An Early Assessment of the Lee Myung-bak Presidency:

As South Korea’s “rst chief execu tive officer (CEO) president, Lee Myung-bak (LMB) has what he regards as the strengths of a CEO: vision, certainty, and decisiveness. HÎs strengths as a political Jeader include bold thinking and consistent adherence 10 his chosen policies. Yet the defects in his style and quity include a tendency 10 ad without suffident de1i beratio ,n unw川ingness 10 admit the complexity of many policy i ssu， a tendency 10 consider only a narrow range of a 1ternatiS Intcnstingly, LMB s strenglhs as a CEO-type leader are also a reflectîon of nis weaknesses, the so-called dual nature of lead ership style. LMB s leadcrship strengths led 10 po1icy victories when he was a may。ι bul his weaknesses have 1ed to politica1 and administrative failures in nis first one-and-a-ha1f years as President. In this contex t, this paper exami nes the natu re of LMB’s leadership sty1e and qualities, focusing on his p이 itica1 and executive leadership and their impact on the trial and error of the policy initiatives that ne has carried out in the first on• and-a-half years of his presidency. This paper aιo explores the impacl of the limitations LMB’s leadership yle and qualities on the remaining three-and•a- half years of his presidency.