Sharing Leadership Ideas from Real Life
I’m Hugh Ballou, an entrepreneur. This post is about Politicians…Leaders or Not?
On Thursdays, I’ll often launch a topic for discussion, dialogue, debate, and introspective conversation. In group facilitation situations, I ask the participants to reframe disagreement from the category of a “weapon” to the category of a “creative tool.” This change in paradigm allows for very lively and productive discussions to happen. It takes away the risk of feeling like participants are criticizing each other and allows them to be free to point to ideas and concepts without having to pretend to be polite or pretend to agree. We have been conditioned to feel that disagreement is not polite. In fact, disagreement is a way to be in integrity.
We find that it’s okay to disagree. Many times we find new ideas, fresh perspectives, and opposite polarities that make sense. Healthy dialogue does not depend on everybody agreeing; in fact, if everybody agrees, it’s a boring discussion, and we might get trapped by not exposing blind spots that could limit our effectiveness as leaders and as an organization.
In that spirit, I offer a chance for dialogue on topics related to leadership. I will choose topics that have high visibility in the news or in certain communities of interest, such as business, entrepreneurship, religion, and social benefit work. I welcome suggestions for other topics. I’m sure that there are many, many to choose from.
Will you contribute your ideas? Please comment using the form below.
Today’s topic:
Is Donald Trump a Leader or a Bully?
As of the date of this blog post, Donald Trump has taken a major lead in the 2017 Presidential election. He really is not looking to please anyone; in fact, he’s insulted many people. There are lots of people who are indicating that he’s their candidate in the early polls. Is this agreement with him or a vote against the status quo?
Questions to answer:
- Is Trump showing effective leadership principles? Why or why not?
- Is he getting traction because people are voting in the polls for him, or are they voting against the status quo?
- Is there a message here that people want to hear from their next president? How is that message showing effective leadership?
- Is Donald Trump a leader or a bully?
Please comment below.
Hugh Ballou
The Transformational Leadership Strategist TM
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