It’s been almost two years since Nelson Mandela passed on and twenty one years since he came to power as the dynamo of South Africa; that broke down Apartheid and emancipated the strongest African country…
Yet today as America seeks to elect another Leader — we are called here to examine his Leadership style and the impact of his Leadership as well, not only because America has a black Leader today, but because we need to look at Life squarely in the eye, and in relation to the messy field of leadership choices we are faced with.
Choices that leave much to be desired, in both the Republican and the Democratic party early slate candidates.
The question today in America is simple: Can’t we do any better than this bunch of fools?
But twenty one years on from when South Africa gained the Right to a Democratic electoral choice — let’s look at the quality of the contest and of the leadership of the winner NELSON MANDELA, by seeing first of all the impact he had on his people, his country, and the world:
First and Foremost is important to see, who was the major beneficiary of Nelson Mandela’s Life and Leadership?
And then it’s important to understand that for Mandela nothing was personal, after 28 long hard years in prison and in solitary confinement…
He forgave and forgot and tried to reconcile all sectors of his Society even though in the near-thirty years of his cruel imprisonment, Mandela always stood upright, strategic, and powerful as a caged Lion — always ready to charge ahead. He was always the leader amongst the South African anti-apartheid revolutionaries and white separatists alike… and the natural choice to defer to when things got rough.
Mandela was a Uniter, and he always looked ahead and challenged all the perceived norms of his office of the Presidency.
And as today Nelson Mandela, is revered across the world as the Best of All Modern Leaders — we need to reflect on the timeless lessons from his life story that will endure for years to come.
Nelson Mandela was not just a gifted visionary. He walked the Talk and lived the Consequences of his “Walk.” He exercised a full range of cognitive, emotional and behavioral abilities to bring about profound change in South Africa.
All leaders who aspire to be more strategic can learn from Mandela’s six key behaviors that distinguish him as a true strategic leader.
He anticipated Changes and stood behind all positive change as a leader giving Credit to all others for even the most insignificant victory.
And when the time came for someone to take the blame of Failure — He stood up… and took it like a Man.
Nelson Mandela looked ahead and could see that South Africa’s system of apartheid would not survive into the future. From his prison cell, he strategically assessed his moves and anticipated the incoming reactions.
When offered freedom in exchange for renouncing opposition to the government, Mandela rebuked President Botha: “What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? … What freedom am I being offered if I must ask permission to live in an urban area?”
Mandela decided to serve out his prison sentence rather than exchange it for the political prison of apartheid in the general South African Society. His position challenged the Status Quo to the extent that it brought it down.
Long Term his vision was right and He liberated his people and his country. Both Blacks and Whites… Short term he suffered some more.
The outside world recoiled against South Africa, while local business leaders and young whites pushed for change domestically, along with the blacks and coloured folks.
Nelson challenged all current assumptions about Life in isolation and Leadership by living like a caged Lion. His personal suffering and hardship molded his philosophy and made Mandela not only the best President for South Africa, but the kind of Leader that any country would love to have.
Nelson stood out among prisoners and guards, as a man of principle and dignity. Nelson stood out always willing to sacrifice his life for his beliefs and principled philosophy, and despite the harsh prison life, Nelson mustered enough energy from his meagre food and his abundant soul reserves, to challenge his jailers, society, and even his prison wardens and political enemy-keepers. Nelson was unwilling to accept the status quo and his presence in isolation on Robben Island, one of the harshest prisons in the world — held a mirror up to the face of apartheid’s leaders and their inhumanity.
Finally they all saw how naked the South African Apartheid leaders were…
Through word, deed and symbol, Nelson continuously challenged the apartheid system and South Africa’s autocratic President Botha that denied him and his people the Right to the pursuit of Liberty, Happiness, and Democracy.
