It’s common for clients to identify challenges and opportunities that they want to see addressed when I present to their group. A group of municipal government leaders recently asked that I provide tips about leading [...]
Think globally. Act locally. The phrase entered the zeitgeist decades ago as a call for individuals and communities to consider the long-term impact of their actions on the environment. It has since evolved into use [...]
The town where I live is a microcosm of the entire country. Most people – especially those who don’t live here – would disagree with my assertion. I am fortunate to live in a community [...]
The genuine desire to increase the number of middle class jobs may be one of the only pieces of common ground on the American political landscape. The actual definition of “middle class” varies based on [...]
Leadership is about the ability to influence the hearts and minds of others to take action. Regardless of your love or hate for President Trump, his unorthodox win and first 10 days in office offer lessons [...]
Something or more likely someone has changed over the past 20 years. Way back in the mid-1990’s I offered a development program titled Integrity-Driven® Leadership. One of the exercises asked participants to list leaders they [...]
From Scott McKain: “Elected political leader as manager” is a dated, misplaced notion. Let’s change our thinking about the jobs of those we elect to significant positions. I never thought Jack Welch was an expert [...]
From Larry Winget: A 10%, across the board, cut on ALL government spending. Everyone and everything in government bites the bullet equally with no playing favorites. There is plenty of waste in government and 10% [...]
It is time to face the truth. The riots in Baltimore and elsewhere should have been anticipated and could have been avoided. They occurred because we – the American people – abdicated our leadership responsibilities [...]
The death of Michael Brown and the subsequent events are a tragedy. Everywhere you look someone is blaming an individual or group for the anger, hurt, riots, looting, building burning, and feelings of injustice that [...]
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent political commentators into high gear with her statement that businesses and corporations don’t create jobs. She went on to say that trickle-down economics has proven to be a [...]
The lack of confidence in the institutions that define our collective culture is threatening the civility, economic prosperity, and standing of the United States as a world leader. Let’s start with the government. The President’s [...]
The 1971 Oscar in the Short Film, Cartoon category went to a piece titled “Is It Always Right To Be Right.” It was directed by Lee Mishkin, narrated by Orson Welles, and written by Warren Schmidt. The opening words of the film are: There once was a land where people were always right. They knew they were right and they were proud of it. It was a land where people stated with confidence, "I am right and you are wrong." These were words of conviction, courage, strength, and moral certainty. In this fictional land, any attempt at cooperation and understanding were viewed as cowardice and weakness. Everyone was so convinced of their rightness that no one dared to utter words such as, “You may be right” or “I may be wrong.”
The government we want is nimble, flexible, and responsive. The government we experience, in many cases, is slow, cumbersome, and totally unresponsive. Let’s put this another way: We want our government to operate like our favorite business. We believe, in contrast, that our government is the poster child for lumbering bureaucratic inefficiency and employees who are out of touch with the realities of the marketplace. Twenty plus years of working with private and public sector organizations has taught me that the truth is actually somewhere between the two extremes.
Who do you choose when there is very little difference between the choices? Do you take the time to understand the small factors that might distinguish one choice from another, or do you go with what is easy or the name that you hear the most often? There are four individuals running to represent their party for the office of state representative in the area where I live. All four seem like nice people, and all four are virtually indistinguishable in their stance on the issues. Seriously, you could copy and paste any of their individual responses onto the web site for any of their competitors, and no one would notice.