Published on: November 2, 2026 at 9:30 am
US President Donald Trump’s leadership style prioritizes hard power and transaction-focused, zero-sum negotiation. After eight years of Trump at the helm, future U.S. administrations must return to a strategy of stewardship, soft power, and diplomatic, win-win negotiation to heal geopolitical, social, and reputational wounds and restore the country’s frayed global standing, according to many foreign-policy experts.
Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University wrote several books on leadership and power—including Power in Organizations, Managing with Power, Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t, Leadership BS, and 7 Rules of Power—all before President Trump began his second term, but he said that their key findings apply to him.
“I teach a power class at Stanford, which is a pretty interesting and tough class, and people talk about soft power, which the U.S. used to be known for, whereas Donald Trump is the best example of hard power and how effective it can be—I mean, there is nothing soft about the Trump administration and its approach to people who disagree with it.
“I would recommend that the next president of the U.S., whoever that may be, return to exercising soft power more effectively,” he said. “People need to understand that with great power comes great responsibility, as Stan Lee wrote in a Spider-Man comic book.
“I would return to the idea of stewardship—that what leaders do is consequential, and that they ought to look at the consequences not just for the short-term bottom line but also for the human beings and, for that matter, the physical environment affected by those choices.”