And the fight wore on … with more than three hundred people being viciously killed in South Africa each and every night. Civil War in earnest ensued…
Eventually, President Botha’s successor in South Africa, F.W. de Klerk was pressed so much, that he liberated Nelson, opened the process for the dismantling of Apartheid, and called for open & democratic elections of One-Man-One-Vote, and in 1994, Nelson Mandela freshly out of prison, became the President of South Africa.
The Civil War subsided immediately when Nelson Mandela came out of prison and spoke of Reconciliation. Such was the Power of the Leader Man. All voices started to synchronize and harmonize for the Good of the Country. And the South African transition to Democracy and Emancipation took place rapidly. All this much CHANGE took place in a very rare, peaceful and orderly transition from white minority to black-majority rule.
Rightfully today, Nelson Mandela is credited in History for bringing about this monumental change in a civilized manner, and thus President Mandela and ex-President De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”
Fvckin A — That is the kind of Leader I want.
As American Citizens, we deserve far better than that.
As patriots we best demand higher quality leadership.
And as educated leaders it falls upon us to provide that for the people…
I want a Leader who can interpret the patterns and recognize where we ought to go and then convince us tellingly of the Righteousness of his Decision.
I want a Nelson Mandela today in America because as a leader, he studied the errors of other Leaders and avoided them.
Nelson in jail was always studying. Mandela as President was always seeking to learn and to grow through Change.
We know that he adhored the horrors of Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe, whose brutal dictatorship resulted in the country’s total demise.
Nelson recognized that South Africa could follow in Zimbabwe’s footsteps, unless he practiced racial harmony, economic liberation, and offered employment to the people. And thus Mandela as President, went out of his way in order to practice and preach forgiving without forgetting, and the wide sharing of power amongst all constituencies, in order to get SA into the path of Economic Development, Prosperity, and Progress.
He often said: “We have to surprise the white minority with reconciliation, restraints, and generosity.” A master of story telling and symbolism, President-Elect Mandela invited his prison guards to the South African Presidential swearing-in ceremony.
How cool is that…
Nelson Mandela’s interpretation of history was and still is spot on. South Africa could prosper as a multi-racial society only if leaders mutually forgave each other. Together as Brothers we prosper or we perish separate as fools…
He decided what was the proper course… and carried forth.
Mandela was a Peacemaker. As proof we see that in 1993, a white racist man assassinated Chris Hani, a black leader of the South African Communist Party, triggering a widespread demonstration against the apartheid de Klerk government. All hell broke loose… The SA society fractured irreparably. Yet one voice stood firm and it was Nelson Mandela, recently out of prison, who had the guts to call for peace when people wanted and extracted bloody revenge.
His reasonable voice carried the day.
He also made a courageous decision to use sports as a means of healing, believing, “Sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.” When the ban was lifted on South Africa’s participation in the 1992 Olympics, Mandela at first opposed but ultimately decided to support the mostly white athletes. “There is no doubt in my mind this is the correct decision,” Mandela said. Of the 95-person delegation, only eight were black. “I would have liked the team to be a reflection of our population, but there has to be a starting point.”
He aligned with True North and stuck to his Compass bearings.
After being elected South Africa’s first black president, Mandela announced he would serve only one term, though two were permissible. He understood rallying the country and bridging diverse interests meant making room for other Leaders to emerge. He said that Black supremacy was as depraved an idea as white supremacy was, and as evil as Apartheid. In his view Mandela wanted to cultivate other leaders of South Africa regardless of colour of their skin, and free from the Apartheid burden, or the chip-on-the-shoulder, so that the Future of South Africa doesn’t look anything like the past.
Mandela knew that over a billion people would watch his inaugural presidential address and used this speech peppered with key plural pronouns “we”, “us”, and “our” in order to align a deeply divided nation around a common vision: “We understand that there is no easy road to freedom, yet none of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.”
Mandela learned from the field how and why He had to lead…
And He started from the WHY.
He learned from the prison he had to live into, for 28 years…
He learned from his circumstances…
He had to learn fast and slow, because Nelson Mandela faced some over-big questions during and after his release from prison.
