We have many words for leadership, a trait desperately needed to surface solutions to today’s multiple crises: the pandemic, climate change, economic recession, inequality, and social unrest. We also need leadership to rally people around whatever solutions eventually arise. The opposite of leadership, to me, is hubris, and we are observing way too much of it during today’s crises. Hubris is an arrogance, a bold audacity, an overblown impression of one’s own importance. Hubris is also the opposite of respectfulness, which is at the heart of effective leadership. Respectfulness-in-action is challenging another’s behaviors but not making assumptions about the underlying motives. So is seeing the value in every human, from janitor to Board Chair, from the asylum seeker to the esteemed citizen, and acting in support of each person’s worth. Successful leaders tell the truth, as the respect of others demands we are…
Am I a good citizen?
I have always felt that my life rests on strong shoulders. Two of my grandparents, as well as two great grandparents, emigrated from Europe for a better life. When I met distant cousins in Lithuania and Ireland in 2001, it helped me understand that while my days are no more filled with love, they are far easier than theirs. Born in 1951, I was the start of a wave of women in non-traditional roles. Teachers who believed in my intelligence and ambition offered still other shoulders. So did a dad who wanted his daughters to have a degree to fall back on should we get divorced or widowed. Perhaps the strongest shoulders, however, are those of the people who forged our nation into the imperfect but evolving union it is today. What do I owe these people and my fellow citizens? What is…
Why we should all be depressed, not just Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama is experiencing mild depression. If she can feel depressed, I feel better about my own malaise, especially about the state of the US economy. Without additional fiscal stimulus, we will experience an economic depression, a situation where the economy lacks its own ability to recover. There are other things to feel terrible about – unnecessary deaths, inequality, school-age children falling behind, and another generation likely to incur long-term effects from sustained, high unemployment. All these painful experiences are worsened as the economy tanks further. It’s helpful to remember Macroeconomics 101. The level of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product (essentially our national income) depends on the addition of four terms. Consumption of disposable goods like food, entertainment, and clothing. It is the dominant majority of our GDP, coming in at about 69% in Q2 of 2020 GDP. Government spending on things like…
What if you made market and customer understanding as important as your organization’s financial information?
Financial information infuses company activities. From budgeting to closing the monthly books, from measuring progress to managing cash flows, numbers are to business what the ABC’s are to our reading. It’s no wonder then that companies large and small have invested heavily in their financial system, teams, and processes to generate financial information. Let’s call this entirety the Financial Information System. Numerical data is collected, processed, and stored in data warehouses, where it is then used to develop insight and inform decisions. While the Chief Financial Officer is in charge of this system, all employees play a role, whether they fill out expense forms, develop budgets, or make investment decisions. And all decision-makers are encouraged to use the processes’ information (e.g., making a presentation as a product manager about your category). A stellar CFO is like a great coach in winning the game…
Change is never linear. Don’t be fooled by obstacles to change or a reversal in a trend.
Liberal media sites often highlight the positive trend of solar and wind power. In contrast, Mr. Jenkins, a Wall Street Journal opinion columnist, concentrates his energy-related columns on the well-known flaw of solar and wind energy not being as reliable as fossil fuels. He suggests wind and solar will be niche energy sources. Jenkins is wrong. He has fallen into a trap called mistaken (and sometimes hidden) assumptions. Jenkins assumes the intermittency flaw is a constant. But battery technology is continually improving, and its use in power storage to solve the intermittency problem is spreading in many countries. Battery technology is advancing so quickly and effectively for automobiles that one can now reliably predict when petroleum-powered cars will become more costly to produce and run. No wonder Tesla is worth more than Toyota. There are always naysayers to change. The Kodak Board was…