{"id":28593,"date":"2016-09-12T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T02:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=28593"},"modified":"2016-09-09T09:35:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T23:35:59","slug":"trumps-emotional-intelligence-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/trumps-emotional-intelligence-deficit\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s emotional intelligence deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/p>\n

Last month, 50 former national security officials who had served at high levels in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush published a letter<\/a> saying they wouldn\u2019t vote for their party\u2019s presidential nominee, Donald Trump. In their words, \u2018a President must be disciplined, control emotions, and act only after reflection and careful deliberation.\u2019 Simply put, \u2018Trump lacks the temperament to be President.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the terminology of modern leadership theory, Trump is deficient in emotional intelligence\u2014the self-mastery, discipline, and empathic capacity that allows leaders to channel their personal passions and attract others. Contrary to the view that feelings interfere with thinking, emotional intelligence\u2014which includes two major components, mastery of the self and outreach to others\u2014suggests that the ability to understand and regulate emotions can make overall thinking more effective.<\/p>\n

While the concept is modern, the idea isn\u2019t new. Practical people have long understood its importance in leadership. In the 1930s, former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a crusty old veteran of the American Civil War, was taken to meet Franklin D. Roosevelt, a fellow Harvard graduate but one who hadn\u2019t been a distinguished student. Asked later about his impressions of the new president, Holmes famously quipped: \u2018second-class intellect; first-class temperament.\u2019 Most historians would agree that Roosevelt\u2019s success as a leader rested more on his emotional than his analytical IQ.<\/p>\n

Psychologists have tried to measure intelligence for more than a century. General IQ tests measure such dimensions of intelligence as verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning, but IQ scores predict only about 10 to 20% of variation in life success. The 80% that remains unexplained is the product of hundreds of factors playing out over time. Emotional intelligence is one of them.<\/p>\n

Some experts argue that emotional intelligence is twice as important as technical or cognitive skills. Others suggest it plays a more modest role. Moreover, psychologists differ about how the two dimensions of emotional intelligence\u2014self-control and empathy\u2014relate to each other. Bill Clinton, for example, scored low on the first but high on the second. Nonetheless, they agree that emotional intelligence is an important component of leadership. Richard Nixon probably had a higher IQ than Roosevelt, but much lower emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n

Leaders use emotional intelligence to manage their \u2018charisma\u2019 or personal magnetism across changing contexts. We all present ourselves to others in a variety of ways in order to manage the impressions we make: for example, we \u2018dress for success.\u2019 Politicians, too, \u2018dress\u2019 differently for different audiences. Ronald Reagan\u2019s staff was famous for its effectiveness in managing impressions. Even a tough general like George Patton used to practice his scowl in front of a mirror.<\/p>\n

Successful management of personal impressions requires some of the same emotional discipline and skill possessed by good actors. Acting and leadership have a great deal in common. Both combine self-control with the ability to project. Reagan\u2019s prior experience as a Hollywood actor served him well in this regard, and Roosevelt was a consummate actor as well. Despite his pain and difficulty in moving on his polio-crippled legs, FDR maintained a smiling exterior, and was careful to avoid being photographed in the wheelchair he used.<\/p>\n

Humans, like other primate groups, focus their attention on the leader. Whether CEOs and presidents realise it or not, the signals they convey are always closely watched. Emotional intelligence involves awareness and control of such signals, and the self-discipline that prevents personal psychological needs from distorting policy. Nixon, for example, could strategise effectively on foreign policy; but he was less able to manage the personal insecurities that caused him to create an \u2018enemies list\u2019 and eventually led to his downfall.<\/p>\n

Trump has some of the skills of emotional intelligence. He\u2019s an actor whose experience hosting a reality-television show enabled him to dominate the crowded Republican primary field and attract considerable media attention. Dressing for the occasion in his signature red baseball cap with the slogan \u2018Make America Great Again,\u2019 he appeared to have gamed the system with a winning strategy of using \u2018politically incorrect\u2019 statements to focus attention on himself and gain enormous free publicity.<\/p>\n

But Trump has proven deficient in terms of self-control, leaving him unable to move toward the centre for the general election. Likewise, he\u2019s failed to display the discipline needed to master the details of foreign policy, with the result that, unlike Nixon, he comes across as naive about world affairs.<\/p>\n

Trump has a reputation as a bully in interactions with peers, but that isn\u2019t bad per se<\/em>. As the Stanford psychologist Roderick Kramer has pointed out<\/a>, President Lyndon Johnson was a bully, and many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have a bullying style. But Kramer calls such figures bullies with a vision that inspires others to want to follow them.<\/p>\n

And Trump\u2019s narcissism has led him to overreact, often counter-productively, to criticism and affronts. For example, he became embroiled in a dispute with an American Muslim couple whose son, a US soldier, was killed in Iraq, and in a petty feud with Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, after Trump felt slighted. In such cases, Trump stepped on his own message.<\/p>\n

It is this deficiency in his emotional intelligence that has cost Trump the support of some of the most distinguished foreign policy experts in his party and in the country. In their words, \u2018he is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate criticism.\u2019 Or, as Holmes might say, Trump has been disqualified by his second-class temperament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, 50 former national security officials who had served at high levels in Republican administrations from Richard Nixon to George W. 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