Namely: What to do with the faltering economy of a country shattered through economic sanctions and apartheid divisions.
When he rose to Power, Mandela faced a South Africa that was a bankrupt nation and the economy was abut where the economy of Zimbabwe is today after the corrupt rule of many decades.
What to do about it was the first and foremost of Nelson Mandela’s tests as a True Leader of the nation.
What do you think that he did?
He understood that was not the Right Question.
He clearly saw Strategically that the important question was to unite his people.
And much like in the book and the film “Invictus” Mandela sought to harmonize his warring tribes amongst the black and white constituencies, and all the shades of colour in between; through the elements of basic all inclusive leadership, and community building as a Citizen Participatory Strategy.
This was his first order of Business and rightfully so. He performed a Brilliant Strategic Triage.
The Economy was screaming for help but he took his time to address that priority. almost took care of itself once the country was healed of the rift and divisions that caused the irreparable cleavage we see today in the American Society amongst the Black Lives Matter activists and the Police today. The former want to “Fvck the Police” and the later want to reciprocate with force. What can you say about this sexual attraction gone wrong. And they do this “Force Fvckin” in earnest, often killing unarmed and innocent activists and civilians in the process.
Just try to imagine the chaos and the strife of the civil war unfolding as Mandela was released from jail and was tasked with curing Race Relations and keeping the vast country together by quieting down the division voices, and appeasing the most militant elements tearing the country apart for their own selfish needs and wants.
Yet Mandela proved to be a strong Uniter and managed to set the example of his own patient Life to overcome. Most all of the people of South Africa accepted his benchmark, and quieted down.
But that was not to be when He became the President and had to be the Arbiter of the most important decisions about the Life and Death of South Africa as a nation of people living together and coexisting with, different colours of the skin as normal folk. He encountered a lot of push back because for most of his life, Mandela was a socialist and even a Marxist. He was suspicious of free markets and private ownership, given the abuses he witnessed. He famously said at one point that: “The nationalization of the mines, banks and monopoly industries, is the policy of the ANC [African National Congress], and a change, or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable.”
But then he educated himself when he came to learn first hand, what decades of socialism had done to the various states of the former Soviet Union. The Socialist economic policies had collapsed these Countries’ Economies into the ground. It was then that Nelson Mandela was schooled about Real Economics and his thinking took a sharp turn when he met leaders of the Communist Parties of China and Vietnam who were striving to privatize state enterprises. “They changed my views altogether” Mandela told a biographer, and that proves the mettle of the man who at 73 was flexible enough to pivot and change his whole World view.
And by publicly admitting his prior error and his change of heart; He managed to carry all of his colleagues to the new Equilibrium and got the country driving to the True North of Economic Growth, Employment, and Common Progress.
Mandela exemplifies how a strategic leader adjusts strategy and execution amid complex social, political, legal and economic forces without compromising deeply held values. Leadership is not just about motivating people and creating political support for a strategy, but also about maintaining broad support through successive adjustments to the plan.
Nelson worked at the grassroots level and gained his chops as an activist for the greater Good of the People.
Mandela when He became the President of the country never once forgot the grassroots that brought him to power…
And that is the kind of Leader I want to have as a President.
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And now let’s shift and take our gaze to look way out West, and across the Atlantic, and veer North, to North America, and square our sights to the United States of America, in order to look at the leadership phenomenon called “The Donald”
“The Tramp.”
What’s to say about “The Donald” that hasn’t been said already?
Except maybe that we like him so deliciously much. Like Bacon and eggs for a full English breakfast. Like cookies and chocolate chips for an ice-cream. Like fries and ketchup…
I can’t even think of American elections now without “The Donald” trashing everybody. He reminds me of Mike Tyson in the ring. With weird drug induced and prison certified skull tats and all. And biting off his opponents ears too…
With enough Self Deception, and a healthy dose of Suspension of Disbelief — Who doesn’t like Donald Trump?
