Trump's Brownshirts: Sieg Heil!

Today, Donald Trump finally gave a speech where he condemned what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. What took the Bully-in-Chief so long to call out White Supremacists in response to the recent horrific incident where a motorist killed counter-protestor Heather Heyer who was protesting against white nationalists?

In a review I wrote on Eric Larson's In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown; 2012), one can see clear parallels to what is going on today in America. Trump is a master of deception, deceit, denial, DIVERSION, and manipulation, who when backed into a corner will do anything to hang on to his power. Mueller and the congressional committees are closing in and he knows it.

Although Trump finally issued a condemnation, how are we to believe that he is sincere when we already know that almost everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie? Instead of further placating his diminishing number of supporters, what he should be doing is using the full force of law to punish the hate crimes.

There is no doubt that Trump sees the world through white privilege. His own father was arrested after attending a KKK rally in 1927. It is interesting how Fred Trump, like his son, sought out those who use fear as a weapon. This is why Trump deserves the title Bully-in-Chief; he instils fear in those around him in order to hold onto his immorally obtained power at any cost.

There are many who spotted this dangerous attitude months ago. My mother, who served in the Dutch underground during World War II fighting the actual Nazis, shared her warnings about the cost of unchecked Fascism in this column, “An End-of-Year, Near End-of-Life, Message From My Mother.”

To combat the use of hate, what is required now is a full-on assault against bullying, especially in the workplace. Without psychologically safe cultures in which to work, there is no chance that bystanders will stand up to the injustices which bullies like Trump use to dominate others with no sense of fair play.

Because the highest office in the land is doing everything it can to unravel the republic, question the Constitution, and bring the country to its knees, organizational leaders must take the initiative to actively embrace the Ethic of Reciprocity. Executives have the power to change attitudes, so this begins with them. They should take a moment to put themselves in the shoes of the oppressed. To combat the growth of fascism, everyone must do their part. As Edmund Burke observed, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire.

Photo credit: NBC News

Beware Twisting Science to Justify Prejudice

The tech industry was rocked last week when Google engineer James Damore wrote a memo in which he was trying to justify why 80 percent of his company’s employees were male. The questionable science he used to justify discrimination in Google’s employment practices illustrates how the biggest barrier to diversity today is still bias. What we are witnessing is people feeling empowered to express their hate and use false narratives and junk science to validate their prejudices.

The Globe and Mail article by Deborah Soh continues to perpetuate the idea that women and men are more or less suited to various jobs based on assorted scientific research. This perspective raises a number of questions. My primary concern is that the results stemming from this approach are misleading, and in some cases untrue. Broad stereotyping, while arguably more efficient, is inappropriate from every other perspective.

Scientific studies, based as they are on objective data, are open to interpretation. Although according to earlier research, men may score higher in certain skillsets, when we take the time to examine the situation from a broader perspective and look at more current studies, real balance emerges.

According to emotional intelligence expert David Caruso, PhD. of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, “when we look at data on our ability test of EI (Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test), women score a bit higher on all four abilities. They score slightly higher on ‘Facilitating Thought,’ suggesting that women, as a group, have more emotional empathy than do men (feel what others feel). That could be problematic and lead to burnout, compassion fatigue, etc.; but the biggest gender difference (although none are huge) is for the ‘Manage Emotions’ ability. Women outperform men on that ability. This means that you can have empathy, but if you manage the emotions you feel, you can achieve your goals (the ‘what’ of performance) as well as be a decent person (the ‘how’ of performance).” 

Because of the culture of fear that power-hungry executives instil in their employees as a way to control them, many people who do feel compelled to express their opinions, do so rather thoughtlessly, by only going after the low-hanging fruit. This is a dangerously slippery slope to follow as one usually only finds the obvious glaring faults, rarely ever seeing any virtues.

Ironically, it is the bullies of the group who themselves are fearful of losing their power. By swiftly disseminating false narratives, more thoughtful and reasoned perspectives can be avoided, deflected, and ignored.

This toxic dynamic, if allowed to continue unchecked, will lead to the downfall of organizations.  In my book, From Bully to Bull’s Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire, I discuss bullying and the attraction and retention of talent, whereby the top talent finds more verdant pastures; those who remain disengage further; and profits plummet.

Instead, we need to encourage systemic change within an organization’s culture, in order to make true progress towards diversity. The necessary change can only happen if organizations commit to making inclusion part of the foundation of company culture.

This can be achieved through the Ethic of Reciprocity, allowing organizations to balance profit with employee engagement, productivity, and retention – a real cultural about-face.

