CEOs stuck between a rock and a hard place on Trump’s councils

Leaders matters. But leadership matters more. A leader makes decisions and works alone to get things done. Leadership engages others to improve decisions and to get buy-in to getting the right things done. President Trump has demonstrated that he is a leader. Throughout his professional career, as sole proprietor of his business and reality shown icon, he has spoken his mind and taken action.

But these personal qualities get in his way when he wants to engage other leaders in accomplishing his agenda. Leadership requires ability to engage by listening, adapting, and then acting. An individual leader’s impact is limited to their personal zone of influence. By building leadership, leaders multiply their influence, make better decisions, and get better things done more often.

{mosads}Presidents and other leaders actually gain power by empowering others. By sharing power, leaders make their personal agenda someone else’s commitment and the ideas are implemented. Leadership authenticity through speaking one’s mind is actually narcissism if it does not make others better. Leadership value is when others benefit from a leader’s actions. A true leader is not proud of being worth $1 billion. A true leader is proud of helping to create 1,000 millionaires.

The purpose of councils is to engage trailblazers and innovators to share opinions to improve policy and to gain their commitment to make things happen. Company presidents and other trendsetters join these councils to have a voice in shaping policy that will not only help their company and industry, but have nationwide influence. Governing through councils may take more time to reach a consensus, but the divergence of opinion generally leads to more robust recommendations, and the personal participation in the decision leads to commitment to make recommendations happen.

When those who participate in councils are no longer heard or discounted, leaders isolate themselves and are disconnected from the impact of their decisions. It has to be a very difficult choice for council members to withdraw from councils because they want to have a forum to have a voice for impact. The CEOs who chose to withdraw from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council had to do so after realizing that their voices in this council were not being heard, that their personal and corporate values were at odds with President Trump’s personal agenda, and that continuing in the councils sent a mixed message to their employees, customers and investors.

My advice to these CEOs is to continue to articulate and live their values. The value of individual and corporate values is that they signal to others what matters most and have a long term sustainable impact. We have found that employees today need to find meaning and purpose from work which comes from clear values, that customers do not just buy a product but a firm’s brand, and that investors don’t just value profits but intangibles of reputation and social responsibility. CEOs who embody their firm’s values through their actions and decisions serve these multiple stakeholders.

When Trump loses talented executives on councils, or even disbands councils, he increasingly isolates himself from alternative views. Groupthink is an insidious and dangerous leadership style. In our research, we found that effective leaders continually navigate paradox and learn to disagree without being disagreeable. They are capable of having tension without tension. Trump’s strength of independence becomes a liability when he is unable to engage others in sharing and shaping his agenda.

Part of America’s political heritage is to encourage transparency with tolerance. Tolerance means accepting diverging views and then being engaged in open and transparent dialogue to come to a better decision.

David Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a partner at the RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.