How can a week of discussion focused on ethics and cheating not touch on politics? Especially when it’s that time of year and media is filling the air with conversation, clamor and rants by and about those running for public office.
It’s a frustrating time for those who don’t blindly vote an ideological ticket; frustrating because most campaigning is focused on trashing the opponent as opposed to anything constructive.
I listen to people complain about the negativity when it’s aimed at their candidate, while sagely nodding at its appropriateness when coming from their side.
I listen to the rants against incumbents, but hear little about what should be done, other than ideological platitudes.
They all talk of the importance of leadership, while demonstrating none.
In a post a couple of years ago I wrote, “Sadly, the oxymoronic coupling of ‘leader’ and ‘politician’ usually is just plain moronic.”
It can’t just be blamed on Obama or even on Bush—it’s been developing for more than seven decades.
It stems from our collective MAP and the arrogant world-view we developed after WWII; the abandonment of our melting pot roots; the entitled mindset that taught generations of Americans to covet and indulge in unsustainable lifestyles and, more recently, the replacement of thought by ideology.
Yesterday I commented on the fact that leadership is dependent on both context and culture to be effective.
In a review of The Leadership Illusion atLeading Blog Michael McKinney says,
This gets to the heart of the leadership illusion: seeing leaders and leadership in one dimension. We ignore the context. When we evaluate the causes of the success or failure of leaders, we tend to “focus predominantly on the individual (sometimes the context), but very rarely both at the same time. The need to see someone as “fabulously successful or woefully inadequate” is strong. … Leadership is not a solo performance.
The importance of context is especially timely because of the upcoming election.
Consider Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, two in a long list of business executives who will tell you that if they can lead successfully in the corporate world they can lead in government.
For the sake of this article we’ll accept their claim to successful corporate leadership.
Now comes the real question: how transferable is that success in the context of government service?
Whitman is running for the CEO slot in California, AKA governor.
When you are a corporate CEO you need a great vision and Whitman had that, but you also need a management structure that supports that vision and works to make it happen—not just a strong senior staff, but the whole management team.
What it really comes down to is support the CEO’s vision or find a new company.
But there is no such power structure available for a governor dealing with the legislature. The governor has little to no say in who is hired, they aren’t likely to leave if they don’t like the vision; they certainly can’t be laid off or fired, their reviews are only done every four years and not by the executive team.
Given that context how many corporate CEOs would succeed?
Budget woes are disrupting state and local governments and everything they fund. Cuts are being made and what better place to cut than those things that don’t show up immediately? Things that are either out of site, like infrastructure, or that can be pushed off to when times are flush(er), such as learning.
As most CEOs will tell you how better to reduce costs than to reduce headcount? And that means firing teachers—more than 100,000 come June and that’s not all.
As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge classes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.
Politicians, especially local pols, tend to focus on supplying instant gratification to their constituency in order be reelected, so even as the economy improves you can’t count on the money being replaced and teachers rehired—assuming they are still available.
It’s far easier to use smoke and mirrors to show that kids are doing just fine in the brave new reduced budget world—smoke being standardized tests as viewed through the mirror of lowered standards.
Education offers little in the way of instant gratification to voters, rather it offers whining kids complaining about homework, tests and tough teachers who have the nerve to expect them to stop texting, pay attention and learn. (What nerve.)
The mass walkouts were inspired by Michelle Ryan Lauto, an 18-year-old aspiring actress and a college freshman, and came a week after voters rejected 58 percent of school district budgets put to a vote across the state (not all districts have a direct budget vote).
The full damage of cuts now won’t be felt for years to come, but the voting public has both long and short-term memory loss and the pols who did it will be long gone—or moved to a higher level.
And America will be left wringing its hands and moaning about its loss of world leadership and the incredible difficulty of finding good talent to hire.
Anyone who knows me knows that hypocrisy and fanaticism are tied for first place on my list of things-that-I-detest.
Political, religious and business hypocrisy continue to make headlines; rarely do I find myself laughing, but this time I did.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the undisputed king of monopolistic uncompetitive practices is boo-hooing to both US and European regulators that Google has an unfair advantage in search.
Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done a number of things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet’s lucrative search advertising market. He didn’t specify the alleged misconduct.
I am not alone in considering this totally ludicrous. And it’s not what Google does or does not do, but that Ballmer has the audacity to complain in the wake of Microsoft’s own track record.
And therein lays the real problem.
The idea that if ‘they’ do it it’s unfair, immoral, or illegal, but if we do it it’s OK.
We saw it in the arguments of torture being acceptable on the detainees at Gitmo.
We see it in the political and religious leaders who preach high moral codes while practicing immorality.
We see it in business leaders who preach ethics and practice them only as long as it’s convenient.
We see it in parents who demand better education and then condemn any teacher that doesn’t give their child a good grade.
We see it in colleagues whom we complain of slacking only to do something similar ourselves.
We se it in friends who share our private information even as we share someone else’s.
To paraphrase Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the hypocrite and he is us.”
“The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” –Cynthia Dunbar, another Christian activist on the Texas board of education.
I have nothing against Christians or Texans; as the saying goes, some of my best friends are Christian and a few are Texans.
But I have a lot against the idea that tomorrow’s K-12 textbooks will be written to conform with the desires of the Texas educational system and the 7 Christian activists who have decided that the time is right to try to reshape the history that children in public schools study—in their version Robert Kennedy is not a “significant American,” but Newt Gingrich is.
The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State.
This could go a long way to homogenizing thought and reducing international respect still further, not to mention encouraging hate, bigotry and ignorance.
But what else should I expect from a place where Republican Rep. Betty Brown suggested in testimony that “Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with,”” and Brown’s spokesman insisted that the comment had nothing to do with race.
Nuff said; rant over; thanks for listening.
March 18: I couldn’t resist adding a link to this great Mike Luckovich cartoon that sums my rant up so nicely.
Today is the start of Women’s History Month, click over, I think you’ll find it an interesting experience; the interview with Cokie Roberts is especially fascinating as she explains the political power of women before they could vote.
These are an extraordinary group of people. The characters that emerge in this book in ways that you have never, never, I can assure you seen them before are people as divergent as Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Sacagawea Sally Hemmings, and a cast of just an enormous number of women particularly women who take center stage very quickly — Aaron Burr’s daughter –
And if you think politics is a dirty business now, you’ll be blown away by what was said/done to a politically active wife, such as Dolly Madison.
I hope you’ll take time to dig around the Women’s History Site over the next 30 days. It should be interesting.
‘Leader’ is a word that’s bandied about with reckless abandon, but it is the only word that’s available that carries a fairly universal meaning.
That said, I have several leadership links I think you’ll find interesting.
First, from American Express’ Open Forum, 10 excellent examples of real business leadership. Some refer to companies, others to people, none will take you long to read. And if the story resonates you can always google more in-depth information.
Next is a fascinating analysis from Newsweek that looks at the pros and cons of business executives as politicians. It’s a timely article considering how many are throwing their hats in the ring.
Finally, whether you consider yourself a leader, or just someone who enjoys helping others excel, you’ll find lots of good ideas at LeaderTalk where Becky Robinson has a round up of posts discussing the importance of, and ways to, develop people from some of the smartest coaches around—including me.
I’m not a sports fan so I rarely read sports articles, but this one from ESPN’s Mike Reiss caught my eye. Although he was talking about the Patriots, I believe it is applicable on a much wider stage.
Have we gone leadership crazy? …
In an instant, got-to-have-it-now society, the knee-jerk conclusion that the Patriots lacked leadership seemed to be one that many rallied around. … But to lay the season’s struggles on that is overlooking the more important issues: The Patriots need more playmakers, management needs to be sharper in identifying and keeping that talent, and coaches need to be better at cultivating, scheming, and communicating with players when their situations get sticky… Start there, then factor in the importance of better locker-room chemistry, and you’ll have a more accurate reflection of what went wrong in 2009 and what steps the club needs to take in 2010 to improve.
No matter where you look, business or politics, you’ll find that most commentary focuses on the lack of/need for better leadership, especially when it comes to Washington.
