The Fourth of July; a day we celebrate our freedom that should include freedom from fear, hate and intolerance.

That thought reminded me of something I wrote in 2007 and it seemed apropos to share it with you today.

What responsibility does leadership—business, political, religious, community—bear in fostering hate and intolerance?

I’m not talking about race or gender issues, but prevalent the attitude that I’m/we’re-RIGHT-so-you-should-do/think-our-way-or-else.

It’s not the ‘we’re right/you’re wrong’ that bothers me, but the ‘do-it-our-way-or-else’ that shows the intolerance for what it really is.

During my adult life (I missed being a Boomer by a hair) I’ve watched as hate and intolerance spread across the country masked by religion, a facade of political correctness or a mea culpa that is supposed to make everything OK—but doesn’t.

Various business, political, religious and community leaders give passionate, fiery talks to their followers and then express surprise and dismay when some of those same followers, in the name what their leader preaches, steal trade secrets, plant bombs, and kill individuals whose only error was following their own beliefs.

No longer are we all entitled to the pursuit of happiness if our happiness offends the person next door or someone living at the other end of the country.

It is the worst kind of selfishness.

I remember Ann Rand saying in an interview that she believed that she had the right to be totally selfish, where upon the interviewer said that would give her freedom to kill.

Rand replied absolutely not, in fact the reverse was true; since her selfishness couldn’t take away anyone else’s right to be selfish.

That about sums up my attitude

I just wish there were fewer people following all the Ellsworth Toohey types in today’s world.

Have a wonderful, safe and tolerant holiday.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderferret/2920749911/

It’s a holiday weekend, so I thought I’d offer you a variety from which to pick and choose.

First up is a good overview of the business and political crises that are either ignored or denied by the leading players.

Polls show that our business, political and financial systems, and the people who lead them, are seen as lacking in ethics, competence and respect. … We have a crisis of ethical culture in both the public and private sectors.

Chris O’Brien offers a thoughtful look at money, motivation and Silicon Valley, although what he says applies universally.

That money motivates us to do our best is the ultimate expression of faith in the free market. Challenging this orthodoxy is heresy.

Yet research overwhelmingly indicates not only that money is not an effective incentive for creativity and innovation — it actually may make performance worse.

Next is an interesting commentary by Donna Flagg that looks below the typical views of managing Gen X and Y.

But really, I fail to see how this is different from any other good, old-fashioned generation gap where the underlying issue is simply about a need to understand differences.

Next is more insight about your brain and the subject of daydreaming; if you don’t daydream you may find it surprising.

But now that researchers have been analyzing those stray thoughts, they’ve found daydreaming to be remarkably common — and often quite useful. A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals.

Finally, the comments are in on Harvard’s Jim Heskett’s most recent online discussion considering whether strategy, execution or culture had the greatest impact on a company’s success. It’s definitely worth reading, both the initial article and the comments.

Respondents who ventured to place weights on the determinants of success gave the nod to culture by a wide margin.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

After Monday’s post I had several emails and calls wondering if the ROI for seeing the ‘whole’ was really worth the effort considering the frequency of switching jobs and even industries, not to mention the speed at which everything changed. One caller said he was exhausted just thinking about it. (He was being factious—I hope.)

So on this Friday, before you grab the beer to celebrate your freedom, let’s consider the ‘whole’ in terms of WIIFY (what’s in it for you).

The short answer is that wrapping your mind around the whole is the difference between being considered ‘good’, ‘OK’ and ‘competent’ vs. having adjectives such as ‘great’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘world-class’ attached to your name.

And making the effort to be a ‘whole’ person provides a major benefit for you, personally by reducing—even eliminating—boredom.

Even a constantly challenging job can become routine; the two things that keep it interesting are people, who are ever-changing, and the intricacies of understanding your and the job’s impact on surrounding people and tasks and how it fits into and impacts the whole.

It’s similar to enjoying a baseball game; if you think the most fascinating position is pitcher and that’s the only player you watch, you’ll miss a lot of the action. In fact, you’ll probably miss many of the game-changing plays.

You’ll actually find a lyric harmony in the ‘whole’ and will be much quicker to notice any discordant notes giving you a decided edge within your current company as well as a more accurate assessment of what is really going on.

Mixing metaphors is not good writing, but this kind of holistic, or perhaps I should say ‘wholistic’ approach will be far more accurate in predicting whether you should fish or cut bait.

How’s that for good WIIFY?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/irenetong/485727716/

When looking for a talented entry-level candidate, grades carry great weight with managers and HR.

This is especially true when hiring advanced degrees where starting salaries remain high and even more-so when the degrees are in the professions—doctors and lawyers.

Recruiters scour university campuses looking for what they judge to be the crème de la crème and you, the client, pay big bucks to access that talent.

Customers assume a certain level of integrity from educational institutions and equate grades with expertise.

So what happens to that integrity and those expectations when law schools lower the bar?

In the last two years, at least 10 law schools have deliberately changed their grading systems to make them more lenient. These include law schools like New York University and Georgetown, as well as Golden Gate University, Loyola Law School Los Angeles, and Tulane University, which just announced the change this month.

Granted, it’s being done in K-12 schools all over the country, but law school? And at some of the most prestigious US law schools, too.

These the same associates who do most of the real work when your company shells out $500 or more an hour to hire a name on the door.

Many will become judges, local, state and Federal—even to the Supreme Court.

Some will join Federal enforcement agencies—SEC, Justice, FBI.

And many will eventually enter politics, which is justified considering how far that bar has already been lowered.

What’s next? Well, we have a real shortage of doctors now that is getting worse as our population ages.

Doesn’t that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncohen/152850884/