“
One of Trump's most egregious
characteristics is that he tends to shift
his position in an unpredictable and
capricious fashion
”
ctability
position in a subsequent interview.
He has been similarly equivocal on
abortion, healthcare, the minimum
wage, legalising recreational
marijuana, transgender people being
allowed to use the bathroom of their
choice, gun control, and many other
issues. It is hard to say whether such
flip-flopping has been conscious or
unconscious. Either way, the net
result is that nobody knows for sure
exactly what president Trump stands
for beyond his own self-interest. In
short, he keeps people guessing.
In this ability to keep people
guessing lies a third type of power.
Trump’s style could be described
as “leadership without direction”
or, more precisely, leadership with
multiple unforeseen changes of
direction. This places those whom
he leads in a position of uncertainty.
They never quite know what he will
say or do next.
Uncertainty is disempowering.
Not only does uncertainty make it
difficult to plan ahead, thus reducing
the scope for self-determinism, it
also reinforces the gap between
the leader and everybody else. With
the president assuming the right to
change his mind at whim, others
begin to crave stability and so feel
their vulnerability all the more. They
are held in thrall.
The same logic carries over to
the workplace. Many of us have
known managers who are similarly
inconsistent. One day they want
this, the next day that. Yesterday it
was growth. Today it’s cost-cutting.
Last week you said it was all about
client A. This week client B is the
one to focus on. In my appraisal
you said you wanted me to be more
strategic, but since then you’ve just
given me a list of tasks. And so on.
It can be confusing, even infuriating.
In response to which, three
options arise: suck it up; quit; or
become a leader yourself and do
the same.
No matter how you respond,
the underlying effect of such
inconsistency is that it reinforces the
power dynamic between leader and
led. If tacking this way and that is
the prerogative of the leader, the led
are left to follow haplessly behind.
Fundamentally, leaders who exploit
this prerogative are showing off their
power for its own sake. They change
their mind because they can.
Needless to say, such behaviour
flies in the face of the literature on
leadership. That literature stresses
the importance of leaders setting a
clear and consistent direction, even
laying out a ‘vision’ for all to walk
reverently towards.
And yet, there is just as much,
if not more, power in doing the
opposite. We may long for our
leaders to be unswerving in their
statements, but all leaders will
know, if only dimly, that if power
is their motivation, that power will
in no way be diminished if they do
indeed swerve, and swerve again.
Robert Rowland Smith is a
British author and philosopher. He
also works as a business adviser and
practitioner of Systemic Constellations.
March – May 2019
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