学徒特朗普树立的坏榜样
唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)的竞选活动就像是他最出名的真人秀《学徒》(The Apprentice)的一期特别节目，不过获胜者的奖励不是得以执掌几个特朗普旗下的项目，而是得以执掌自由世界。
As interesting, and worrying, as the question of what a businessman with no political experience might do to the presidency is what effect Mr Trump’s success could have on business leadership.
除了一名毫无政治经验的商人会对总统这一职位产生何种影响这个问题外，特朗普的成功可能对商业领袖产生何种影响也是一个同样有趣而又令人担忧的问题。
His victory looks like a throwback to the late 1990s: the older, white, male chief executive in suit and tie, peddling platitudes from a podium. Not that he ever went away, as is obvious from a glance at US corporate boardrooms, where only one in five directors are women and fewer are from minorities.
他的胜利看起来就像倒退到上世纪90年代末：那个西装革履、年迈的、白人男性首席执行官，在宣讲台上兜售着那套陈词滥调。他从未离开，只用撇一眼美国企业的董事会就能明显看出这一点——仅有五分之一的董事为女性，少数族裔董事的比例更少。
But the accession of Mr Trump to the top job is not only a comfort to the many executives who look like him. “He’s a businessman”, was also a common prefix to voters’ justification of their support, as a sample of post-poll vox pops reveals. “He’s a businessman. If anyone can fix this mess, he can,” Rodney Bridges told reporters in South Carolina; “He’s a businessman, not a politician so there’s no BS,” offered Cathy House of Washington in another round-up of voter opinions; “We need somebody to run [the] country like a businessman,” claimed Joseph Baljak in Ohio.
但特朗普就任最高领导人一职，不仅慰藉了很多看起来像他一样的高管。正如民调后民意访问的样本所揭示的那样， “他是个商人”也是选民们解释自己为何支持特朗普的常见开场白。“他是个商人。如果有谁能解决这个烂摊子的话，那就是他了，”罗德尼•布里奇斯(Rodney Bridges)在南卡罗来纳州告诉记者称;“他是个商人、不是政客，所以不会胡说八道，”华盛顿的凯西•豪斯(Cathy House)在另一项民调提要中表示;“我们需要一个像商人一样‘经营’(这个)国家的人，”俄亥俄州的约瑟夫•巴利亚克(Joseph Baljak)宣称。
Leave aside the questions of whether a country can be run like a company (it really can’t) or whether businessmen have given up spouting BS (they really haven’t), the cult of the imperial business leader clearly persists in the popular imagination. Not the least disturbing aspect of Mr Trump’s election is that his rise is likely to reinforce this religion at businesses that were starting to grow out of it.
暂且抛开国家能否像企业一样“经营”的问题(其实真的不能)不谈、也先不讨论商人是否已经改掉了滔滔不绝地胡说八道的毛病(他们真的没有)，对帝王型商业领袖的信仰明显依然存在于大众的想象中。特朗普的竞选最令人不安的一点是，他的崛起可能会在本已开始摆脱这种信仰的企业界中强化这种信仰。
There is a place for top-down leadership. One chief executive who had inherited the role from a notoriously autocratic predecessor rebuked me recently for suggesting such leadership traits were outmoded. On the contrary, he said, executives will always need to be capable of exerting a firm grip — in a crisis, say. But he added that problems arise when leaders take autocracy to extremes. Even if Mr Trump tempers his worst instincts, or has them checked and balanced by the US political system, the method of his accession has set a terrible leadership example.
自上而下的领导方式有其一席之地。最近，一名从出了名得独断专行的前任手中继承衣钵的首席执行官，指责我不应暗示这种领导方式已经过时。他称，事实正好相反，高管们始终都需要能够牢牢掌控局面——比如在危机中。但他补充称，当这种独断超过一定限度时，问题就会出现。即便特朗普按耐住自己最糟糕的本能反应、或接受美国政治体制的制衡，他登上总统之位的方式也为各行各业的领袖树立了坏榜样。
Gianpiero Petriglieri, of Insead Business School, points out that Mr Trump is not a command-and-control leader in the mould of business geniuses such as Steve Jobs or Henry Ford. He falls instead into a category of narcissistic leaders. When they appeal to the tribal instinct that “we are good and they are evil”, they risk unleashing forces that are, Prof Petriglieri told me, “very hard to command and almost impossible to control”.
