John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Citizen Trump: A One Man Show - the 2021 book and 2020 documentary film

Issue No. 476 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a fascinating book just released today from Robert Orlando, filmmaker and author. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #2 below.


Orson Welles, writes Robert Orlando, “was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director.”
 
“Thank God for Movies!”

Filmmaker and author Robert Orlando confesses, “In the end, who’s to say this writer isn’t as subjective as [Orson] Welles and merely putting on another show just to entertain you? After all, just like Welles did with [Citizen] Kane, I am finding something familiar in Trump. As an author and filmmaker, I spend many hours competing for airtime and needing the stage as a place where we remind ourselves we are not alone.”

You gotta like this guy! (No, I don’t mean you gotta like Donald Trump. I mean Robert Orlando.) His fascinating book (and movie), Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, will challenge your deeply-held convictions—whether blue or red.

Robert Orlando focuses in on the dilemma of leaders who “lose awareness of their own corruptibility,” and the archetype of “the leader as trickster (or shapeshifter), one who can hold an audience without restriction.” He notes, “I wanted to capture that in this book, not only for those in my age group but with millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.”

“What I want to tell them is to be like Welles, bold and independent-minded. Forget the herd and find your own voice. And for God’s sake, watch the great films, the stories about ourselves and the hero’s journey. Thank God for movies,” he adds!

Last September 2020 (before the U.S. presidential election), Robert Orlando released his film, Citizen Trump, contrasting Trump with Citizen Kane—Trump’s favorite movie. Orson Welles’ acclaimed film received nine Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Writing.

The 2020 release date for Citizen Trump was intentional—before the election. Would the real ending matter? Would Trump rise or fall? Would the fall of the fictitious character, Charles Foster Kane (a composite character based on William Randolph Hearst and others), foretell Trump’s fall?

BREAKING NEWS! “Cancel culture” isn’t new. Hearst prohibited the 1941 film from being mentioned in his newspapers. Fast forward: many critics today still consider Citizen Kane to be the greatest film ever made.

View the trailer for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show here:


Click here to view the 90-second Citizen Trump trailer.

No spoiler alert needed. The 2020 election is history—and we know the results. Or do we?

Gratefully, Robert Orlando has now written the book (with 2020 in the rear-view mirror). And so with a historian/filmmaker’s insights, he spotlights key events in the Trump saga—skillfully positioning his camera to illuminate the Trump persona and the Trump/Kane contrasts. Did I mention it’s fascinating?

I’m addicted to U.S. presidential biographies (with Winston Churchill thrown in to properly position the grading curve). And while we don’t have five, 10, or 20 years for a proper look-back, Citizen Trump is a page-turner—and Orlando’s new book (just released today, June 15, 2021) prompted me to watch the Citizen Trump film one more time.

I’m more of a reader than a listener or viewer—so the Citizen Trump book is the perfect companion to the film. (Hmmm. The bibliography is immense. I wonder what all those authors think about Trump’s persona?) Orlando has done his research—extensive research—on our 45th president and it shows.

Orlando, the filmmaker and author of other works including Silence Patton and The Divine Plan, brings a unique voice to 2021. In my Sept. 9, 2020 review of the film, Citizen Trump (see the second article), I mentioned that Josh Shepherd, who covers culture, faith, and public policy for several media outlets (and previously worked at The Heritage Foundation and Focus on the Family), had recently interviewed Robert Orlando for The Federalist.

The headline: “Is Donald Trump Today’s ‘Citizen Kane’? ‘Citizen Trump’ Film Suggests Yes. Through the lens of the 1941 classic 'Citizen Kane,' a documentary filmmaker seeks to understand the life journey of President Trump and his successful venture into politics.”

Shepherd: “Watching the film, I kept waiting for it to shift. I thought, ‘This is where it’s going to become a Trump hit piece.’ Or, ‘Now it’s going to be a Trump ad.’ But it seemed to stick to facts and let the chips fall where they may. Why did you seek to avoid either extreme?"

Orlando: “As a filmmaker, I’m just telling a story about a person, warts and all. Why wouldn’t a documentary about real-life events reveal all sides of the narrative? It’s not for me to tell you how to make a political decision about it.”

