Is Donald Trump a poor leader or a great leader?

As I write this it’s November 2016 and Donald Trump has won the US election and is now President-elect. He will be inaugurated as the 45th American President on 20th January 2017.

The election is still very fresh in everyone’s mind and most will remember the election campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton being one of the most bitter and difficult campaigns in living memory.

The numerous quotes highlighted by the media from Donald Trump have led to claims of misogyny, racism and xenophobia. The New York Times even printed a two page spread showing the list of insults Donald Trump has uttered.

The topic for this article however is to consider whether Donald Trump is an example of a poor leader or a great leader, not whether he really has all of these characteristics attributed to him throughout the campaign and beyond.

Since winning the election, it is apparent that Donald Trump has assumed a much more conciliatory tone and we’re starting to see a number of U-turns already on some of his seemingly more extreme policies, such as banning all Muslims from entering the US. We’re beginning to see a different Trump already to the man who fought such a bitter election campaign. It remains to be seen what sort of a President Donald Trump will be but in the meantime how can we view Donald Trump’s leadership qualities? Despite his campaign rhetoric and accusations that he is guilty of inciting violence and hatred, over 60 million Americans voted for him and that was enough to put him into the most powerful position on the planet; the President of the United States of America.

When you think of great leaders, who do you think about? Martin Luther King Jr? Richard Branson? Ghandi? And what do these notable leaders have in common? I have had many discussions with group participants about the nature of great leadership and there are numerous models that apparently help us to define the qualities that leaders should have. One of the more common discussions that pops up fairly frequently is the subject of Adolf Hitler. I realise that there have been many comparisons in the election campaign between Trump and Hitler however I am in no way making that comparison myself today, I am merely pointing out that some people cite Hitler, despite everything that he did, as being a great leader. Let me be very quick to point out that I do not in any way find anything ‘great’ in what this man did, I am saying that it is a discussion topic that often rears its head when exploring the nature of leadership. Hitler led his country fairly successfully before the war and was even nominated for the Nobel peace prize before his truly evil intent became clear. But what was the nature of that leadership? And what lessons can we learn from it?

Perhaps that is a discussion for another day though. Let’s focus on the leadership of Donald Trump. How did he motivate over 60 million Americans to come out and vote for him and put him into office. Does that fact alone make him a great leader? Let’s take a look.

There are numerous conflicting stories about whether Trump is actually a good or a bad business man. He’s certainly had a lot of business failures but he has equally had a great deal of success.

I would suggest that you don’t get to where Donald Trump is today, in terms of his wealth and property empire, without having some sort of business acumen and leadership capability. How many of us ride around in our own private 757 jet?

Passion

One of Trump’s greatest leadership traits is his passion. He is able to show passion which is what you need if you’re going to inspire other people. Without it, you will not take people along with you.

Dedication

Donald Trump loves what he does. When talking about a work-life balance he stated "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." We achieve much more when we enjoy what we do and this makes it easier to show genuine passion.

Taking responsibility

"Leaders, true leaders, take responsibility for the success of the team, and understand that they must also take responsibility for the failure." This is a great quote from Trump and he has had to take responsibility for the failure of several of his businesses however I still wonder, if he had lost the election to Hillary Clinton, if he would have been so keen to take his share of responsibility in that instance. He famously stated during one of the election debates that he would not accept the result of the election if he lost as he believed it was going to be rigged. Trump is known for throwing his toys out of his pram when he doesn’t get his own way.

Vision

It cannot be denied that Trump had a vision in his election campaign. Not only did he have a vision, he communicated that vision to over 60 million Americans. Whether you agree with his vision of America and how he hopes to achieve it however, is a whole different ball game. He nevertheless stuck to his guns in the face of huge opposition. It remains to be seen whether he is able to deliver on that vision. The U-turns on campaign policy before Trump is even in the White House suggest that his proposed vision for America may be unrealistic; perhaps a sign that his goals are somewhat misguided. It’s great to have a vision and inspire people, but if it’s impossible to deliver, you will very quickly lose your credibility.

Empathy

This is an interesting one. Does Donald Trump show empathy? In some ways his campaign was based on having empathy for the disadvantaged, the people who’ve been left behind, the inner cities, the people without jobs, working families. On the other hand he showed no empathy whatsoever for protesters at his rallies who he had thrown out and often spoke words that seemed to incite violence. He showed no empathy towards Mexicans and how his ‘great wall’ would affect them or how his temporary but total ban on Muslims entering the US would affect law-abiding Muslims from the UK and around the world.

In comparison, when a Trump supporter heckled at an Obama rally and the crowd attempted to silence him, Obama defended the gentleman as he was an older gentleman and it looked like he was a veteran, also reminding the crowd that the US is a country where they have free speech. “He isn’t hurting anybody.”

Taking risks

A common trait for all of the great leaders I can think of is that they take risks. That is not to say that they take foolhardy risks because a great leader will know which risks are worth taking and which are not. One of Donald Trump’s better quotes is "Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."

So far the risks that Donald Trump has taken with his election campaign seem to have paid off for him, however the risks that he is proposing when in office such as tearing up trade deals with China and back-pedalling on climate change agreements, building a wall with Mexico and asking them to pay for it could be seen as risks not worth taking and what you don’t want from a great leader is somebody taking a large number of high risk decisions because if things start to go wrong, your leadership will of course be under scrutiny and may not survive.

Sound judgement

This is similar to the last point. It is imperative that a great leader has good judgement despite the fact that many leaders seem to get away with making bad decisions but somehow manage to retain their position. For the sake of diplomacy I shan’t mention any names here but I’m sure you can come up with one or two of your own. Does the Donald have good judgement? Well you have to weigh up the fact that he won the US presidency with the fact that he had his own Twitter account taken away from him by his campaign manager during the campaign due to him posting comments that were inappropriate and weren’t helpful for his campaign; poor judgement indeed on his part.

Delegation

This is something that Trump is almost too good at. It seems he is a big fan of delegation. He is reportedly putting his adult children in charge of all his businesses when he takes office however he has also apparently approached his Vice President-to-be to actually run the show when he is in office. It appears that now Trump has won the presidency, he has lost interest. I don’t know how much evidence there is for this but the media are reporting at this time that Trump’s vice president will be the most powerful VP in US history which seems to bear this out.

I would suggest that there is a line between delegation and laziness although Trump doesn’t appear on the face of it to be lazy if his campaign was anything to go by. He clearly has faith in the people around him to get on with it and that is what you want from a leader.

This is of course not an exhaustive list of favoured leadership traits but it can perhaps provide an indication as to whether you feel Donald Trump is a great or a poor leader. He has said some thoughtful and inspiring words in relation to the business world which he previously inhabited yet for every inspirational quote it seems there are ten other quotes that people have found offensive and insulting. Surely the most important qualities of any leader must include optimism and inclusiveness.

Donald Trump is a very rich guy but let’s not remember his father’s $10 million starter pack. He has both successful and failed businesses and avoided paying huge corporation taxes which he says makes him smart. He has now won the Presidency of the United States. He appears to be a very successful guy. Is success in itself the definition of a great leader? And if that success comes at an unacceptable cost for so many people, is it still success? Well if you promise a lot and do not deliver, you’re not going to last long as a leadership guru.

I’ll leave it to you to decide if you think Trump is a great leader or a poor leader. One thing’s for sure, history will have its say however Trump’s presidency pans out. Let’s hope The Simpson’s weren’t totally correct with their President Trump predictions in 2000 and he doesn’t bankrupt America within 4 years.

Glen

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If you have any questions or comments regarding this article please do not hesitate to contact me at the following address: enquiries@gpttraining.com