Image credit: International Business Times

The Consequences of Negligent Leadership at the Board Level

I really hoped I wouldn’t have to write about Travis Kalanick, former CEO and founder of Uber, again. As regular readers know, I’ve had a lot to say about Kalanick and the toxic workplace culture that led to his resignation as CEO. Now it looks like his investors are gunning for his spot on Uber’s Board of Directors as Benchmark Capital sues him for fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Had Uber’s board heeded my advice they would have avoided this whole mess. My prediction: Uber cannot survive this.

Photo credit: Inforum

The Insidiousness of Hidden Ageism Can Destroy Careers and Lives

There was a time when the companies believed in “last hired, first fired.” The reasoning was that these new hires were usually younger, so it was easier for them to find new employment, and had less training, so the company would retain the experienced heart of their workforce.

Those days are no more. Now my generation, the baby boomers, are the first to go when companies seek to cut costs. According to this article by Elizabeth Olson in the New York Times’ DealB%K, older workers cost the company more money so they’re the first to go regardless of the fact that it is increasingly hard for them to find new jobs—a fact confirmed by AARP. Ironically, companies who indulge in ageism also find that they no longer have competent, experienced employees as a foundation of good operating practices.

I wrote about this at length in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire, where I shared the case of William, who was systematically forced out of his job after restructuring to save costs. Ageism is a particularly insidious form of discrimination that makes little sense: we will all be old one day—if we’re lucky.

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Sessions' Threat to Lock Up Journalists is an Attack on the First Amendment

Maybe he was doing it to get back into the good graces of his bully boss, but Attorney General Jeff Session’s announcement today that the Justice Department has increased investigations to find “leakers” even if it means jailing journalists is nothing less than an attack on the First Amendment.

“I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country,” Sessions told a press conference where he allowed no questions. This comes on the heels of bullying comments from Donald Trump calling Sessions “weak” because he’s been frustrated that the DOJ and the FBI haven’t been looking for who is sharing what happens behind closed doors.

Although Trump refers to these people as “leakers,” I think we need to clearly define the difference between someone who leaks information and a whistleblower. A leaker, according to the New York Times, is someone who provides “confidential information to the public in a surreptitious way and without official authorization.”

A whistleblower takes it up a notch. Whistleblowing is usually about abuse of power or illegality that involves governmental or corporate wrongdoing. Because the stakes are even higher, whistleblowers have a hellish time. I know because I was one and suffered the consequences, which I discuss in my book From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire. But imagine the consequences if Deep Throat hadn’t blown the whistle on Richard Nixon. Because of the necessity of keeping people in power honest, we should do more to support those who come forward. I fear Session’s actions will do just the opposite and make it difficult, if not impossible, to hold Trump accountable.

The irony here is that Trump himself is a leaker. Remember when he revealed sensitive intelligence about Israel to Russian officials? That might be a good place for Sessions and his department to start.

Photo credit: ABC News

Scaramucci is Out: The First Thing Trump Got Right

Even at a time when breaking news from the White House happens almost hourly around the clock, the firing of now former communication director Anthony Scaramucci happened at breakneck speed. Hired on July 21, he’s already packing his bags as the incoming Chief of Staff retired General John Kelly gets “…a clean slate and the ability to build his own team,” according to current press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Firing Scaramucci and hiring Kelly are the first things Donald Trump has gotten right during his presidency.

I can only speculate that the twin embarrassments of the defeat of the healthcare bill, and the blunt statement by the Pentagon that they don’t take policy orders from a tweet, compounded by the heat he’s taking from the Republicans and the Wall Street Journal, must have spurred this change. Why Kelly? It may seem counterintuitive, but bullies like authority figures and Trump, who attended military academy and had a dictatorial father, seems to worship military generals.

Kelly would be well advised to put his energy into managing the White House staff, an excellent piece of advice from the man who was considered one of the finest in his former profession—James Baker. Baker gives clear advice in this New York Times piece: “Sage Advice From the ‘Gold Standard’ of White House Chiefs of Staff.”

If Kelly listens to Baker and Trump allows him to do his job, I predict that Steve Bannon will find his wings clipped in fairly short order. It will give everyone in the White House much-needed parameters and allow Robert Mueller to do his job. We can only hope and wait and see.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Photo credit: CNN

Addiction Reaches Every Corner of Society

The University of Southern California is reeling under allegations of campus drug use by the former medical school dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, who has been fired. People are calling this situation a scandal, which it is in the way the university covered it up, but I view this as more of a tragedy. Addiction is an issue that impacts almost every organization and every walk of life. It is an illness that is poorly understood and even more poorly treated. Addiction never happens in a vacuum. There are always indicators that there is an issue. What is lacking are appropriate interventions. If a school of medicine fails to understand this, how in the world can we possibly expect other organizations to do so?

