Leadership and Management

Leadership and Management

We may say we disapprove of Trump’s self-promotion, disdain for facts, and unapologetic persona. But these are the very qualities that allow leaders to succeed. In the spring of 2014, I turned in a book manuscript about leadership that, because of the turmoil within the publishing industry, will only be published next month. In the index for that book: entries for Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina. I wish I could say I was prescient about the unfolding race for the Republican nomination, but I wasn’t even thinking about HYPERLINK “https://economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/08/republican-debate-1” this ever-entertaining spectacle. Instead, I was trying to address a topic that’s vitally important to individuals who want to thrive in today’s intensely competitive work world: the enormous disconnect between the leadership prescriptions regularly offered to an unsuspecting public by the enormous leadership industry and what social science and everyday observation suggest is the best path to individual success. For the most part, real-world success comes from behaviors that are precisely the opposite of typical leadership prescriptions. So, no, you don’t have to look to angry, disaffected voters to explain the Trump phenomenon. Trump actually embodies many of the leadership qualities that cause people to succeed—albeit they are pretty much the opposite of what leadership experts tout. Here are a few examples. HYPERLINK “https://qz.com/461688/a-list-of-everything-donald-trump-runs-that-has-his-name-on-it/” Donald Trump puts his name on everything, including his buildings, and touts his success at every opportunity, behavior that contradicts both the common-sense belief that we prefer people who don’t self-promote and research that best-selling author Jim Collins published in Good to Great. Collins noted that the most successful companies were run by so-called “Level 5 leaders,” who had both fierce resolve but were HYPERLINK “https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/the-misguided-mixup.html” modest and self-effacing. What gives? Numerous studies HYPERLINK “https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/peps.12072/full” show that narcissism, not modesty, and self-confident, even overconfident, self-presentation lead to leadership roles. This is partly because to be selected, you first need to be noticed. There is also the “mere exposure” effect. HYPERLINK “https://jcr.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/1/97.abstract” We prefer what feels familiar to us, and after endless repetitions of the name “Trump,” it certainly feels familiar. And even though we say we want people who don’t self-aggrandize, we secretly like the HYPERLINK “https://psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles/2012-18756-001” confident, overbearing people because they provide us with confidence—emotions are contagious—and also present themselves like winners. We all want to associate with success and pick those who seemingly know what they are doing. Trump also takes liberties with the facts. No, HYPERLINK “https:%