The chapter titles in Citizen Trump are just too tempting! Thought-provoking chapters!
   • A Modern-Day Kane
   • Reality TV Kingpin
   • The Trickster Candidate
   • Channeling Trump
   • The Faceless Enemy
   • And more…

Many readers, I’m guessing, will equally appreciate the jam-packed appendix—with surprising background information and context. Orlando notes Trump’s appreciation for Carl Jung from Trump’s 2004 book, How to Get Rich. Trump writes, “I have to stress that I am not cynical, but I am aware. I hate being in situations where I’m asking myself, How could this have happened?" Trump adds, "This reminds me of my favorite quote from Napoleon about being surprised: A good leader shouldn’t be.”

So…if you’re a leader, maybe you won’t be surprised with the jewels in the appendix! Check out the mini-chapters:
   • Rosebud Works
   • The Mask Is the Message
   • The Forgotten City on a Hill
   • It’s the Media, Stupid!

Again, whether you lean red or blue—I urge you to read this book. Orlando’s intentions are trustworthy: “…my aim was not to produce a political film. As an independent filmmaker, I was more interested in pursuing a deep character study into one of the most controversial figures of our time. My template was not a Right vs. Left, faith vs. nonfaith, or even madness vs. sanity paradigm, but to explore the archetypes of storytelling as expressions of interior character, especially where Trump and Kane were so amazingly similar.”

After you read Citizen Trump (or view the Citizen Trump film), you’ll find it impossible not to view Citizen Kane again. Both films lend themselves to the perfect case study for your next weekly staff meeting—or perhaps late-night viewing at your next staff or board retreat.

Orlando writes, “My fascination with Kane began in film school when I first felt the power of sound, light, and action in the hands of a master. Welles—to me—was a titan, all four faces of cinema’s Mount Rushmore: actor, producer, writer, and director. He was also a theater and radio star.”

Orlando, again: “My pick for best film of all time goes to Citizen Kane, a seamless visual masterpiece and a technical inspiration. In this one film, Welles introduced myriad innovations, breaking form and storytelling in new ways. It was incomparable at the time, almost docudrama in style.”

He adds, “The film is a work of genius and also a cautionary tale.” We’ll wait another 80 years to see if the Citizen Trump film and book qualify for “a work of genius.” But…the Trump saga is clearly a cautionary tale. As I mentioned in my review and pop quiz of the book on White House staff conflicts, Fight House, remember this wisdom from Ecclesiastes:

“There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, ‘Hey, this is new’? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.”

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Citizen Trump: A One Man Show, by Robert Orlando. Are you a listener? Pre-order the audio book on Libro.fm. And thanks to the author for sending me an advance manuscript.



Click here to view the film:
Citizen Trump: A One Man Show.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) According to a CBS News interview in 2008, Joe Biden’s favorite movie is Chariots of Fire (1981). Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. Does this give you any clue about these two leaders? What’s your favorite movie—and why?
2) Robert Orlando writes with “millennials in mind, those who do not have the length of life to see the patterns of those who come and go, rise and fall.” Why might the millennials on your team benefit from viewing Citizen Kane and Citizen Trump? And what movies might millennials recommend that old geezers view?
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Mistake #2 of 25:
Reading…But Not Learning
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I’ve always been a reader, but not a lifelong learner.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #2 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Reading…But Not Learning,” John quotes Peter Drucker:

“In the knowledge society, people have to learn how to learn. Indeed in the knowledge society subjects may matter less than the students’ capacity to continue learning and their motivation to do so. Knowledge society requires lifelong learning. For this, we need a discipline of learning.”

The Mistakes book also notes that “Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reads three hours per day. His goal is to find just one idea he can use to give him and the over 150 companies in which he’s invested an edge in the marketplace.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #2 is My Ideal Bookshelf (read John’s review here).

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the power of storytelling to lavishly communicate your organization’s message and mission? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams

Issue No. 475 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a must-read book about anxiety at work—and why managers and bosses must talk about it. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #1 below.


Think of staff growth as a climbing wall. “The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.”
 
Anxiety at Work: “Generation Paranoia”

Yikes! According to the hot-off-the-press book, Anxiety at Work, “In America, workplace anxiety is estimated to cost some $40 billion a year in lost productivity, errors, and health-care costs, while stress is estimated to cost more than $300 billion.”

It gets worse! “Though the problem is becoming more serious with older employees, it’s been particularly acute with millennials and Gen Z. According to a 2019 study published in the Harvard Business Review, more than half of millennials and 75 percent of Gen Z reported they had quit a job for mental health reasons.” But…apparently many bosses don’t want to talk about it.

