Saturday Odd Bits Roundup: Rampant Stupidity
by Miki Saxon
The CEO reputation isn’t exactly in the ascendancy these days, in fact, as a group it’s pretty well tanked. So it’s sad to see them, again as a group with exceptions, strolling down another truly stupid path—no time for talent worries. “It’s no surprise that global leaders raked financial pressures to cut costs (82.95%) and rapid market decline (54.36%) as their toughest business challenges. Unfortunately, “Loss of leaders in key areas or insufficient talent to quickly adapt to change” (5.30%) fell to the bottom of the list.” Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership spells out the details, including a link to the survey. Whoo hoo, short term thinking at it’s best.
Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership eloquently discusses the stupidity (my word) of inspiring emotional connections in ‘followers’.
“That’s what the modern individual leader wants: uncritical commitment, steadfast devotion, unquestioning obedience. There is little room in contemporary leadership theory for qualified, deliberative followership; extended, modified, or rescinded at the initiative of the follower.” Scary attitude!
Finally, to add a little levity to a day dedicated to stupidity, past and future, here’s a quick explanation of the banking crisis for those of you who still don’t understand the MAP that got us into this mess. It’s a little story that’s making the rounds on the Net. Hat tip to KG Charles-Harris who sent it to me.
Young Stern moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.
The next day he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.’
Stern replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’ The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’
Stern said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’
The farmer asked, ‘What a ya gonna do with him? Stern said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’
The farmer said ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’ Stern said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’
A month later, the farmer met up with Stern and asked, ‘What happened with that dead
donkey?’
Stern said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.’
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’ Stern said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him back his two dollars.’
Stern now works for Goldman Sachs.
Or did until he was laid off.
There, do you feel better now that you know the truth?
Image credit: flickr
