The Different Leadership Styles of Trump, Vance, Harris, and Walz in the Campaign for the White House
Now that there are two weeks to go until the election, it’s helpful to think about the leadership styles of Trump and Vance versus Harris and Walz in deciding how to vote. After all, a President’s and Veep’s leadership style can make a big difference in dealing with different crises and leaders around the world. This style can affect negotiations and making decisions in the hard choices that confront leaders, regardless of what they claim in the campaign that their positions might be, since they have to confront individuals and groups with different viewpoints once they are in office and have to negotiate to pass legislation.
I began thinking about the influence of leadership style when I was at a networking event put on by the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce. It was held at an 1850s farmhouse, and one demonstration featured a Border Collie herding sheep. This might seem like an unusual connection for thinking about leadership in politics. But I had recently written a song about the leadership styles of Trump, Vance, Harris, and Walz in which I compared their style to the personality type of four popular dogs, and at the time, I thought that Vance had the personality type of a Border Collie, characterized as a researcher-detail oriented type. The other personality types in this system, which has parallels with the Myers-Briggs, Color Profiling, and DISC personality profiles, are the German Sheperd, with the dominant aggressive leadership style characterizing Trump and Harris, and the Golden Retriever, with the supportive helper style characterizing Biden.
As I watched the Border Collie run around a field chasing a dozen sheep while the handler issued commands, I thought how much its behavior reminded me of J.D. Vance on the campaign trail. For example, as the handler called out commands, the dog quickly chased after the sheep, stopped, lay down, and ran again. Yet at other times, it just raced off on its own, and the handler had to call out commands even more loudly and firmly to get the Border Collie to behave. This interaction called to mind the way Vance normally adhered to exactly what Trump wanted him to say to support his positions, but at other times, Vance came up with his own way of doing things, such as when he introduced the notion of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Then, too, I noticed how pugnacious, determined, and intense Vance was as he spoke with focus and concentration, much like the Border Collie, who was intent on herding the sheep and getting any of them that strayed from the pack into line.
Then, after thinking of Vance’s parallels with the Border Collie, I thought of how the other candidates fit the other leadership styles I described in a series of songs I wrote about the leadership styles of everyone in the race, including one I wrote when Biden was still in the race.
Now you can hear the songs and see for yourself how these songs reflect these different styles in which has been described by NBC as a “dog-versus-dog fight” and by Bill Burton, a political consultant, who said “I still think it’s fundamentally a dog fight”
A recording of the complete song is at https://youtu.be/9CfMh742MbU. Also, the song is in a book which features two other songs, The White House Dog Race Book. The other songs are about the Trump vs. Biden race and a White House Dog Race for Anyone Running. The book includes lyrics for all of the songs and a YouTube to listen to them. The Kindle version is at https://www.amazon.com/White-House-Dog-Race-Book-ebook/dp/B0DC4TKHSL, and the paperback is at https://www.amazon.com/White-House-Dog-Race-Book/dp/B0DD4423J5. You can listen to the song about anyone running in any race at https://youtu.be/rxth8bn79SE.
You can learn more about the dog type personality system which inspired these songs in What Type of Dog Are You? published by Waterside Productions. Through the system, you can discover your own and others’ personality styles to better understand yourself and others and have better relationships in your work and personal life.
. I got the idea for these songs while developing a documentary about how different people use the dog type system to better understand themselves and others. It’s planned for a future production after our 20th film, based on the book Scams in the Digital Age, which will be filmed in February 2025. Other recent films, based on my books about scams published by American Leadership Books are “Conned: A True Story” based on The Big Con and “Con Artists Unveiled” based on I Was Scammed. Both films are distributed by Gravitas Ventures. The books are on Amazon and the films just got released on Amazon Prime.
For more information on the dog songs about leadership, the dog type personality system, and the books and films, and to set up interviews, email or call:
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 804–6333
Changemakerspub@att.net
www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com
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Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 200 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing (http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com). She writes books, proposals, and film scripts for clients, and has written and produced 18 feature films and documentaries, including Conned: A True Story and Con Artists Unveiled¸ distributed by Gravitas Ventures. (http://www.changemakersproductionsfilms.com). Her latest books include Ghost Story and How to Find and Work with a Good Ghostwriter published by Waterside Productions; The Big Con and I Was Scammed, published by American Leadership Press.