Mueller leaves a closed meeting on June 21 with the Senate Judiciary Committee about Comey’s firing Alex Wong—Getty Images
It’s not a secret that today America is as divided as ever, especially in its political affairs. Politicians don’t communicate across the aisle, no bills are being passed, and no nominations are being supported. Bipartisanship no longer exist. However, not all is lost. When the American democracy is threatened, Americans unite. Robert Mueller, is America’s hope to bring back the democracy its people once knew. Mueller is the only person that got unanimous support from both parties when he was appointed as special counsel to investigate the Russian’s interference with the last US presidential election. Since he was appointed, Massimo Calabresi (2017), wrote in New York’s TIME that “the special counsel has held the country in his thrall.” It’s clear that Mueller, a long time registered republican, is well admired by both the democrats and republicans. Mueller is praised by the people that worked for him and with him. Even President Trump’s close ally, Newt Gingrich, tweeted that “Robert Mueller is a superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity” (qtd in Calabresi, 2017). That takes a special kind of leadership skills. Mueller’s honestly and integrity supersede him; his name has become a synonym to honestly and integrity. Furthermore, besides integrity, many praise him for his intelligence, self-confidence, and determination. In other words, strongly project traits of a leader. It’s who he is and he has proved that time and time again. Mueller possesses and cultivated at least four out of five central traits that Northouse (2016) listed in our textbook (p. 23). The fifth, sociability, is unclear as Mueller does not like being in spot light and is extremely private.
As mentioned above, Mueller is admired for his honesty and integrity. Northouse (2016) explains integrity as “people who adhere to a strong set of principles and take responsibility for their actions as exhibiting integrity” (p. 25). Northouse further states that “leaders with integrity inspire confidence in others because he can be trusted to do what they say they are going to do” (p. 25). Mueller did just that in the past. He threatened to resign twice during George W. Bush’s administration over matters of principle (Calabresi, 2017). More importantly, former Attorney General John Ashcroft was quoted in USAToday that “Mueller projected an air of “total integrity” that began to restore the FBI’s standing at a very critical time” (Groppe et. al, 2017). In addition, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was also quoted in USAToday that Mueller will be “the most transformative director in the history of the FBI since Hoover” (Groppe et. al, 2017). Honesty and integrity is definitely Mueller’s strongest trait as a leader.
Robert Mueller’s intelligence can be backup by his impressive resume. Zaccaro et al. (2004) analysis “found support for the finding that leaders tend to have higher intelligence than nonleaders” (qtd in Northouse (2016), p. 23). Mueller graduated from Princeton with a bachelor degree in politics, earned his master degree in international relations from NYU just a year later, and later a J.D. from University of Virginia Law School (Biography, 2018). Furthermore, he has taken on many challenging cases throughout his career such as the Lockerbie bombing case, the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, and the NFL handling of Ray Rice’s punishment (Biography, 2018). All these cases are high profile, challenging, and sensitive, so a great deduction ability is needed. Our lesson commentary explains that “research shows that more intelligent leaders are faster learners, make better deductions, and are better at developing strategies to make their vision a reality” (PSU WC, 2018, L. 3, p.6). Mueller demonstrates that he excels in all those skills and abilities.
Since Mueller took charge of the investigation of the Russian’s interference, he has charged Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, retired Lieut. General Michael Flynn, and is edging closer to Trump (Calabresi, 2017). Mueller is confident and relentless in his work, and strongly believes that he can make a difference which is on par with what Northouse (2016) describes as self-confidence in our textbook. Northouse states that “self-confidence is the ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills” (p. 24). As a special counsel of the most disorganized presidential campaigns ever (Calabresi, 2017), Mueller remains self-confident and certain. More importantly, he made it clear that “whatever its divisions, the United States remains a nation governed by laws” (Calabresi, 2017).
