Leadership lessons with Donald Trump
OPINION – On January 20, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. What do his campaign and surprising victory teach us about leadership?
No, the title of this article is not wrong. Nor is it sarcastic. The truth is that Donald Trump's improbable run for the White House – and subsequent victory – teaches important leadership lessons to everyone who holds a position of authority.
The deep sense of alienation and powerlessness of the lower middle class was the big story of this election. The passionate crowds that cheered the message of Trump – and of Bernie Sander – were evidence that people in the lower economic classes felt their leaders were not listening to them and did not care about them. Their vote for Trump was an existential cry of economic despair. The masses who supported him were not just speaking truth to the politicians' faces. They were throwing a giant pie in the face of the elite.
Now, it is true that Trump himself is not just one of the elite; he was born into it. The product of an expensive private boarding school and the Wharton School of business, he inherited his father's real estate business and received a one-million-dollar loan to start his own real estate ventures. Forget the facts that he lives in a luxurious apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York, flies in a private jet, owns many homes, etc. – even so, he managed to project the image of a “blue-collar billionaire” capable of understanding the hardships of ordinary frontline workers.
Compared to Hilary Clinton, Trump seemed not just an outsider but a regular working-class guy. Clinton spoke eloquently but blandly, as if her lines had been specifically focus-group tested to ensure they would not be memorable. She recited grammatically correct lists of policy proposals so carefully constructed that you could practically hear the paragraph breaks and semicolons. In contrast, Trump's speeches were rambling, full of childish and crude remarks. He didn't so much speak as express. In doing so, many people felt he was giving them a voice, something they did not have in government. Perhaps even more important, he did this in places where Clinton did not go (or did not go very often): the critical “blue wall” states of the Midwest. The connection he forged with his supporters through his language and his choice of locations for campaign rallies is, I believe, the biggest lesson for business leaders. He made people feel that their distress and stress were finally being heard.
MINIMIZING HIERARCHICAL DISTANCE
Businesses don't have elections the way a democratic country does, but you can be sure that, if they did, many employees would give their CEOs the middle finger, just as voters did in this election. How many employees of Disney, Southern California Edison, Fossil and Northeast Utilities would vote for the status quo after being forced to train their outsourced replacements? How many would vote for a Trump-like figure at the old General Motors, where executives kept themselves in almost total isolation from frontline employees? Before the 2009 bankruptcy, those executives had meals served in a private room, used special elevators that took them directly from the garage to their office on the 14th floor, and only let people onto that floor by invitation.
It is this distance between the CEO bubble and the daily lives of ordinary employees that has led to the popularity of TV shows like Undercover Boss. The premise – forcing a CEO to do the menial work of frontline employees and filming it – is a magnificent exercise in schadenfreude (pleasure derived from another person's misfortune). Viewers are entertained by the CEO's struggles on the job and delight when he has the epiphany that the work is very hard and poorly paid. This feeds the perception that there is a fundamental inequality in the workplace (and in society as a whole) and that compensation is not commensurate with the work ordinary people do. To some extent, it is the same feeling one gets from Donald Trump's campaign.
In his book “Plain Talk,” Ken Iverson, the former CEO of Nucor, wrote:
“Inequality is rampant in most business corporations. I'm referring now to hierarchical inequality, which legitimizes and institutionalizes the principle of ‘Us’ versus ‘Them…’. The people at the top of the corporate hierarchy grant themselves privilege after privilege, flaunt those privileges before the men and women who do the real work, and then wonder why employees aren't more committed to management's calls to cut costs and boost profitability… When I think of the millions of dollars that people at the top of the management hierarchy spend on efforts to motivate the people who are continually put down by that same hierarchy, I can only shake my head in amazement.”
To combat this inequality – to minimize the distance between leadership and the rank and file –, Iverson set up a pay-for-performance bonus for frontline employees, not just for executives. He insisted that, in bad times, senior management would take a pay cut before anyone else. Executives flew economy class on business trips and rented regular cars. Everyone in the organization also had the same insurance plans.
GO AND SEE
Of course, great leadership requires more than simply giving up the perks and benefits of the upper ranks. That is why genchi genbutsu, or “go and see,” is so important. When leaders go and see on a regular basis, they shrink the distance between their offices and the shop floor and build a foundation of trust and understanding that leads to superior performance.
Art Byrne, former CEO of Wiremold, showed us how essential it is for executives to take part in the daily work processes of the front lines. In 10 years under his leadership, Wiremold quadrupled sales, raised gross profit from 38% to 51% and increased the company's value by almost 2500%. But he didn't achieve this through empty slogans issued from the executive suite or motivational posters hung on the walls. He did it by “going and seeing,” joining his workers on the front line. In his book “The Lean Turnaround,” Byrne says: “you can't just send out a memo. You have to lead. Lead by example, go to the shop floor”.
John Toussaint, the former CEO of the Thedacare community health system, said the same thing. Despite staggering increases in the cost of medical care, Toussaint dramatically improved hospital performance during his eight-year tenure, doubling revenue and operating margin, all while receiving numerous awards for quality of patient care. When asked during an interview why other hospitals struggle to follow Thedacare's lead, John replied:
“The biggest mistake that can be made happens when senior leaders or the CEO delegate this work to some person in some department or some six sigma group and say: ‘Look, just go and apply lean. And then come back and report to me what happened’. Lean needs the engagement of everyone, from the CEO to the frontline nurse – and everyone in between”.
This doesn't mean the CEO has to clean and lubricate the punch press or empty bedpans in the ICU every day (though doing so once in a while is not a bad idea). Just being present and sharing some of the experiences of regular employees can be enough. A friend of mine who worked at the Naval Reactors office in the late 1990s told me about the agency's leader, a four-star Admiral who had his own private driver as well as a large crew and support staff. During his annual physical fitness test, my friend ran past the admiral, who was running in the opposite direction and shouted words of encouragement to him as he passed. Twenty years later, my friend still remembers that inspiring moment.
SHOWING THAT YOU CARE
It is difficult for politicians who run for office to practice genchi gembutsu. Their visits to factories and car dealerships become photo opportunities. Eating pancakes at a diner with local residents becomes an awkwardly staged event with feigned conversations, crowded with photographers and reporters. But even with these drawbacks, these activities are crucial for showing voters that the politician sees and understands their situations.
All employees understand that CEOs have their own heavy responsibilities and demands. But setting aside some of the isolating trappings of power in order to go and see is much simpler for executives than for politicians: they are not surrounded by a phalanx of secret service agents and do not need to travel to five campaign stops in a single day on a private plane. Gaining first-hand experience of the jobs employees do gives them a deep understanding of the challenges their people face. More importantly, it shows employees that their leaders care and listen. It creates the same kind of bond with employees that Trump forged with voters. And that is the lesson to take from the 2016 elections.
