Leadership Skills: A Critical Analysis of President Trump's Leadership Style

This article critically analyzes President Trump's leadership style and suggests the need for transformational leadership skills. It discusses the traits that need development and the potential benefits of becoming a transformational leader.

leadership skills
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President Donald J. Trump predominant personality behaviour shows that he is
ambitious as well as exploitative in his techniques and impulsive as well as outbound in his
capabilities. His personal techniques also show that he poses dominant and controlling
feature that is supplemented by adventurous and dauntless tendency. According to Immelman
(2017), Trump’s personality-based leadership style can be summarised as an active and
positive presidential charm with organised characteristics who is able to engage, arouse and
direct people like a key leader.
Although Trump is presently leading one of the most powerful nations in the world
that is United States, based on conversation among people who worked for him reveals
Trump’s behaviours that need development in his leadership style critically. His manners and
methods reveal his leadership traits where in one of the articles it is mentioned that “Rather
than magisterial and decisive, Trump the actual boss swings wildly between micromanaging
meddler” (Zuesse, 2017). This specifies that Trump is both intrusive and impulsive where he
hires people on gut instinct instead of qualification along with showing unstructured
workaholic.
A recent study on leadership skills shows that transformational leaders have potential
in changing situations and their followers. Remarkably, leader-trait approach still remains a
challenging idea in which personality variables does not include leadership effectiveness
(Tafvelin, 2013). Somehow, the transformational and charismatic leadership models raised
the significance of self-qualities as key drivers of leadership effectiveness in relation to the
situation in which leadership occurs. This theory will not only focus upon characteristics of
President Trump, but also on his personal behaviour to determine visionary or charismatic
effects he have on his followers. Another significant aspect that distinguishes

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transformational leaders from others is revealed in earlier movements where they show more
emotional attachments with their followers along with performance that needs to manage
situations critically (Gomes, 2014).
Transformational leaders have those capabilities that can influence their followers in
making them work more for communities and themselves. According to Tafvelin (2013),
transformational leader proves more realistic and reasonable to self as well as community
where personal welfare may not be important than others. Out of others, transformational
leadership is most popular in terms of leading communities as it raises level of morality along
with providing well organised work culture. As identified above, Trump possess leadership
traits that needs development and to become transformational leader, President Trump will
have to demonstrate reliable transformational leadership elements. These may include
inspirational motivation, idealised influence, intellectual stimulation and people
consideration. Cavzotte (2013) describes, leaders who perform as strong character for
followers, followers in return identify them and desire to idealize them. While president
Trump poses sound leadership quality, he has also spoken many untruths that makes him fall
under ethical stance.
In history, it has been seen that President Trump’s strong and dominant outspoken
personality have inspired many Americans that made him win electoral votes for US
elections. According to me, transformational leadership and inspirational development within
him can provide Trump with those meaning that can help him engage in sharing goals and
activities with the people he works with. Furthermore, the inspirational and authenticity in
transformational leaders tends to focus upon best people that poses charity, good deeds and
harmony that can change Trump into more developed as well a disciplined leader.

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References
Cavazotte, F. (2013). Transformational Leaders and Work Performance: The Mediating
Roles of Identification and Self-efficacy. Brazilian Administration Reveiw, 10(04),
490-512.
Gomes, A. R. (2014). Transformational leadership: Theory, research, and application to
sports. Contemporary topics and trends in the psychology of sports, 53-114.
Immelman, A. (2017). The Leadership Style of U.S. President Donald J.Trump. Retrieved
from https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1109&context=psychology_pubs
Tafvelin, S. (2013). The Transformational Leadership Process. Sweden: Swedish law.
Zuesse, E. (2017). Trump's Leadership Style. Retrieved from
https://countercurrents.org/2017/12/06/trumps-leadership-style/