I know what you’re saying to yourself ...‘Oh, no, not another negative opinion of President Trump’s executive performance from some know-nothing outsider.’ Well, yeah, that’s what this is, but with a bit of historical insight and a perspective that you might appreciate and find useful in your own dealings with your fellow man, boss, government official ...or woman, as the case may be.
In fact, from the perspective you are about to perceive, you can, with a fair amount of accuracy, estimate anyone’s fitness for a higher office, or any position, through a simple personality matrix devised by a 19th century Prussian army commander who categorized initiative and intelligence in his officers. This matrix has stood the test of time and works today as an unofficial operating procedure within society generally.
According to Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, there are four types of military officer:
Smart and Lazy: “I make them my commanders because they make the right thing happen but find the easiest way to accomplish the mission.”
Smart and Energetic: “I make them my general staff officers because they make intelligent plans that make the right things happen.”
Dumb and Lazy: “There are menial tasks that require an officer to perform that they can accomplish and they follow orders without causing much harm.”
Dumb and Energetic: “These are dangerous and must be eliminated. They cause things to happen but the wrong things so cause trouble.”
Later on, Field Marshal Erich Von Manstein, arguably the Wehrmacht’s best World War II military strategist who was dismissed from service by Hitler himself in 1944, in the middle of the war, due to frequent clashes with him over military strategy, later articulated Field Marshal Moltke’s model in the following quote: “There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm. Second, there are the hard-working, intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent, lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.”
You may agree that these two experienced military men have correctly observed and recognized these traits in their officers, but may disagree about which type would be suited best for a “highest office”. In today’s competitive environment the ‘Smart and Energetic’ seem to win every time and only the hard driven or exceptionally lucky succeed. President Obama would be in this category, President Bush (“W”) would also be considered in this category mainly due to ‘luck’.
Be that all as it may, we merely have to look at President Trump to confirm that the matrix does not apply to him. Or does it? I would offer that President Trump, who holds the “highest office”, is in the ‘Dumb and Energetic‘ category and consequently a menace causing the wrong things to happen and must be fired at once. How he became elected is still a mystery and seems to go against the grain of the matrix not to mention common logic. The anomaly with Trump is that 2016 voters were confused and desperate due to the perennial governmental mess in Washington. This, combined with Trump’s sales rhetoric for which he was blindly, hopefully, perceived to be both ’Smart and Energetic’ or ‘Smart and Lazy’, many even perceived him to be ‘Lazy and Dumb’, but all missing the possibility that he could be dangerously ‘Dumb and Energetic‘. He seems to be an odd combination of all these things. But one trait the matrix failed to categorize is ‘Crazy’, including any deep-seeded debilitating emotional issues that would affect his, or anyone's, official performance. This singular factor covers a wide range of possibilities including ‘Crazy like a fox‘ which is not in the matrix either and blows the whole theory giving us the critical presidential anomaly we currently have to deal with.
Whichever way you look at it, we can see now the monster we’ve created, and he must be fired immediately.
Now, using this simple matrix, notwithstanding the Trump anomaly, you can plug in any officer in any army, any administrator, government official or president in any government, office, corporation, school administration, business or family and get a heads-up on how they will perform or are expected to perform going in.
There all kinds of mathematical formulas and psychological matrixes, charts, graphs and glossaries designed to categorize and predict outcome. This Moltke matrix seems to be fairly accurate, with just a little touch of humor. So, humor is a key element in delivering the exacting truth. Donald Trump seems to be relatively humorless, however, but he does exude confidence.
...and as we all know, confidence is something you have before you understand the problem.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
