Leadership Lessons from the Trump Presidency

173 Pages·2020·3.968 MB·English

by  Douglas Long

Leadership Lessons from the Trump
Presidency
This book seeks to demonstrate that wecan learn from both ‘good’ and ‘bad’
leaders. Part One looks at President Trump’s behaviour from inauguration to
impeachment. The ancient Greek concepts of Kairos and Chronos are used
to indicate that Trump was almost a natural fit for the US of 2017. Part Two
considers the consequences of his behaviour on the US, the world at large,
and for leadership overall.
There is atemptation to consideronly ‘good’ leaderswhen asking what we
can learn from others. This book explores the issue of what can be learned
from any person in a leadership role, no matter what the value judgement we
make of them. Part One explores Trump’s behaviour up to the moment of
impeachment and the longer-term residual impacts this will have once his
termasPresidentisover.Itshowsthatourvaluejudgementstendtobebased
on perception and apriori assumptions. Part Two exploreswhat we can learn
from the Trump event no matter what our leadership role.
Disruption is endemic in today’s world. Today, it often seems that we are
born, live, and die, in three quite different worlds. Yet, at its core, things have
changed very little. Oligarchy has been a reality since time immemorial.
Unless we are first ‘unfrozen’ from the status quo, change tends to be more
cosmetic than actual. Donald Trump’s presidency has the potential to be the
thawing agent that could enable ‘real’ change through which new forms of
both democracy and capitalism might emerge across the world.
Douglas Long, PhD, teaches in the Universityof New South Wales School of
Management in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of three previous books
published by Routledge-Gower.

Leadership Lessons from the
Trump Presidency
Douglas Long
Firstpublished
byRoutledge
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andbyRoutledge
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©2020DouglasLong
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BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Long,DouglasG.,author.
Title:LeadershiplessonsfromtheTrumppresidency/DouglasLong.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2020.|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.|
Identifiers:LCCN2020003839(print)|LCCN2020003840(ebook)|
ISBN9780367862374(hardback)|ISBN9781003018469(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Trump,Donald,1946-|Leadership--Casestudies.|
Presidents--UnitedStates--Casestudies.
Classification:LCCHM1261.L662020(print)|
LCCHM1261(ebook)|DDC303.3/4--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020003839
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020003840
ISBN:978-0-367-86237-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-01846-9(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of figures vi
About the author vii
PARTONE
‘The Trump Decapitalise’ 1
1 Promises and early activities 3
2 ‘The medium is the message’ 11
3 Success: perception or reality? 17
4 Which brings us to Machiavelli 21
5 The US and the world in 2019 27
6 What could impact on re-election? 37
7 The future for the US 66
8 The global implications 75
PARTTWO
Lessons from ‘the Trump event’ 81
9 What executives and leaders can learn from the Trump event 83
Conclusion: Quo Vadis? 159
Index 162
Figures
9.1 The leadership for performance model 85
9.2 Change questions 101
9.3 The relationship betweenvalues and ethics 119
9.4 Basic organisation model 131
9.5 Variables impacting performance 131
9.6 Leadership and strategy 147
9.7 The process for accountability 152
About the author
DouglasG.LongwasborninNewZealandbuthaslivedinAustraliaformost
ofhisadultlife.HistertiaryeducationwasinNewZealand,Australia,England
and the United States, culminating in 1985 with a PhD in Organisational
Psychology.
For many years, he taught in universities in Australia and the United States
including, in Melbourne, Preston Institute, David Syme Business School, and
RMIT Graduate School of Management and, in the USA, Drexel University.
From1988to2001hewasassociatedwithMacquarieGraduateSchoolofMan-
agement in Sydney where he researched, designed and delivered the programme
Leadership in Senior Management. From 2002 to 2012 he was with Australia’s
SouthernCrossUniversityGraduateCollegeofManagementwherehesupervised
doctoralcandidates.Since2013hehastaughtintheManagementDepartmentat
theUniversityofNewSouthWalesBusinessSchoolinSydney.
He is the author of eight books on leadership, ethics, and values.

Part One
‘ ’
The Trump Decapitalise
PartOneexploresleadershipissuesrelatingtothepresidencyofDonaldJ.Trump.