Just think what a difference if our national political scene included
more playmakers,
managers who were sharper identifying and keeping talent,
everybody better at cultivating and communicating, instead of scheming, and
better locker-room chemistry.
Notice that the most important is listed last.
What a difference it would make in their ability to find viable solutions, instead of ideological posturing.
Out of all the commentary regarding Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts my favorite came from the Washington Post’s Monica Hesse, who pointed out that a woman who had posed nude for a major magazine probably wouldn’t be elected or recalled—even if she wasn’t nude.
The pictorial in question is a much-circulated 1982 centerfold from Cosmopolitan magazine, in which Brown was declared “America’s Sexiest Man.” In a two-page slice of beefcake, the then-22-year-old reclines on a blanket with nothing but a serendipitously-placed wrist covering his manly bits. … Cosmo offered a new campaign slogan: “Vote for Brown. He Has One Hell of a Stimulus Package.” … If Brown had breasts, the media and public response might have been more virulent.
No matter where you look on planet Earth you’ll find a double standard and a glass ceiling and it won’t change any time soon when the only motivating source is hope.
That’s why other countries are using legislation and quotas to move the gender issue forward.
France’s parliament is considering a law that would force big companies to appoint women to 40 per cent of their boardroom seats.
Norway introduced a 40 per cent rule in 2002 when women accounted for only 6 per cent of board seats there.
Spain has also just passed a similar law.
Germany is turning tradition on its head in a move to draw more women into the workforce. The driving force is demographics—one of the lowest birthrates in the world—while the method—extending the school day—may seem quaint to other countries it’s breaking a centuries old tradition and working.
A new survey of 22-35 year-old American women finds an upbeat attitude towards the future in terms of personal satisfaction.
Nearly all, 94 percent, believed they could achieve a balance between a satisfying professional career and a gratifying personal life.
When asked to rank barriers to their careers, 12 percent cited marriage, 19 percent said maternity policies and 30 percent named pay scales.
But that says nothing about the role women will play outside of their own lives.
Across the developed world, a combination of the effects of birth control, social change, political progress and economic necessity has produced a tipping point: numerically, women now match or overtake men in the work force and in education.
Will the convergence of these forces be enough to change the MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) of the men who still control the global business and political arenas?
Or will viable gender parity have to wait until they’re not only retired but dead?
First, Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs testified in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a group established by Congress to determine the causes of the Wall Street debacle. During his testimony, Blankfein “…likened aspects of the financial crisis to a “hurricane” and similar acts of God…”
And here I thought ‘acts of God’ referred to uncontrollable natural phenomenon as opposed to the outcome of greed-driven risk.
Who knew?
This next item made me ill. Over the years I’ve seen many statements from the far right that dripped ignorance, hate and bigotry, pronouncements often made by Pat Robertson, and the Haitian earthquake is no exception.
Robertson says the Haitian people brought it on themselves by making a pact with the devil [in 1791].
Even if I were religious I wouldn’t believe that God killed 100,000+ in retaliation for an unprovable act that happened 220 years ago.
It’s not the first time Robertson has blamed a natural disaster or tragedy on a group of people he dislikes. He blamed Hurricane Katrina on abortion supporters and blamed the 9/11 attack on gays and feminists.
I’d say that Blankfein and Robertson ought to get together—except that it sounds like they already have.
Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr and CBN on YouTube
How can a week of discussion focused on ethics and cheating not touch on politics? Especially when it’s that time of year and media is filling the air with conversation, clamor and rants by and about those running for public office.
Yesterday I commented on the fact that leadership is dependent on both context and culture to be effective.
Budget woes are disrupting state and local governments and everything they fund. Cuts are being made and what better place to cut than those things that don’t show up immediately? Things that are either out of site, like infrastructure, or that can be pushed off to when times are flush(er), such as learning.
Anyone who knows me knows that 
“The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” –Cynthia Dunbar, another Christian activist on the Texas board of education.
Today is the start of 
I’m not a sports fan so I rarely read sports articles, but this one from 
Out of all the commentary regarding Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts my favorite came from the Washington Post’s 
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