According to co-authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (along with Anthony Gostick’s very transparent contributions to the book), “We’ve found that most young people want to be able to discuss their anxiety at work. Said one twenty-something employee in an interview, ‘My generation talks about anxiety all the time to each other.’ Rightly so, they believe that it’s impossible to fix something we are scared to talk about.”

They add, “And yet in a 2019 survey of one thousand employed adults with anxiety, 90 percent judged it would be a bad idea to confide their situation to their bosses. Sad.”

Attn: Bosses and Managers! This doesn’t work anymore:
   • “Don’t bring your personal problems to work.”
   • “Just fix yourself!”
   • “Of course you’ll fit in here. We have a great culture.”
   • “If you’re not physically sick, you must clock in.”

In early 2020, the authors were scheduled to speak to a company’s leadership team. The fast-breaking COVID news distracted the group from their scheduled topic and instead—prophetically—the authors talked about the workplace anxiety to come. Anxiety at Work is COVID-relevant with amazingly fresh insights and solutions. The subtitle is aspirational for every manager: “8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done.”

I had high expectations for this book, just published in May 2021, because I continue to appreciate and recommend the list of 125 practical employee recognition ideas from their 2007 book, The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance. (Idea #54 is my favorite: “Print out and present a team member a ‘long lunch’ certificate for a two-hour lunch.”)

After seriously reviewing books for almost 15 years now, rarely does a book exceed my expectations—but this did. The authors knocked it out of the ballpark. I made more than 40 specific notes for this review, but I can only mention a few. You must read this book—and implement the practical strategies. Five big ideas:

#1. THE DUCK SYNDROME. This term “was coined at Stanford University to describe the masquerade of students at this high-pressure school, as at many colleges, working mightily to appear as though they’re doing just fine, gliding calmly along like a duck on a pond, keeping up with all of their work with effortless grace.” But—look under the surface—and those “smoothly gliding ducks are paddling like mad—just as these students are manically pushing themselves, frantically trying to stay afloat.” What’s needed? A new leadership style that combines “vulnerability with care for the individual.”

Managers: How would you know if the duck syndrome is alive and well in your organization? (Read the eight strategies.)

#2. GENERATION PARANOIA. “The fact is, this rising generation is a much more anxious group as a whole. Some have termed them ‘generation paranoia.’” The authors note an Atlantic article that “described a generation of young people who scan any room they enter for exit points and game out how they’d survive an active-shooter scenario.” According to Forbes, “four times as many millennials as Gen Xers list ‘fear of losing job’ as one of their top concerns at work.”

Managers: Since it’s inappropriate to ask, “Do you have anxiety?”—what should you do? Read Chapter 2’s “Six Methods to Meet Uncertainty Head-on,” including Method 1, “Make It Okay to Not Have All the Answers.” (See page 51 for creating a learning environment where making mistakes are standard practice. See “mistake-making” below!)

#3. COACH OPTIMIZERS TO BECOME TASKERS. “Crunch time has become the standard,” note the authors—and that’s not healthy. Taking a page from those who survive the Navy Seals “Hell Week,” managers can coach younger team members to be “taskers” (focus on the job at hand), not “Optimizers” (those who visualize and hyper-plan every job and every step). “The secret of success for the Taskers is they take this monolithic thing and break it down into chunks.
               It’s task, rest.
          Task, rest.”
The Taskers survive “Hell Week.” Optimizers don’t.

Managers: Don’t believe the myth that “overload is good for productivity.” Instead, read page 73 and a mid-level leader’s confession: “I made a mistake in pushing my team so hard on the last upgrade.” (They worked 16-hour days.) See the five check-in questions on page 87, including “What have you learned that we might do differently next time we are up against a task like this?”

#4. THE MOTIVATORS ASSESSMENT. “Employees who feel anxious about their career path may actually be on the wrong path,” note Gostick and Elton. They suggest that “caring managers can often help them know if that’s the case.” How? Collaborating with the authors of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, they built a very, very helpful Motivators Assessment tool—and urge managers to “Help Employees Assess Their Skills and Motivations” (Method 3 of 8 in Chapter 4). Click here for more information or to take the assessment.

Managers: Read Chapter 4 to help team members avoid mismatches in their work. Try “job sculpting” with three options: transferring work, altering work, or adding work that motivates each unique employee. (And this is obvious, but take the assessment yourself to see if you are in the right slot! Even at my age, I learned something new about myself when I completed the assessment this week.)

