Why are powerful Republican men highly susceptible to what Axios calls Trump’s “superpower?” Why are (most) women immune? Does North Korea’s Kim Jong-un share this same power?
In today’s lead blog, Axios describes the silence of Trump’s Republican critics and the instant shifts in GOP views this way:
“In our lifetime, no president has matched Donald Trump’s ability to summon the power of the pulpit, friendly media, and the tweet-by-tweet power of repetition and persuasion to move minds en masse.”
The Reality: This is called the “Janus Effect.
This is what happens when a bad decision is made by an Alpha male leader. The bad decision is reinforced by the people in his inner circle, seemingly without judgment.
The FIX?
We need look no further back than our evolutionary history to a time when male hunting groups were led by a strong alpha male. In the same way that a wolf pack sticks together, members of an alpha male’s inner circle stick together. Their deepest fear is to be told point-blank by someone who is deadly serious: “John, You’re not being a team player!” The deeply internalized fear of the team turning against them, of being isolated or exiled, is too much to bear.
So what’s the political fix? When voting people into public office, ignore gender. Instead chose highly empathetic, nurturing, collaborative leaders who have a track record of success. These KEY traits make them immune to the Janus Effect.
Alexia Parks is a futurist, UN Mentor and Founder of 10TRAITS Leadership,