欧洲工商管理学院(Insead Business School)的詹皮耶罗•彼得里列里(Gianpiero Petriglieri)指出，特朗普不是像史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)和亨利•福特(Henry Ford)等商业天才那样的指挥控制型领导人。相反，他属于那种自恋型领导人。彼得里列里教授告诉我，当他们利用“我们是好人，他们是坏人”的古老本能时，他们可能会释放出一些“非常难以指挥并且几乎无法控制”的力量。
Some narcissistic traits help leaders make it to the top. Self-confidence, ambition, extroversion: these are the very essence of what makes a successful candidate in The Apprentice — and a critical part of a politician’s surface attraction to voters.
一些自恋特征能够帮助领导人站上权力巅峰。自信、野心、外向，这些是造就成功的《学徒》候选人的核心品质，也是政客对选民外在吸引力的关键成分。
It is no coincidence that The Apprentice, at least in Mr Trump’s US version, spawns more self-promoting celebrities than successful executives. The format, like that of a 21st-century political campaign, encourages candidates to big themselves up at the expense of rivals and even team members. An analysis of their technical aptitude or capacity for sustained hard work would make for dull television in the same way that Hillary Clinton found such traits turned off many voters.
《学徒》(至少在特朗普的美国版里)催生的自我推销型名人多过成功高管，这并非偶然。就像21世纪的政治竞选活动一样，该节目的模式鼓励候选人以牺牲竞争对手、甚至团队成员为代价抬升自己。对他们的专业天赋或持续辛勤工作的能力进行分析会让节目变得无趣，就像希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)发现这些品质会让很多选民失去兴趣一样。
In excessive doses, though, narcissism may hinder leaders’ effectiveness and even prompt them to take unnecessary risks.
不过，自恋过度可能有碍领导人的效率，甚至促使他们冒不必要的风险。
After a number of chief executives ran into scandal and opprobrium in the early 2000s, companies’ appetite for “great man” leaders seemed to wane. Academic attention switched to the question of how groups behaved and the more nuanced and inclusive virtues of collaboration and teamwork.
2000年代初，在一些CEO们陷入丑闻并遭到指责后，企业对“伟人型”领导人的兴趣似乎减弱了。学术界的关注转向群体如何表现以及合作和团队协作等更微妙和具有包容性的美德。
But Mr Trump’s success is even now writing itself into leadership guides and business school courses. It is certain to tempt more executives to emulate his self-aggrandisement as a shortcut to power, while neglecting the essential but tricky challenge of how to run the organisation once they get there. The scrutiny of investors, directors, regulators and media, may find out these tyro corporate leaders before they can do much damage. But some will slip through to board level. Other potential bosses, less Trump-like in look or temperament, will simply never try to get there.
但是现在特朗普的成功甚至被写入了领导力指南和商学院的课程里。这必然会诱使更多高管去模仿特朗普的自命不凡，以此作为获取权力的捷径，而忽视了在得到权力后所面临的根本而又棘手的挑战——如何管理这个组织。股东、董事、监管机构和媒体的仔细审视，或许会在这些新手企业领袖造成重大损害前发现问题。但会有一些漏网之鱼溜入董事会级别。其他有潜力到达董事级别、但在形象或性情上不那么像特朗普的人，则永远不会尝试到达那个级别。
There is another possibility, of course: the president-elect will rein in his self-regard, cultivating a capacity for deft delegation and diligent management that will fulfil his supporters’ desire for an effective businessman-in-chief. On current form, though, that looks a tall order.
当然，还有另外一种可能性：这位当选总统将收敛他的自恋，培养熟练委派和勤奋管理的能力，满足其支持者对一个高效的商人统帅的渴望。不过，以目前形势来看，这似乎是一项艰巨的任务。