Donald the Tramp?
Come on now…
Of course we may say we dislike his flyover hair; we may challenge his hate for the Mexicans and all the Latin people; we may disapprove of his self-promotion; we may be bothered by his Misogyny, we may even hate his disdain for facts; or his careless trashing of women and especially the LGBT ones; and yet still we smile at his unapologetic persona.
Because He is so likable; everything is forgiven. Everything goes with the Tramp, since some of his shenanigans, are the very same Sports and Entertainment leaders use in order to become famous, to be liked and to succeed. And the entertainment value here is immense.
There is no logic in this — so don’t look for it — it’s pure animal, primal scream, and Gorilla chest thumping. And Big Booty shaking like Kim Kardashian’s immense posterior, is what the Big Hair of Donald-The-Tramp declares for America. It’s a statement about where our brain resides also but that’s another topic; and yet I wish to address this topic, because it’s vitally important to the electorate, to the American Nation, to the Economy, to Business, and to all the other Leaders out there.
And because it is far more important for individuals who want to thrive in today’s intensely competitive working world, as Innovators, as CEOs, as StartUp founders, and as Political and Environmental Leaders.
And here is where the careful observation of the Nature of today’s political Leaders in America and beyond, is really important. Especially the observation of the ones who transcended the fulcrum of Corporate and Business Leadership to the Body-Politic. And “The Donald” has done that better than anybody else. And his Service to us is thus deemed invaluable. Today “The Donald” leads the Republican pack of Minnie-Me baby wolfs, like the Big Bad Wolf of the bedtime story book for children. And for that memory alone — I like him too.
He gets to play the Big Bad Wolf in real time and in Real Life. And he’s got the Big Hair to match the Bad boy role too. If only he had the big female rump … he could easily thwart Hillary too.
Ahhhhhh … the Donald.
What’s not to like?
And in this big bad Tramp, the unapologetic Wolfman, is where we find the enormous disconnect — the cleavage between the Academic leadership lessons offered in the best University MBA courses, and in all other school learnings, and the various expensive prescriptions regularly offered to Companies and all Corporate Leaders in gold plated and mightily expensive Seminars on Leadership, and all the other drivel offered to an unsuspecting public, by the enormous leadership cookie cutter industry — and what social science and everyday observation of Leadership suggest.
The rift in our fabric of Reality is what is called “The Donald.” The suspension of disbelief. The disconnect between the presentation of our Aspirational Leadership, and the feeling We want an “Animal-like-us” Inspirational Leader. These are two vastly different things. And as the Political process of Democracy becomes more like Sports and Entertainment, we find that the old style politicos like the Clintons, the Obamas, and the Sanders, are so outmoded and outmaneuvered by this new breed of “Gladiators” in the Arena — that they don’t even have a chance to compete in today televised debates.
It is certain that in this New Age of Politics where rich Sportsmen will compete in front of FOX TV mediators, and bloviators, for the most blowhard podium seats, and then for the ultimate Supremacy in a Cage-Fight elimination match, for the selection of the Supreme Ayatollah of America.
I don’t think this is something Hillary is even able to comprehend, let alone be able to participate into.
And as we all Love Sports and Competition, with full-on animal instincts in it; we also love the Entertainment qualities built in it. That is why “The Tramp” will be the next President, and we’ll all live in the FOX TV world from now, on observing Democracy as a Spectator Sport and acting like simple riotous factions in the Colosseum of the Gladiatorial Fights.
Occasionally some Christians, Muslims, Mexicans, and Lions, will be thrown in the arena for variations of the sport — but that’s just entertainment, so please don’t make a fuss. If “The Donald” the Supreme Ayatollah of the Republican party says so — who we are to mind?
