In the midst of heated conflict, Carney is demonstrating an important point for leaders in any realm, says Mary Crossan, a professor of strategic leadership at Western University’s Ivey Business School. “It’s not impossible to set the stage for the quality of the conversation that you want.”
A Canadian by birth, Carney graduated from Harvard University and Oxford, then worked in the private sector before taking a role with the Bank of Canada. (He’s often credited with shielding Canada from the 2008 financial crisis.) Carney went on to take up the central banker role in the UK in 2013. “What I admire about Mark Carney is what I refer to as his strategic stillness, and his ability to remain calm in the eye of the storm,” says Pullan. By doing so, he becomes the perfect counterweight to Trump, who thrives on chaos and thrives on creating chaotic situations and maximizing the value of those situations to his own end.”
In his first lengthy meeting with Trump, Carney endured what Pullan calls “emotional blows” from the U.S. president, who openly discussed making Canada a U.S. state, a topic he returned to several times. “It was an almost zen-like quality to not rise to those blows,” says Pullan.
Achieving that equanimity is something that many CEOs still need to master, he says. Pullman admits that’s easier said than done, but emphasizes that being the boring, non-reactive leader in the heat of a negotiation with someone as volatile as Trump can be a source of strength.
Don’t try to take the moral high ground, he suggests, because even that can elicit defensiveness and counterattacks. “The encounter can become more like two moose locking horns,” he notes, “and you know that is the area in which Trump is always going to be successful. That’s what he’s done all of his life; he locks horns.”
Crossan believes understanding Carney’s effectiveness with Trump is a matter of character. He’s the same person no matter what room he’s in, she explains, adding that executives should take note.
“No matter what the situation could be, crisis or calm, you bring that steadiness to the decision making that you have,” she says, “and you also infuse others with it.”
But, after watching Carney on the world stage, she believes he has the kind of balance of traits that leads to strong leadership and allows people to build trusting relationships. For example, Carney brings humility to his discussions with Trump by being respectful. But at the same time, he remained accountable to Canadian voters. “As you know from real estate,” Carney famously told Trump in that meeting, “there are some places that are never for sale.”
“He’s correcting the record,” Crossan notes, but doing so in a measured way.
