ROBERT MUELLER IS NOT SAFE. OUR DEMOCRACY IS NOT SAFE.

Charles M. Blow, in his New York Times opinion piece, explains the pattern Trump has shown throughout his presidency to undermine our very democracy, not only by seeking to oust special counsel Robert Mueller, but also by attempts to obstruct justice. I have written about Trump being a classic bully, predictable in his behavior, despite being unpredictable in his specific actions.

Again in January, I warned that Trump’s dismantling of our democracy was gaining momentum. There is little doubt that the pressure is mounting against this beleaguered president. What exactly he will do, we do not know. That he will do something drastic is a sure bet!

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A BASIC AND SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

In his usual misinformed way, the president calls The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, “a lobbyist weapon,” among other things. However, “There isn’t anybody here who is paid by Amazon,” the editor, Martin Baron, said. You don’t have to like Amazon to fear Trump’s attack on it.

Last month, anchors at local news stations across the country made identical comments about media bias. The script came from their owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The real problem with Sinclair’s ‘fake’ news script, as outlined in this Washington Post article by Eric Wemple is that it flies in the face of any semblance of responsible journalism, which undermines the First Amendment.

Helaine Olen further explains why Trump’s misguided support for Sinclair Broadcasting is so concerning. If left unbridled, as it now appears to be, the entire distribution of news will be unfairly slanted; and that is a basic and serious threat to democracy.

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FACEBOOK’S CULTURE OF ‘GROWTH AT ANY COST’

This story provides insight into Facebook’s culture. The conditions necessary for an organization to succeed, and to withstand a crisis don’t appear to have been evident despite huge expenditures on glitzy and faddish human resource programs. These missing ingredients are trust, a sense of purpose, and a sense of efficacy. An example of how employees are helping leaders realign their thinking, through freedom of expression, is represented here as Google employees organize to fight cyberbullying inside the company.

The memo which defended Facebook’s growth at any cost, now disavowed by the executive who wrote it, is really at the root of Facebook’s problem. Based on the extensive research I have done for my books, it is also the root of the cultures that exist in most organizations. Organizational leadership should learn from this by asking, ‘Do we have a culture of growth at any cost?’

Unfortunately there are some grave misconceptions about workplace culture, as spelled out in this Harvard Business Review article. It would appear that Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, remains out of touch with the company’s culture. She relies on the results of misguided surveys to measure employee engagement and fulfillment. The reality, as exposed by this article, paints a grim, yet more likely realistic picture of the organizations real culture. What happened at Facebook kind of blows the Glassdoor survey to smithereens. Clearly, groups like Bain and Glassdoor are looking at the wrong things in determining best places to work.

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A NEUTERED POPE

As stated in this New York Times article, Canada’s Catholic bishops said Pope Francis would not apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in an educational system that tried to eliminate Indigenous culture.

Pope Frances would have more credibility if he outright rejected the churches role in this. Frances gave us hope that the church would regain its moral authority. As I have pointed out in my previous blogs, he is failing miserably. 

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NORMALIZING TRUMP

This story by Roxane Gay is an objective perspective on the ‘Roseanne’ reboot. Gay came to the conclusion that while she found the first two episodes funny and very well done, watching further episodes would compromise her principles because the series “normalizes Trump”. The network realized it was leaving some viewers behind — and put into effect a plan that brought back a working-class sitcom.

Fox News and the National Enquirer have consistently been trying to ‘normalizing Trump’ since he entered the National stage. Given Fox’s ratings and Trump’s improved poll numbers, the normalization of Trump is working.

My bet is that other forms of media, entertainment and art will attempt to do the same. The Nazi propaganda machine in the early thirties used the same methods to ‘normalize he Hitler’. 

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THE NEW AGE MANAGER

Mickey Callaway, the Mets new manager, is among the youngest of a new crop of baseball managers steeped in analytics but known for soothing egos and coaxing high performances.

This story is an example of what both employers and employees are looking for in leadership. The ‘Emotion Revolution in the Workplace’, an initiative of the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence and the Faas Foundation, promotes the development of emotional intelligence skills because it is in most cases the missing ingredient in leadership; and something employees at all levels hunger for. Baseball managers and managers in other sectors should all be “steeped in analytics but known for soothing egos and coaxing high performances.”

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FORCING PEOPLE OUT

The peculiar painful limbo of David Shulkin shows how the president often handles personnel matters - publicly, hoping the employee will leave instead of forcing an ouster. Here, as described in this New York Times article, Trump follows a common tactic used by bullies - forcing employees to quit rather than firing them. Many interpret this as cowardly; it’s not. Bullies usually take perverse pleasure in making people’s lives miserable to the point where they break.

Most fall into what I refer to in ‘Vera’s Story’ on page 9 in the introduction of my book as ‘The Bully’s Trap’, where the target becomes what the bully wants them to become - a poor performer with a bad attitude - in essence the villain rather than the victim. Some choose to leave. Others, like Rex Tillerson, force the bully’s hand. Yet, other’s commit suicide. Precious few are not forced out. 

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WHEN BULLIES GET CORNERED

As I’ve indicated in my book, “From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Our of the Line of Fire”, bullies are masters of deflection, denial, deceit and manipulation; and Trump is playing this to the hilt. Once again, as exposed in this editorial by Charles M. Blow, we see that Trump’s penchant for disruption to the exclusion of reason or possible consequences has reached fever pitch.

As Richard Haass so succinctly tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump is now set for war on 3 fronts: political vs Bob Mueller, economic vs China/others on trade, and actual vs. Iran and/or North Korea. This is the most perilous moment in modern American history — and it has been largely brought about by ourselves, not by events.”

I have been predicting Trump’s systematic unraveling of our democracy prior to his election, and subsequently, to underscore the dire predicament his actions are placing upon the entire world stage.

This is the big leagues, and this little man is feeling the stress and strain of it. The real danger here is his doing something

Given the positions Trump has chosen to put hardliners like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton into, the biggest deflection could be unwarranted military action. That’s the real danger here.

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CONVEYING TOUGH MESSAGES

The ‘Emotion Revolution in the Workplace’ is an initiative in which the Faas Foundation has partnered with the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence. Our research has revealed that one of the biggest reasons emotional intelligence has generally not been embraced as a leadership capability is that it is viewed as soft, with the purpose of “being nice”. The perspective in this Washington Post article nicely challenges that view.

We assert, based on evidence, that emotionally intelligent managers are better able to give tough messages to their subordinates. Developing emotional intelligence skills in people allows them to have open, honest and direct conversations; something we have found is not the norm in most organizations. We are also finding employees want this feedback.

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THE BULLY AND THE BULLY

This article in the New York Times advances a question that has been out there from the get go of the bizarre relationship that the most powerful man in the (for now) free world has with the most powerful man of the (current and future) unfree world.  

Former CIA Director John Brennan is not a man who uses words lightly. In this Huffington Post article, Brennan is quoted, “Trump would take his “rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history” once “the full extent” of his “venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known,” Brennan wrote. “You may scapegoat Andy McCabe,” he added. “But you will not destroy America… America will triumph over you.”

These powerful words, coming from someone who, more than anyone, had access to information on the Putin/Trump saga, should not be taken lightly. As the NYT Editorial Board challenges, it’s high time for Trump to prove Brennan's words wrong!

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