The 2020 US Presidential election is over. The insurrectionists inspired by Donald Trump that tried to stop the counting of electoral votes and take over the US Capitol were defeated. Wounds are fresh, trash talk still active, Trump has been impeached again, and Joe Biden is the 46th American President.
As the Biden transition has played out, sustaining support Trump appears to has been infused by a narrative of the election was stolen with a heady dose of QAnon / Proud Boys beliefs
Against this charged background is the question “can most companies afford to hire an ever-Trumper for the executive suite?”
The lines that have already been drawn are pretty clear. Worked in the White House? You’ve become toxic and generally unemployable by mainstream organizations. Conservative business publication Forbes has stated, for example, that they “will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie” if it comes from a former Trump staffer.
What if someone didn’t work in the Trump administration (or storm the Capitol)? What if the candidate is (simply) an ever-Trump backer?
First, are are parallels to this situation?
It wasn’t all that long ago – and continues in some places – that people considered “different” seldom landed in “C” suites. Jews, Blacks, Catholics, gays, women, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have all been seen as placements that are too provocative for staid, “hushed tone” insular cultures. Even today there can be extra scrutiny and a furrowing of brows in certain sectors and certain parts of the country that the placement of those folks as well as others – the disabled, vegans, trans people, military vets, etc. – can raise.
Bob Duggan, who founded the successful oncology company Pharmacyclics (sold to Abbvie for $21B) raised more than just eyebrows with his strong Scientology affiliation during his tenure as CEO. His donations of an estimated $360M over the years likely caused many would-be Pharmacyclics execs, and potential investors, to pause to consider how much affiliation they wanted with Scientology given the controversy that’s dogged it.
The assumption, fairly or unfairly, is that people apply the values of their identify, affiliations or cause at work. Gays in the C suite will promote homosexuality, women will lead to a “hen’s nest,” Jews, Blacks and Catholics will favor their own. I think we can say, generally, that it’s simply not true.
Tump’s agenda – xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, anti-LBGTQI, anti-science, anti-diversity and inclusion – lands badly with many public corporations. Boards of publicly traded companies usually lack interest in hiring execs (and sometimes board members too) who they anticipate will generate disruption, stew unrest, and invite negative attention by their support of highly controversial positions, people or organizations.
For some in the executive suite, support for Trump is considered to be both an IQ and EQ test. It’s one thing to have beliefs (heck – we all do) but it’s another to apply those beliefs in a way that differs from laws (Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act comes to mind) or the official position and practices of public companies (sample: “Championing workforce development, diversity and inclusion is the best way to attract, develop and retain the employee talent pool within our globally competitive industry.”)
And while I’m a big-tent diversity fan, there are limits. One standard is the James Baldwin line – “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
If you believe in diversity, equity and inclusion it does mean having people with a range of views as well as the obvious elements of gender, background, education, race, ethnicity, age, etc. As painful as that might sound – gee wouldn’t it be great if everyone thought like me – that’s not how bringing out the best in teams and organizations works.
It doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t have clear affirmative standards. Identifying the cultural and business values that apply in your organization early and often is one way to get people on track and to proscriptively set limits.
But it gets tricky when it comes to people pursuing a political agenda, in this case Trump’s. Take, for example, a former VP of Human Resources colleague I’ll call “Randy” as a case in point, someone who is assumed to be an ever Trumper.
Randy’s “Trumpy actions” range from little stuff like carrying and using single-use plastic straws to antagonize eco-colleagues at lunch, helping kibosh a CEO letter opposing Trump’s Muslim ban (“too provocative”), and discouraging public commitments to the team promoting gender diversity (“too divisive”). While Randy supports LGBT rights (gay child at home), they are an unabashed supporter, complete with large, outsized flag on their office wall, of the historically segregationist and presently homophobic college another child attended. It’s no “stars and bars” but it’s a school when their gay child would likely be unwelcome and unsafe. The message comes across loud and clear regarding the official company support for diversity and inclusion: “Roll Tide.”
And when Randy called me to collect data on whether a client company would require Covid vaccinations as part of any post-pandemic return to on-site work, my sense was that someone was looking for data that validated their political belief; requiring masks or vaccinations in is an affront to personal liberty in Trumpland. While Randy’s CEO wants to require vaccinations, Randy’s data recap – surprise, surprise – suggests that few companies will require them.
The cut to the chase is is that when you hire someone with controversial beliefs you have to figure out if they’re able to toe the line between company and public policy positions and what their own personal political beliefs are. It’s not a new issue but one that’s seemingly supercharged over the last four years.
So by all means hire people of difference at the senior level; just ensure they are on board by deeds and actions with embracing the law of the land and the values of the company.
Can you really afford to hire today an ever Trumper to the C suite? Maybe, but only provided they restrain from applying their political beliefs to the workplace.
Life Back West is an occasional set of writings focused on ways people, teams and organizations can be both more effective (doing the right thing) and more efficient (doing the right thing well). More about my 30+ years of work coaching execs, start up and leadership teams can be found at the “About J. Mike Smith and Back West, Inc.” sidebar at the Back West blog.