1A. Immature Leadership: President Trump?
Peter Milhado, an American psychologist, identified about 10 years ago characteristics of men who never grow up. First, I will summarize what he describes as their key attributes. Subsequently, I will explore Theo Veldsman’s view of immature leadership. The reader can determine the extent to which these analyses describe Trump and help to explain the nature of his leadership.
Milhado’s puer aeturnus
To Milhado, a puer aeturnus believes masculinity is vitally important. This sense of masculinity must be won by struggle, by taking a stand, overcoming inertia, deciding and acting more by gaining muscle and competence in the world of men.… Read the rest
Hubristic Leadership and Trump (1 of 2)
The media most prominently mention narcissism as Trump’s key personality characteristic. I will discuss this topic in a later post. Although Trump’s narcissism influences the way he leads, I think the hubris personality characteristic best explains Trump’s leadership. Unlike narcissism hubris does not have a common, clear definition. Hubris, however, has enough clarity to allow its use in connection with leadership. Hubris also has some similarity to two other concepts found in the leadership literature, core self-evaluation and intuition.
The research literature sees hubris as an acquired personality disorder characterized by recklessness, contempt, and lack of attention to details. This disorder becomes manifest in the holding of largely unfettered power.… Read the rest
A Follower-Centric Approach to Trump’s Election
To the extent that leadership scholars examine Trump as a leader, followers play a significant role in studying Trump and leadership. This post continues that theme. Carsten, Bligh, Kohles, and Wing-Yan Lau analyze how Trump’s rhetoric may have attracted followers with certain characteristics.
Trump’s rhetoric and behavior leading up to his election bewildered many people. Dictionary.com added the phrase “fake news” into its lexicon for the first time largely based on Trump’s usage of that term. Some see in Trump’s election the full-blown advent of the “post-truth era.” Truth blurs into falsity and vice-versa in this era. Emotions and one’s personal beliefs become more important than hard facts.… Read the rest
Trump’s Personality Pattern and Its Implications for Leadership
A paper published one month before the 2016 presidential election described the “political personality” of Donald Trump. Aubrey Immelman had previously developed similar papers on Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and many other national and foreign leaders. I thought it would be interesting to see how well the paper on Trump fared three-plus years into his presidency.
Immelman prepared the paper using publicly available materials to develop a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria. Theodore Millon (1928-2014) was a renowned American psychologist who studied personality.
Briefly, Millon identifies 10 scales. A personality pattern consists of multiple scales.… Read the rest
“Small Governmentism” and Evangelical Support for Trump
Ie extent and duration of white evangelical Protestant (WEP) support for Trump continues to mystify many. An earlier post summarized John Fea’s (who himself is a WEP) explanation for this support. Marcia Pally provides a somewhat different explanation. She starts her paper by noting dimensions of WEP support for Trump as found in a PRRI survey. Among WEPs, 81% of males and 71% of females voted for Trump in the presidential election as did 68% of those with a college education and 78% of those without a college degree. Since his election, WEP support for Trump has never dropped below 65%.… Read the rest
Just Some Musings on . . . Leadership Studies Post-Trump
The readings on Trump and leadership undertaken for these blog posts prompted me to reflect on my 15 or so years of teaching leadership in university graduate programs. I determined that the topics important to examining Trump within the context of leadership did not relate well to much of the program content and readings in the leadership programs. The topics significant to examining Trump as a leader seemed not to the part of mainstream leadership studies (leadership research and leadership development programs) in my teaching experience. I am not suggesting that mainstream leadership studies do not cover these topics, just that they are more peripheral than central in my experience.… Read the rest
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