WhatFinger


This is not what honorable people do.

Stop making heroes out of people who undermine their boss, regardless of what you think of him



I had a boss once that I gradually lost respect for. (I hope said boss doesn't read this and recognize himself, but it was many years ago I'm sure he's done fine without me.) There's no point going into all the reasons. But I got to the point during three years of working for this person that I did not believe the organization he led could ever succeed because his inadequacies as a leader would not permit that to happen. (In fairness to him, once I became the CEO of my own organization, I proved to myself and everyone around me that I had plenty of my own flaws.) Anyway, it's a gut-wrenching situation to be in because the boss sets the direction, and you can only do so much to get outside that direction because he's the one paying your salary. If you become convicted in the belief that you simply can't work for the man because you can't follow his lead and you're always going to be operating at cross-purposes with him, then the only move you can make with integrity is to leave.

As long as he was signing my paychecks, I owed him my loyalty

I did so as quickly as I could arrange a place to land, which was only a matter of a few months. But how I handled those few months was crucial. As long as I was drawing a salary from the boss I didn't respect, I had to do everything I could to position his organization for success. It would be easy to think: What's the use? Anything I accomplish he'll just screw up. But that's not your decision to make. I owed it to him to help him get new clients, and to take good care of the clients he had, and to help him make good hires for his organization - until the day I walked out the door. Because as long as he was signing my paychecks, I owed him my loyalty. And the final thing I owed him was to get out of his way. Because no organization can succeed in spite of its leader. When the troops lose faith in the leader and decide to start undermining him, they are not embarking on a direction that will set things right. The leader must be allowed to lead. And if you're not willing to follow his lead, then you owe it to him to step aside and let him find someone who will. I tell that story because of the whispers around Washington that the White House staff has developed this same attitude toward President Trump. This, we're supposed to believe, is the reason for all the leaks. The people Trump is supposed to be able to trust are undermining him at every turn, spilling secrets and looking for opportunities to make him look bad. I'm sure the people saying this are engaging in a fair amount of projection. You claim that "no one" likes or respects the president, when you're really only speaking for you and a certain group of others who agree with you. But it's been clear from the moment Trump took office that some portion of the White House staff is not in his corner, and is actively trying to sabotage his presidency.

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These people are being treated as heroes by the political press

These people are being treated as heroes by the political press, which also hates Trump and is eager to lionize anyone who is willing to help bring him down. But they are not heroes. They're untrustworthy jerks who no employer should ever hire or trust again. Let's say for the sake of argument that their reasons for disliking Trump are valid. Let's say he's unprepared, impulsive and lacking in the knowledge necessary to do the job. Let's say his style of leadership is lacking and he doesn't know how to inspire anyone's confidence. Trump's history in business doesn't really support any of this, but let's assume it anyway for the purpose of this discussion. Your job as a member of the White House staff is to do what everyone in official Washington claims to want, which is to help bring about the success of the president. Every president we've ever had brought flaws to the office, but he was the guy the voters chose and the Constitution says the presidency is his for four years. It does provide for impeachment under the right circumstances, but the right circumstances are not, "We don't like him." The system is designed to give the winner of the election the opportuunity to govern. If you're a member of Congress, you're part of a different branch of the government and it's understandable that you might see your role as providing a check on the executive. But if you're on the White House staff, your job is to help the president govern. If the president has holes in his game and that makes it hard for him to govern effectively, then your job is to provide strengths to neutralize those weaknesses and help him. It is not to run to the press while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity and talk about how bad he is.

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The people who are undermining President Trump are strictly looking out for themselves

When you choose to do that, you're not just attacking the man himself. You're also denying the country the opportunity to be led by an effective executive, because you are personally responsible for creating obstacles to his effectiveness. You might think he came to the job with plenty of his own, and maybe he did, but when you accepted that job working for him you were supposed to help him do the best he could. The people who are undermining President Trump are strictly looking out for themselves. They know the establishment hates their boss, and they want to let the establishment know that they hate him too, and will work from the inside to help them bring him down. The really disgusting thing is that the Beltway establishment will probably reward this kind of behavior. When I say President Trump deserves support, I don't mean you have to agree with everything he wants to do or tries to do. What I do mean is that people - especially people taking a paycheck as White House staff members - should be doing everything possible to help him govern effectively. Setting dumpster fires behind his back and forcing him to spend all his energy putting them out is not how you do that. Trump haters view the lack of loyalty on the part of certain staff members as an indictment of the president himself. Why, if they believed in the guy, they'd be loyal. Well, if they don't believe in him, then they need to get out of his way and give him the chance to hire someone who does, or at least someone who wants to help him rather than undermine him while making sure their names are not used. The people doing this are no heroes. And if this is the sort of behavior the Beltway culture encourages and rewards, then I hope people understand the country can't survive in spite of its leadership. And I am not talking about Donald Trump.


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Dan Calabrese -- Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.


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