Leadership Lessons from Trump’s Cancellation of His London Trip

In the first episode of The Game of Thrones, King Robert asks Lord Stark to come to the capital as his Hand of the King because he is the one person that the King can trust. The first lesson in leadership is that the work must be done by others and there is no more important task for a leader than the selection of subordinates who can be trusted to faithfully carry out the leader’s instructions. This does not mean that a good leader wants to be surrounded by sycophants who blindly do what they are told. A good leader wants subordinates who will not be afraid to speak up when they think the leader’s proposals are wrong headed. But, if after the subordinate’s views have been given a fair hearing, the leader chooses to proceed as originally intended, the subordinate has two choices, wholeheartedly support the leader or resign.