President as Leader

Although I do not know who I am voting for in the upcoming presidential election, I do know who I’m not voting for: Donald Trump.  There are many reasons why I choose not to support Trump, but one of the main reasons is because I do not believe he is a good leader.  Trump doesn’t have strong informal or formal authority, which is very important to the success of a good leader.

Authority can be divided into two types: formal and informal.  Formal authority is authority is the power of office or position.  Informal authority is influence that affects others’ attitudes.  Both types rely on expectations being met, where formal relies on explicit expectations and informal on implicit ones.  

Donald Trump does not have the formal authority to be running for office.  Put simply, he is not a politician.  Most of the people who run for president have some experience, like holding a position such as governor or senator.  That is formal authority that can be very useful in running for president.  Trump is just a businessman with a lot of opinions.  I would not trust someone who did not have any experience in politics to hold so much power over the country I live in.  Trump is working to gain the ultimate formal authority that is President of the United States.  He may have some difficulties with that, because in order to gain formal authority, a person usually must practice strong informal authority to gain the support of their peers and uppers.  

Perhaps more importantly than formal authority, Donald trump lacks the informal authority required to truly be a great leader.  According to Heifetz, informal authority can be gained by implicit expectations being met such as trustworthiness, ability, and civility.  In regards to his trustworthiness, Trump has gone back and forth on important issues;  his ability can be doubted because he has never led a city before, let alone a country!  And lastly, his civility is almost non-existent.