 Last week, I blogged about the tragic death of a lawyer who was lost to addiction. It is incumbent on every organization to contact professionals who deal with addictions in order to recognize the indicators, understand the positive methods by which to intervene at the earliest possible stage, and learn how to support the individual. Bystanders, friends and family also have an obligation here. They almost always know there is something amiss. To them I offer the same advice—educate yourself. The life you save may be someone very close to you.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Photo credit: USC

Transgender Military Ban Just Another Attempt at Deflection

Whenever reality begins to intrude upon their self-made facts, you can count on Donald Trump and the perpetually shifty Steve Bannon to concoct something so egregious that the entire world’s attention is distracted. This morning’s tweeted news of a ban of transgender military personnel is the perfect example. Like all bullies, Trump and Bannon are masters of manipulation, deflection, deceit and denial—and with the ongoing fight for America’s healthcare and Trump’s inner circle talking to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Russians, they must have gotten pretty desperate to take the heat off themselves.

How stupid do they think we are? Do they think the bald-faced appeals to their base designed to enrage progressives has anyone fooled? Pushback has been massive. Highly decorated transgender Navy Seal Kristin Beck fired back, “Let’s meet face to face and you tell me I’m not worthy.” U.S. Senator John McCain (AZ-R) issued a statement as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee pointing out that the Defense Department is already studying the effect of supporting transgender military personnel: “I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress.” But my favorite response was the one tweeted by my country’s Canadian Forces:

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Protest Trump’s Appalling Speech at Boy Scout Jamboree

Monday night Donald Trump gave a talk to the annual Boy Scout Jamboree that was appallingly reminiscent of how the Hitler Youth were indoctrinated with vile propaganda and hate. The leadership of the Boy Scout movement should issue a public denunciation of Trump and his remarks. Below are the thoughts of my friend Patrick Mundt.

I was a Boy Scout.  I am appalled by the Bully-in-Chief’s speech at the Scout Jamboree.  The Boy Scouts of America is not a political institution—it's an American institution. How can we, as Americans, let Trump spew his hate and un-American thoughts and values to this honorable nonpolitical group whose own policy is to avoid anything political? As reported in The Atlantic, the rules plainly state: “The Boy Scouts of America must not … involve Scouting in political matters.” (You can read the BSA rule and regulations here.)  

It's beyond comprehension.  Trump needs to be stopped. The 40,000 boys at the event were being taught disrespect and these lessons will further perpetuate what we are experiencing now.  It's not enough to just post on Facebook. We must take action. If we are silent, we lose. 

Here’s what you can do:

·       Call the Boy Scouts of America main office at 972-580-2000.

·       Tweet @boyscouts and Chief Scout Michael Sturbaugh @BSAChief and express your outrage at the rally booing President Barack Obama, a former Boy Scout.

·       Read this: 

The Foundation of Scouting

Scout Oath

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty To God and my country and to obey the Scout Law,

To help other people at all times,

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight

Scout Law

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

Scout Mission

The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law.

Photo credit: Washington Post

The Bully-in-Chief Remains as Predictable as Ever

At the beginning of the year I wrote a post predicting what Donald Trump will do next. Sadly, recent events are proving me right. I have no special psychic ability, but I’ve studied bullies for a long time and I know what a bully does when cornered. Like all bullies, the more Trump has his back pushed against the wall, the more he lashes out. His latest Tweet storm is ample proof of that.

Today his son-in-law Jared Kushner, was interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Trump’s son Donald Jr., and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort have also struck an agreement to be privately interviewed by the Committee. Clearly things are getting uncomfortable for the current resident of the White House.

This leads me to two new predictions:

1.     Someone close to Trump will throw him under the bus. Trump is bully who leads a collection of bullying toadies. When bullies get threatened, they lash out.

2.     Trump will soon replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions with someone who can influence the course of the Russia investigation. Trump’s inquiry about pardoning himself makes it clear that he’s getting desperate.

To find out what will happen we only have to stay tuned, but one thing is for sure—the behavior of bullies, and the Bully-in-Chief, will always be predictable.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Photo credit: BIGSTOCK