Even prior to this week’s dramatic series of events in the US, I had been considering how leadership can be so dangerous when being attempted by a largely inept and flawed human. My Dangerous Leadership model is completely based on the behaviours of D.J. Trump but elements of the model could apply to many flawed leaders of the last 100 years or so. Where for instance might you place K. Rudd or T. Abbott? Steve Jobs was hardly perfect. Hitler's petulance was off the scale while George 'Doubya', regardless of his recent positive leadership commentary, is definitely in there somewhere. It’s a very long list and no one is perfect that’s for sure.
What we are observing right now are the behaviours of a strikingly narcissistic, insecure and childish man who cannot fathom ever being wrong. Given what’s happening on the streets in so many US cities, I believe it’s fair to now say he’s evolved Dangerous leadership into Destructive leadership. At night I sometimes wake from a nightmare in which I am Trump’s leadership coach! Can you imagine coaching him through his leadership 360? “Whaddaya mean they all think I’m a withdrawn, authoritarian? F*** them! What would they know? I’m the best President that ever drew breath!”
Marshall Goldsmith tells us that for leadership coaching to work, the coachee must be long on courage, humility and discipline. Perhaps, given my initial assessment interview would be taking place in the Whitehouse bunker, surrounded by photos of the great man while eating pizza, I think I can reasonably assume I’d be giving him one of the lowest ‘coachability’ scores in the history of executive coaching.
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