TRUMP, RESPONSIBILITY, & SUCCESS

TRUMP, RESPONSIBILITY, & SUCCESS

This is in response to a question about Presidents willingness, or lack thereof, to accept his administrations mistakes. NOW, I realize this appears and could be taken to be political. Trust me I am not non-partisan, however, this is a management issue and I take the discipline very seriously.

          First, you must read the page, “Understanding Trump”, to gain insight into this very unusual dynamic. Once you have done this, regardless of your politics you will understand that many common beliefs and mores applied to the concept of “Leadership” are only valid if the object of interest believes and operates within the parameters you are defining as “acceptable”.

          AH! Here lies the conundrum. You see President Trump does not have the normal motivations other leaders are saddled with. Fame, Wealth, Popularity have all been his. His concept of friendship is almost ironclad that a “friend” only exists if they don’t hinder his ability to succeed.

          Success is the only acceptable outcome. With this in mind the only way you would feel inclined to “fall on your sword” and accept responsibility for something your administration did; would be if you saw THAT begging forgivenness  would advance your agenda for THAT goal.

          In the chaos being generated daily, with the myriad of decisions which must be made, DJT recognizes that mistakes and “less than optimum” choices will be made. Here is the misunderstanding. He sincerely doesn’t believe these were “bad” decisions, policies or statements. They were what they were with the information on hand and he recognizes he may have to make corrections which n his mind isn’t an error as long as future decisions aren’t locked into these choices by vested interest. 

          To make this less of a rambling exercise let me sum up by saying you won’t get this type of manager to take responsibility for a decision he feels was made to advance the agenda, regardless of the outcome. As a real estate mogul DJT made deal after deal and some were profitable and some not. The key for him was the long range outcome.

          IF you look carefully  you will find that  the Leaders you admire for taking responsibility were allowing chaos managers to make them a success. e.g. Eisenhower with McArthur and Patton.