Cecil the Lion, is the first martyr in this mega-sports arena our Living room mega-television sets have transformed our American households already. Thank You Fox. Or maybe Thank You Obama, as “The Tramp” always says…
And Donald “The Tramp” like all Sports and TV personalities, carefully chooses to come across as the Bad-Boy minus the prison tats of Mike Tyson. Here is where You can imagine Mike Tyson running for President and cringe appropriately…
So for starters, today we can all truly agree that Tramp style Leadership, is the best path to individual success in America. And if you are a big swinging dick like “The Donald” scratching your balls and spitting frequently at your opponents in public — like all the mega-million dollar players do, at the ball Game; you’ll be golden.
And if the average Baseball player makes above $5 Million per year today in America, why is anybody crying foul about XL CEO compensation?
And don’t let me get started about the inordinate amounts of money all the Movie Sissies make in Hollywood playing tough Cowboy men like John Wayne; while being secretly closeted gays, and wimps. Your righteous indignation right here and right now — is welcome…
So as Life becomes more and more entertaining, and we become vicarious actors and TV sports “killers” we have to admit that for the most part, real-world success comes from behaviors that are precisely the opposite of the typical school-Marm teachings, the book author’s suggestions, the Harvard MBA article writers, and the academic world leadership prescriptions.
The daft dentist who is now dubbed “The Killer” of Cecil the Magnificent Lion — is now fixing “The Donald” teeth in exchange for his legal bills to Zimbabwe paid by the Trump organization in charitable tax exempt contributions…
Go Figure.
In the FOX TV world we live in now, You need to be an Asshole to be that kind of Leader. And maybe you can be a Bad Ass for making it in this TV land — but you can never be a Babe in the Woods. That’s all You need to know in order to get close to even be considered for the line up of the FOX TV elimination cage fighting competition, for the Republican nomination and for the US elections of 2016.
With that thinking — Good Luck to all of us…
Simple Truth is that You don’t even need the fly-over Donald-hair that looks surprisingly close to the hair-mane of Cecil the Lion — King of the Savannah — to be a leader and to win today in the US. No You don’t need the angry facade against the Mexicans to win the popular vote and the US Leadership contest either. No, you don’t have to be angry and to play up to the angry mob, to the white trash, and to the disaffected voters; in order to become the leader of dwarfs, and win the GOP nomination, the general election, or even to attempt to explain the Trump phenomenon.
You don’t even have to go to the US Border to talk to the border guards to find out about the “Mexican Problem” as Trump famously says that he does frequently, in order to intercept criminals and rapists and other undesirables, that cross the border on the insistence and directive of the Mexican government…
Yet “The Donald” is the Tramp we like, because he not only says these things, but he probably believes them, even if he hasn’t gone near the US-Mexican border ever, in his pampered life. And as for knowing what the real Mexicans look like — forget it.
Donald Trump learned his leadership skills from the silver spoon up his ass. Or maybe from the whole set of silverware up his not insignificant A-hole.
As for his listening to the people — He does. He listens to his coattails. He hears the harping of the losers and the sycophants surrounding him. He occasionally hears the murmurs of the beauty contestants , who sing at his tiny “microphone” or the bimbos he frequently beds, and the super bimbos he often marries.
A poor imitation of Hugh Hefner, is what “The Tramp” is because he doesn’t even have the Playboy mansion to play in it. And because of that perceived “Deficit” He causes all that fuss with Elections and Democratic BS that he doesn’t believe in — just because he wants to get the White House, and turn to it into “The Whorehouse.”
He is a Real Estate Developer after all, so we have to forgive him for wanting to turn the old tired building — symbol of Executive Power in the Democratic World, into a play thing full of bimbos and naked pool parties.
Wait — wait … Isn’t that what a legendary ex-President did?
Truly History repeats itself, except the second time around comes back as a flash back or a farce. In this case we will have the whole Farcical Comedy televised on FOX-TV …
Gotta Love this Country.
