Is this our future if we don’t focus on vertical development for our leaders?
No matter how you look at it or what your opinion is about Donald Trump there are no doubts that he exhibits a particular leadership style, namely; simplistic, autocratic, authoritarian and dictatorial.
Now, you might well say, "so what? It's about time things were shaken up, we need to get results, someone has to cut through the political forest, the alternative was going to maintain the status quo, and anyway a bit of dramatic change is good!" That is a typical supportive position to take when tough times are at hand. It is also a stand that many leaders take in business in response to real and present challenges, such as shrinking markets, loss of profitability and declining productivity. It is the path of the revolutionary leader!
Revolutions are often bloody, destructive and full of biased propaganda. They tear down structures in the name of an ideology and rally others with a shout of justice for the masses, all the time being a cover for an egocentric leader corrupted by their own sense of individual destiny. Revolutions are second rate; they are the poor cousin of graceful evolution. They skip the dark night of the soul and avoid the wealth in the shadow of reflection and jump right headlong into milieu of change with a sledge-hammer. Evolution on the other hand is much more subtle, sublime, and intelligent.
Trump is a revolutionary, and although he is happening on the other side of the Pacific his role modelling is global and this is why he might actually be a detrimental risk to your business. The reasons he maybe a risk? Well, because the solutions to our challenges today are not found in revolutions, they are found in evolutions. They are found in the vertical move up to a higher platform to observe from. A view over the savanna of modernity is far more effective than the grubbing around on the dust plains of subsistence. Height has always had an evolutionary advantage.
There is no height in Trump, he is low to the ground, a plains fighter, a warrior of the ground fighting and jousting with the fictitious windmills in his mind. He is a victim unto himself in his reactive, impulsive lunges. Neanderthal may be a bit too harsh, certainly not grown-up, he is developmentally adolescent. He has barely learned to walk in a landscape beyond objective concrete towers and hotels.
And so to your business, I image you would like your executives to command a higher position, one in which they can see the bigger picture, its patterns and trends. You no doubt look for talent in order for you to realise the fulfillment of your strategy and vision. Let's just say that the example of leadership of Mr. Trump might just confirm that his particular style of leadership is acceptable to all those adolescent thinking executives in your organisation (maybe even you! Warning!). It might just be the endorsement that they have been looking for to justify a simpler and more autocratic leadership style. A style that may plunge your company into a costly destructive revolution!
Evolution and height has verticality. It has always been up. We progress by looking up and beyond and die if we regress and look back. Your business needs height, it needs verticality. It needs to look to the biggest picture possible and chunk back. It needs executives who can stand on the mountain and look to the furthest horizon and claim the new frontiers. Anything less, anything Trump-like will lower the possibilities of your success, it will reduce the perspectives needed to take you forward, it will limit your growth and above all cause you to devolve, not evolve. Our world today needs evolutionary not revolutionary thinkers, don’t allow your leaders to drift-down and follow what they see in the USA, your business may just end up Trumped!
Our expertise in vertical development uses robust and scientifically proven approaches to expand the capability of leaders so your organisation can avoid being Trumped.
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By DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr) - https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3127835/170127-d-gy869-006, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59529703