The 4 things great leaders learn from President Trump & Russia

President Trump is known for strong remarks that some consider refreshingly candid, and others consider fictional. He doesn’t shy away from inflammatory statements, which have dominated national news cycles since he took the office. On certain topics, however, his lack of statements has been newsworthy: he is shying away from speaking out against illegal behavior by the Russians. He also refutes reports about Russia’s interference without providing better information. Furthermore, he’s blaming others for issues, pointing fingers, and avoiding agreement with his own intelligence teams on matters relating to Russia. Regardless of how you feel about President Trump, there is a ton that leaders and executives can learn from him.

A leader needs to provide the team with context and information to make smart decisions.

Great leaders get ahead of rumors and gossip. They make sure people are properly informed. They frame news and information in a productive way, sharing the why and setting the context. In the absence of proper information, people create their own story to fill in the blanks. A leader’s job is to provide clarity and help people focus on what’s important; to help give people context — to have people understand what you’re doing and why.

A leader is always communicating to the team — even when it’s silence.

Avoiding an issue won’t make it go away. In fact there’s a good chance silence will make it worse instead. Since team members are closer to the action, they often know about issues before the leader does. More often than not, the team is keenly aware of any issues that the leader might be avoiding. When the leader is conspicuously silent on the topic, the team will start to wonder.

Matters are even worse when the leader ignores what his own team is telling him. It shows team members that their thoughts are not valued. The behavior conveys a clear hierarchy: team members are there to serve the leader; he’s not there to serve the team. People will ask themselves why they’re working in their roles. What’s the point if their opinions will be ignored? Furthermore, what’s the goal of the leader? Is it to advance his own opinion, or to advance the organization? And is this how the team should behave, with everyone chasing their own agenda without consideration?

A leader’s words matter. His actions matter more.

Through their own behavior leaders showcase the accepted behavior for the rest of the organization. The way the leader acts will become the way the organization acts. A leader teaches his team how to handle conflict simply by handling conflict himself. For example, the leader might be quick to blame one person in a conflict, be silent about the other participants, and not inquire to learn what really gave rise to the conflict. It shows that finger pointing is the appropriate way to handle conflict in the organization. This will also be the behavior that team members adopt and pass on. Team members will be quick to blame others without inquiring about root cause of a conflict.

The leader needs to model the appropriate way to productively resolve conflicts. Conflicts can be a great opportunity to learn and strengthen a team. If handled improperly, however, they can also tear a team apart. The positive effects only take hold if people inquire and don’t jump to one-sided conclusions.

Even a lack of action speaks volumes.

If the leader does nothing to address a team member’s poor behavior, then this poor behavior will be seen as acceptable. Why should a team member be punctual, when others can stroll in ten minutes late? Why should a team member watch the budget, when others routinely overspend? Tolerating poor behavior will allow it to spread across the team, and become the norm. Even by doing nothing, the leader establishes the accepted behaviors in his team.

There will be growing tension if the leader’s and the team’s values are consistently at odds. This needs to be addressed and settled. Over time people will feel their values are not aligned with the values of the organization. It’s incredibly frustrating when team members play by different sets of rules. Failing to establish or enforce good behaviors drains the team’s motivation. Especially if the leader is the source of the discrepancies.

As a leader, every move has an impact. Words matter. Silence matters. Action matters more.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +443,678 people.

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