Yet with his fake bravado, “The Tramp” actually embodies many of the leadership qualities that cause people to succeed and be perceived as Great Leaders — even though they aren’t, and instead they are pretty much the opposite of what leadership experts tout their horn at…
Here are a few glaring examples:
“The Tramp” holds the most televised Beauty pageants of bimbos around the world, and they all have his stamp on it. Think Monica Lewinsky’s big blue dress stain, kind of stamp. Donald Trump puts his name on everything, including debutantes dresses and underwear, his buildings, his casinos, his plane, and always touts his success at every opportunity.
He is a New Yorker and yet he eats his pizza with a fork and a knife. How daft is that… And he is always mostly lying about the size of his fortune, the size of his penis, the number of his conquests, the strength of his relationships, the power of his weenie, and the essence of his involvement, in the strength of his deals.
Because let’s not forget that after all “The Donald” has teams of people working hard for his enterprises — people that never get credit for any of his stuff, but yet they get fired unceremoniously before they earn their pension and dental insurance rights. But that is his management style and their common call to sort out their lot amongst themselves…
Yet for the rest of us, this is clearly a commonplace behavior that our Stars exhibit and it clearly contradicts the common-sense belief that we prefer people who don’t self-promote, as it proves the Self Deception we are all engaged into about Leadership. Of course nobody exhibits more of that Self Deception about Leadership than Donald Trump and the valued business research and Management Gurus like Peter Drucker, and many best-selling authors like Jim Collins, who wrote and published the book “Good to Great” and plenty of others. Peter Drucker is referenced as the Grandfather of Management Leadership Theory, and Jim Collins is noted because in the book “Good to Great” he wrote, that the most successful companies were run by so-called “Level 5 leaders,” who had fierce resolve, but were modest and self-effacing.
Really?
WTF?
What gives?
Suspension of Disbelief with plenty of Self Deception, and a dose of Leadership Malarkey, are running amok amongst the Great and the Good…
And am saying this because numerous studies, and all of our Real Life Observation Experience; all show that narcissism, not modesty, and self-confident, even overconfident self-presentation, always lead to leadership roles.
Nero anyone?
This is partly because to be selected, you first need to be noticed. There is also the “mere exposure” effect. We prefer what feels familiar to us, and after endless repetitions of the name “Trump,” it certainly feels familiar.
And even though we say we want people who don’t self-aggrandize, we secretly like the confident, overbearing people because they provide us with confidence. Their Emotions are contagious, and they also present themselves like winners. We all want to associate with success, and Big Booty; so we always pick those who seemingly know what they are doing while shaking it all up.
Donald “The Tramp” takes immense liberties with the facts, with People, with Reality, and with himself, and his subordinates, and the debuttantes in his beauty pageants. Not necessarily in that order…
And yes he learned all he knows in kindergarten — but No, he didn’t write the best-selling business book of all time, as he claims often. I’ve read the Art of the Deal and it sucks. No, it doesn’t blow, but it served me well as kindling in the fire place on a chilly night.
And some aspects of Tramp’s business acumen and success are clearly exaggerated—after all, all the Trump-named casinos in Atlantic City went into bankruptcy. And so did many of his other erstwhile enterprises. And all this is a matter of Record — No matter his phaux-bravado and much touted business acumen, and the incessant firing of everyone who works for him…
Then again — telling the truth is an overrated quality for leaders. Leaders lie with more frequency and skill than others. Billary anyone? The Lewinsky blowjob reference in the Wikipedia sits under Bill Clinton’s famous televised address to the nation, with Hillary by his side: “I did not have sex with that woman” …
The “Blue Dress” was instantly labeled a bloody liar.