#5. DR. NO! I mentioned I wouldn’t list all 40 of my book review notes, so I gotta stop. But let me sneak in several more here:
   • Page 109 gives coaching suggestions for how to leverage the “Dr. No” persona on your staff. “Instead of coaching Brian out of that habit, a talent magnet leader [great concept!] would work with it.”
   • Page 139 is worth the price of the book to listen in on a goal-setting review between a CEO and the organization’s founder/board chair. The CEO reported that two goals were “epic failures,” but the founder’s response? “Darcy, if we had achieved all our goals, that would have been an indication that we weren’t dreaming big enough.” He added, “And I’m guessing we will apply the lessons we learned from any mistakes we made along the way?” The CEO said “yes.” Then exiting, the chairman said, “Awesome. Carry on. See you next quarter.”
   • If you avoid giving constructive feedback out of fear that a team member will react badly, read page 59 on why you should not use the “sandwich” approach of “offering a negative between two positives.”
   • At a hospital: “Each week one staff member received what they called the Grace Under Fire trophy, a fire hose mounted on a block of wood.” (See the five practical methods in Chapter 9, “Turn Doubts into Assurance,” including the fork-in-the-road difference between recognition and celebration.)

Managers: if you’re guilty of fostering a “socialism of gratitude” culture, see page 223—before you create more havoc by ignoring Method 4: “Provide Gratitude to High-Flyers, Too.”

Did I mention? This is a Must-Read—especially as you’re adapting to the realities of COVID, and we pray, post-COVID.

To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton with Anthony Gostick. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (6 hours, 29 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and Harper Business for sending a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1)The authors quote the CHRO at Keurig Dr Pepper: “For a long time we thought about career paths as a ladder. It was all about how you move up. The imagery we’re moving to is a rock wall, where a person can move up, sideways, a little up, and a little sideways. Everybody can have their own destination. The only thing you can’t do on a rock wall is just hang there.” How could your team use the rock wall metaphor to create opportunities for growth in your organization?
2) The section, “Millennials and Conflict,” in Chapter 6, “From Conflict Avoidance to Healthy Debate” includes a 17-word text conversation between a boss and employee late on a Friday afternoon. It spoiled the millennial’s weekend, but the boss was clueless that he had created any anxiety. The authors noted the boss needed to update his “texting awareness.” Rate our communication effectiveness here: A, B, C, D, or F? 
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Mistake #1 of 25:
Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Hot-off-the-press! Read the new book by John Pearson and Jason Pearson and then feature a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment at your weekly staff meeting.

“I needed more practice and more laps in the mistake pool.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #1 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Writing on “Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature,” John confesses:

“'Don’t make mistakes!' has been drummed into our DNA since childhood. For many years, I was too careful and avoided risks. Later, as I read the mistake-making literature, I understood the value of taking calculated risks—and that failure is not final.”

John notes that BMW gives a “Flop of the Month Award” to employees whose innovative ideas fail during implementation. He quotes John C. Maxwell, “To get maximum attention, make a big mistake. To cause maximum damage, fail to admit it.”

Each chapter features a brief and personal “mistake story,” (often a hilarious management mistake), and then what John learned after reading a recommended fork-in-the-road book. (He recommends one book for each mistake: 25 must-read books! The recommended book for Mistake #1 is Call Sign Chaos, by Gen. Jim Mattis.)

Now you and your team members can avoid these 25 mistakes by leveraging the workbook format for your own professional development or at your weekly staff meetings. This “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook” includes a bonus chapter, a “Do-It-Yourself Mistake-Maker,” with a template for inviting your team members to present one of their memorable mistakes at future weekly staff meetings!

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you learning from your own communication mistakes and the hilarious missteps of others? Jason has stories for you! Check in with Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Memorial Day Masterpiece: Call Sign Chaos

Issue No. 474 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks that you join me in this USA Memorial Day tribute to the heroes who keep us safe. If you missed my 2019 book-of-the-year, here are the highlights from Call Sign Chaos, by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. With Israel and Palestine in the headlines recently—this leadership-savvy book will also shed light on a general’s in-the-trenches insights on the Middle East. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of another hero's insights in Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t.

Memorial Day Masterpiece

EDITOR'S NOTE: Memorial Day Blessings! This review was first published on Oct. 18, 2019. Call Sign Chaos was my 2019 book-of-the-year.

Wow. This morning I just finished one of the most powerful, insightful, leadership-savvy books I’ve ever, ever read. I will read it again. It’s remarkable on many, many levels. Jim Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (Jan. 20, 2017 to Jan. 1, 2019), writes:

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”

To read the full review, click here.

2019 Book-of-the-Year!