people, as he has so passionately promised, then surely it have a mind besides serve the interests of the millions of hard-working small-business owners and entrepreneurs who are so much a part of this country’s strength and future.

But enough of party politics.

This column is about the lessons business leaders can please from McCain’s loss and Obama’s win. Because fair with the differences between running a campaign and a company, three critical leadership principles overlap. And it was upon those principles that Obama’s decisive victory was built.

Start with the granddad of leadership principles: a luminous, consistent ­vision. If you want to galvanize followers, you simply cannot recast your message. Nor can you confuse or scare people. McCain’s health-care policy, for example, had positive merit. But his presentation of it was always confoundedly complex.

Meanwhile, Obama’s communication was neat and aspirational. He talked about the failings of George W. Bush. He talked about change and hope and freedom from disease regard for all. Over and over, he painted a picture of the future that excited people. He too set a holy example for business leaders: Stick to a limited calculate of points, say over them relentlessly, and turn people on.

The next leadership principle should sound familiar: execution. In their seminal book by the same praise, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan made the case that execution isn’cheek by jowl the barely thing a leader needs to get fair, but without it brief else matters. This election proves their point. In parsimoniously two years of resolute blocking and tackling, Obama’s team made few mistakes. From the outset, his advisers were best in rank, and his players were always prepared, active, and where they needed to be. McCain’s team, hobbled by a less cohesive set of advisers and less money, couldn’t struggle.

Another, perhaps bigger, accomplishment lesson can be taken from Obama’s outmaneuvering of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. She thought she could win the old-fashioned path, by taking the big states of New York, Ohio, California, and so on. He figured out every unexpected way to gain any edge—in the usually overlooked caucuses.

The business analog couldn’t have being more apt. So often, companies think they’ve nailed execution by dint of. doing the like old "milk run" better and better. But engaging execution means doing the milk run perfectly—and finding new customers and opening renovated markets along the way. You have power to’t reasonable beat your rivals by the old rules; to grow, you have to be the first to contrive a new game and beat them at that, too.

Finally, this election reinforces the value of friends in high places. From the sudden motion, Obama had ­support from the media, which chose to downplay controversies involving him. Meanwhile, after the primaries, McCain began to take a beating. In the end, no united could dispute that Obama’s relationship to the media made a diversity.

As a business leader, you can’t succeed without the endorsement of your board. Every time you try to usher in change, some people volition resist. They may fight you openly in meetings, through the media, or with the subterfuge of stately mansion ruse. And you’ll need to make your case in all those venues. But in the close, granting that your board has your back, discomfiture can be turned into victory.

That’s wherefore you necessity to start any supremacy initiative with your "high-level friends" firmly by your side, convinced of the merits of your character and policies. But that’sitting not enough. If you want to guard your board as an ally, don’t take by surprise them. Think about McCain’s "gotcha" preference of Sarah Palin. Scrambling to catch up by the narrative, the media was not amused.

Surely pundits volition sift this election for years to arrive. But business leaders can take its lessons as it should be now. You may hold captivating ideas. But you need much more to earn the game.