Still it’s good to remember that some of the most revered and wealthiest people in the US today, have mastered the skill of presenting a less than truthful version of reality than commonly known. And although they are Business leaders, they are leaders none the less…
Further many a blue dress, or a blue suit, or even a hybrid pantsuit, have been mistaken as Leaders, and promoted above reasonable folk, when large stodgy organizations promote incompetent fools continuously all the way to the top posts, just in order to get them out of the way so they stop causing harm. And it follows that when they become the CEO, or the President, or the Big Cheese, or whatever, at the Top Dog shelf. These organizations of course suffer mightily. Can anyone dispute Steve Balmer as a top dog that can’t hunt? And one that destroys far more equity value in the company he helmed than even Chenghis Chan ever did? Surely these corks float to the top but soon enough they of course sink the whole boat. That should be a Harvard Business School “case” because it’s a good recipe on how You can turn your venerable old company into a veritable Titanic…
But in the Real World of successful Business and Enterprise, where people have to make money to survive, and to lead companies of Innovation and Growth, the Leaders have to improvise widely and often.
Take Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates, for example, who like many people working in software, presented and even sold “Vapourware” all the time. Vapourware is the stuff that doesn’t even exist… “Vapourware” is Software that was not developed at the time that was sold.
And of course if there is a purchase order signed, and a Sale made for vapourware, then in a little while it gets written, sloppily built, code delivered, and then debugged by the customers themselves. This method of pre-selling software is like “The Trump” selling condominiums in his towers before they were built. Selling buildings from the blueprints is a good fundraising operation. Trump is not alone doing this, because most Big Developers practice the “Art of Preselling” and thus collect money that will be their “cash participation” in the Deal, in order to gain the financing necessary to built the building. That is the Real Art of the Deal, according to Trump: Short the Future, and Go Long on other people’s money…
Still Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, always competed with each other and out-exaggerated each other’s claims about the availability and the features of their software and hardware products, in order to woo the market.
That competition still informs the Computer industry of today with people crowdfunding “Vapourware” products, in Kickstarter and IndieGogo campaigns all the time. After funding, they go shopping… for cars, boats, broads, and planes.
And then there’s Steve Jobs legendary ability to impress his Vision of the Future, as Reality today. The phrase “reality distortion field” says a lot about Jobs’ fabulous ability to make things that weren’t true become true through his assertions of their truthfulness, a widely known process called the self-fulfilling prophecy.
And for political Leadership today, it’s not just Trump who makes things up all the time. All of the Republican and Democratic candidates are doing this. Except maybe Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren…
Forget Hillary Clinton who doesn’t know Reality from Fiction, due to her incessant lying. She makes normal feminine fibbing and lying an Art Form. She should write the book about Lies and Power, so the rest of us can learn something about it too. Admittedly she had to lie to herself a lot, just to put up with Billie; but that’s another matter…
The question is: Do we want to lie to ourselves about Hillary?
Or do we want to follow Hillary’s lies to our eventual undoing?
Take Carly Fiorina for example, who exemplifies another trait among the most successful women leaders — not admitting to setbacks and presenting a positive spin on every aspect of one’s career. Watching her you wouldn’t know that she was forced out of her job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She was the CEO who presided over HP’s acquisition of Compaq, thereby cementing the company’s leadership position in a dying, low-margin business that is now being spun off; and orchestrated the layoffs of tens of thousands of employees.
Carly is famous for buying the best seats in the deck of the Titanic, as the boat was listing, in order to take in the orchestral music in style…
But today is lauded as one of the best women leaders out there. And what of Gloria Steinem who is a real Female Leader? Nobody promotes Gloria for the Presidency…
Yet for Carly everyone is gang-ho. Are her liberties with the truth, that make her great, or she is a mere blue dress female who had a pass at the helm? But Hilary is of far greater concern for all Americans, because she is a Master of the PR game, and knows to stay “On Message” always, hoping that these false accounts, if repeated often enough — they become tokens of the Truth. And with her constant fibbing, she causes more harm to herself because in any event, leaders will get enough criticism and second-guessing, without doing it to themselves.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s recent call for servant leaders is well intentioned. But sounds hollow if you have seen his home, or heard his berating colleagues as idiots, and him enjoying the fruits of his office as one of the highest compensated CEOs out there. Admittedly this is not a problem for me, at a time when CEO salaries have soared to more than 300 times that of their companies’ average employees, because there’s not too much servant leadership going on anywhere and certainly not in Starbucks to speak of either.
