Have you been watching Donald Trump’s travels around the Far East? After all his firebrand words when ‘playing to the crowd’ in the US he surprised many commentators by changing his tone depending on to whom he was talking. I have experienced several colleagues and bosses like this: they say what they think their listeners want to hear. Quite often you look into their eyes and it seems as if they believe what they’re saying. Presumably their actual beliefs at some level or another are widely at variance to what they’re saying.

This mismatch between words and actions or beliefs leads to something called cognitive dissonance. The lack of alignment makes observers feel very uncomfortable and, in the long run, leads to conflict, if not external then internal. Donald Trump is acting out almost global level dissonance. It sometimes surprises me that people don’t seem more concerned by the mixed messages being sent.

This mismatch is evident in individual people. A lot of the coaching I do is about helping people to ‘listen’ to themselves and identify where they may not necessarily be aligned with their own beliefs and actions. We may not be able to adjust Donald Trump’s invective but we can make the world a better place one person at a time just by spotting where thoughts are misaligned.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.