Another trait that Mueller exhibits is determination. As mentioned, he is relentless with his work. Michael Zeldin, who worked for Mueller directly in the Justice Department’s criminal division in the early 90s, was quoted in the New York’s TIME that “if you have done something illegal that’s worth prosecuting, he will find it and he will prosecute you” (Calabresi, 2017). This shows that Mueller has “the capacity to persevere in the face of obstacles” (Northouse (2016), p. 25). Furthermore, Mueller took the post as FBI director a week prior to the 9/11 attack. Mueller focused on “reorganizing the bureau, uprooting its domestic crime-fighting culture to install a high-tech global operation designed to head off terrorist threats” (Biography, 2018). Although Mueller’s effort to modernize the FBI bureau didn’t go unchallenged, he was determined and did what he has to do even if it meant crossing swords with the president and his administration.
The fifth trait that Northouse (2016) listed as one of the central traits is sociability. It is unclear whether or not Mueller possesses this trait as he is extremely private. It is hard to visualize Mueller writing thank you notes to his team after each charge is being served. He seems dominant and quiet more than a guy who likes to “seek out pleasant social relationships” (Northouse (2016), p. 26). However, Northouse points out that “social leaders have good interpersonal skills and create cooperative relationships with their followers” (p.26), and Mueller does have cooperative relationships with his followers. With high profile cases he prosecuted, he needs cooperative of his followers to succeed.
While Mueller’s sociability is unclear, we still can conclude that Robert Mueller is a great leader who is well admired for his work, praised for his integrity, and lauded for his determination. Mueller is America’s hope to restore its democracy, and to show everyone, at home and abroad, that whatever is dividing America, it remains a nation governed by laws.
Reference:
Calabresi, M. (2017). Robert Mueller: TIME Person of the Year 2017. TIME. Retrieved from: http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-robert-mueller-runner-up/
Groppe, M., King, L., Theobald, B., and Berry, D.B. (2017). 7 things to know about Robert Mueller, new special counsel for Russia investigation. USAToday. Retrieved from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/17/7-things-know-robert-mueller-new-special-counsel-russia-investigation/101811990/
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485: Leadership in Work. Lesson 1: Introduction to Leadership. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1923777/modules/items/23736159
The Biography (2018). Robert Mueller biography.com. Retrieved from: https://www.biography.com/people/robert-mueller-241110
Trait theory is certainly relevant in the case of Robert Mueller, and I often wonder about celebrities and world leaders in terms of their character and past. I find the psychodynamic approach to be an especially interesting extension of trait theory. Sure most traits that adults obtain were innate at birth, but some could’ve been cultivated through early life experience. Take Richard Nixon for instance. In the documentary Who Was Richard Nixon, Reynolds (2018) reveals that Richard as the political world knew him, was intelligent, paranoid, driven, ambitious, introverted and secretive, yet longed for fame and glory. He wanted to be admired and loved, but not socially engaged (Reynolds, 2018). To me, some of these traits do not seem typical of a President of the U.S. These leaders are constantly in the public eye, engaging and seemingly charming. Early in his career, Nixon lacked popularity however, due to his withdrawn personality. How and why would such an intelligent, successful, introvert desire praise from society? Perhaps Nixon was actually born with an extroverted personality and the historical accounts of the abuse that he endured at the hand of his father, conditioned him to become withdrawn and paranoid out of fear of criticism. On the other hand, maybe he longed for fame and glory due to the neglect he endured on his mother’s behalf. Or another possibility yet, he may have feared death from a young age as 2 of his brothers died in childhood and simply didn’t trust that he would be safe in pubic. Northouse, (2016) notes in a supplemental clip of his text that some traits are harder to change than others, mentioning extroversion as one. Oppositely stating that learned behavioral traits could much more easily transform. Northouse also states that traits can come in multitudinous combinations and some are more effective combinations than others in different situations. Nixon turned out to be a very effective in international diplomacy, but his secretive, and manipulative ways of attaining success, were not approved by the American people. Eventually, his innate intellect and conditioned ambition caused internal conflict and public ruin. I’d be interested to hear about Mueller’s childhood and early development. He seems to have very strong, innate leadership traits that were positively nurtured unlike Nixon’s. He seems true of heart and is still able to maintain popularity amongst a diverse population of political figures.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Reynolds, David. (2018). Who Was Nixon: Nixon in the Den. Retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV9JT4pZH_o