Hi Joe,
I’m wondering if you can give some insights to a dilemma I have at work. I’m the supervisor of a team that is made up of people who have different views about politics and other issues. Over the last couple of years, things have gotten worse. We are all trying our best to work together but it’s getting harder. We are losing trust and it seems so tense. We used to laugh with each other and get along. I’ve tried so many things. I don’t know what to do any more. You have any ideas? Thanks,
Hopeless Leader
Hey, Leader.
Sorry to hear it’s been tough. This is a core reason I put my ideas and practices together in my upcoming book, “Fierce Civility: Transforming our Global Culture from Polarization to Lasting Peace.” I explore the possible cause of that internal journey we’ve all taken from once being friends, or at least collegial, to now viewing each other as threats.
This is certainly a societal issue but, for your struggles, I’d like to offer perspectives on leadership and management. When I train leaders, I emphasize the importance of creating a work dynamic of safety and trust. This sets up the conditions for a work culture that is both inclusive and also functions with a strong structure of holding each other accountable with respect and compassion. This leads to mutual empowerment, where we can honor our differences and also choose to see each person at their best.
You say that there is a lack of trust. That may not be your fault, but what can you do to shift that? How can you model an empowered vulnerability and transparency that is not weak, but that encourages others to show up in a more authentic way. How can you inspire others to take more responsibility for fostering this kind of work culture? It starts with one person.
If we are not feeling safe, we inadvertently perceive any change, things that are different or unknowns as a threat. We close our hearts and focus on our differences and imperfections. I find that some of the core causes of what makes someone angry, oppositional or closing their heart comes from a core feeling or belief that they are feeling powerless, or not heard, seen or understood. Could this be what is happening with your team?
I would like to offer you an exercise I use in my Resilient Power Leadership program – a human-centered approach to leadership and management that increases productivity and minimizes burn-out. You would need to make the time for everyone in their busy schedules to be present and not rushed for this:
- Clarify each person’s core values: Instead of focusing on the more outward characteristics of a person (political affiliation, religion, whom they choose to love), focus on what resides in the heart of each person. Ask them to all write down their top 10 values – for instance, efficiency, compassion, family, truth, joy, accountability. (If you’d like to explore this concept of values, there are many examples online, or check out my book, “Mastering Respectful Confrontation.”)
- From the 10, ask them to choose the top five; then three. This can bring up emotions and surprises. Give the space for this.
- Next, have each person share their top three with the group, and then ask the rest of the group to reflect back on how they have seen this person operate from this value.
- After everyone has had a turn, write down on a flip chart or white board all of the top three values of each member of the team. Acknowledge where there is overlap and also acknowledge the diversity of what each person brings to create this unique team.
- You may then ask the group if they are willing to commit to treat one another from these highest values moving forward, and also find a respectful way to hold each other accountable when they slip and forget.
There are many tips I can offer, but I feel this one addresses your question. By recognizing and celebrating the highest core values of each person, you transcend the things that cause separation, and then reorient with each other from a place of commonality. You help each other remember who they are at their best. Since I believe our values reside in the core of our hearts, we reveal more of who we are, setting up the conditions for more empowered vulnerability, safety and trust, cutting through the confusion and suspicion.
This may inspire you, Leader, to approach the situation from a place of hope and possibility. Instead of focusing exclusively on what separates and creates mistrust, use your creativity to get everyone back to what unites you and inspires you.
Trust your courageous heart,
Joe
Learn more about Joe Weston and his work here. Make sure to c heck out Joe’s bestselling book Fierce Civility: Transforming our Global Culture from Polarization to Lasting Peace, published March 2023.
To Ask Joe, please submit questions to: AskJoe@Fulcrum.us.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.