Why is there such a disconnect between prescriptions for what people should do and what really produces career success? Sociobiology and social psychology have recognized for decades that what is good for the individual is not necessarily what is good for the group, and vice versa. Group and individual success are not highly related. Case in point: Carly Fiorina left HP with an enormous severance package when she was ousted, but the company’s stock price didn’t flourish, instead it tanked. Nor the fate of the Company improved, as evidenced by the many thousands of employees laid off by her, and by her successors.
Much like Nero she burned up the city of Rome while she composed poetry from the palatine hill overlooking the inferno…
Another piece of the puzzle of most leadership myths is that all the Leader-Hero stories, talks, seminars, conferences, articles, books, and blogs, describe aspirational qualities we wish our leaders possessed — but WE do not see these as germane to our own responsibility in choosing the MANDELA types as leaders and not the TRAMP types.
So we tell stories about unique, heroic, unusual people, and situations — not quite realizing that the very uniqueness probably makes such tales, even if they are true, a poor guide for coping with the world as it exists.
But here in America, this is all about motivating kids to play ball harder and become someday the Star of some game. Be it hockey, basketball, baseball, or the movies, it’s all because America is a star-based system. We worship this rampant individualism, with exemplary Stars sporting their large swinging dicks, or enormous derrieres for the ladies of Sport and the Movies…
And I’m in peace with that system even though I am a star because I found the Wi-Fi thing, and not because I founded the Environmental Parliament.
So okay, let’s all go on with it.
Anyways, I don’t sell kids on the planet — I sell them on being a Star for the Environment.
And I still do my humble job everyday that doesn’t make me a Star, as a Medicine, Technology and Communications Innovator, and in all the areas where we invent the Future.
And there is so much more we need to do — but then we go out and vote for fvcking Donald Trump.
Kudos fellow primates…
Yours,
Dr Pano
PS:
Do you even want my own political recommendations?
If so… first You need to understand the social science that speaks to the qualities that make people successful, at least by some of today’s American Star definitions.
Second you need to understand the economic growth and the basic reproduction penalties, particularly for men, from being too nice. Understand the research that shows that lying in everyday life is both common and mostly not sanctioned. Recognize and see the evidence that narcissistic leaders in Silicon Valley and in Wall Street — same as in Congress and in the Senate, earn more money and remain longer in their CEO roles, or in their offices than their nicer counterparts.
And third, we should take a hard look at our own behavior, because we need to see how we are complicit in producing leaders of precisely the type we say that we don’t want.
Yet in my mind, it is only when we stop making excuses for what is called “toxic leadership” that things will start changing.
Because only when we do this Donald Trump will increasingly start appearing in our mind’s eye as the Tramp, that he really is, and we will wake up from the FOX-TV induced sports candidate comma and smell both the coffee and the morning shit.
And please keep in mind that the only way to change the world is by first understanding how it really works. That is why we are writing and You are reading all of this…
In the meantime, my prediction is that Donald-the-Tramp is going to dominate the polls and the nomination contest a lot longer than most people expect because he is the only Star in the pitch-black night sky of the Republican party. Everyone else s just a wuss…
And he just might become the next President of these United States. Because it is here that Sports reigns supreme. So if “Donald-The-Tramp” is what we deserve that is what we are gonna get.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because he has many of the leadership characteristics we say we abhor even as we love them and we reward them widely in our Sports and Entertainment Freudian complex.
And since there is no better REWARD in our living system than giving our leaders our Democratic Vote — let’s heap it on them like we throw money to the swaggering Sports personalities and the various Kim Kardashian wannabes.
Big Booty Politics is next.
Yet for now, let’s chill.
Now… watch this:
Let’s all chill out, and remember that when Elections roll around next time; we will be the ones to decide if we want a man like Donald-the-Tramp, or a man like Nelson Mandela to lead us forth.
Dr Churchill
Bleeding Edge 
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