Oct

25

Say Goodbye To Stuff That’s Over

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In William Bridges’ book on Transitions he says that we’ve got it backwards. We think that our personal and organizational stories unfold through beginnings, middles, and then endings. Nope. He says it’s much more accurate and helpful to see our personal and organizational lives unfolding with endings, then middles (he calls them the neutral zone), and then beginnings. Today, I share a few thoughts on transitions and endings in particular. Read more

Oct

20

Michigan at a crossroads

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Fellow Michigan Citizens,

I don’t often write about politics, but I feel I must today.  Michigan is at a crossroads. It’s a civic emergency, and I feel a duty to educate and, yes, advocate.  Senator Bishop, the southgoing Zax (brush up on your Dr. Seuss here, people) stands nose-to-nose with the northgoing Zax(es), which would be Representative Dillon and Governor Granholm.  Bishop says “No revenues.”  Period.  He won’t move.  Dillon and Granholm have offered a menu of ways to bring in revenue.  Here are some examples and Bishop’s positions:

  • He says no to closing loopholes through which companies favored by lobbyists years ago continue to get unfair breaks that other companies would love to have.
  • He won’t support a tax on doctors that would bring in three times as much in federal dollars as it would cost our docs (and that federal revenue stream would be dedicated in the binding budget to more than compensate docs who see medicaid patients – a win for all – docs, taxpayers, and medicaid patients who increasingly can’t get seen anywhere other than expensive ERs).
  • Bishop won’t support a tax on water that is being removed from Michigan’s precious land, even though consumers across America would pay that tax (just as Michiganians pay for Florida’s beaches or the Louisiana’s oil or Oklahoma’s gas).  Seen your rental car or hotel taxes on a trip down there?
  • He won’t support a tax on non-smoking tobacco equivalent to the tax on smoking tobacco.
  • He won’t support a penny tax on bottled water (even though that enormous penny tax could be avoided by getting their water from a tap).  (By the way, does it ever strike you when conservatives say, “businesses can’t increse the price when things are hard.”  Um, has anyone but me seen the price of M&M’s or Coke these days, presumably due to higher sugar prices?  We can pay $1.50 for a 20-ouncer but how dare our elected representatives ask us to pay a penny for schools and police!)
  • We’re scheduled for a tax cut - our personal exemption on our income tax will go up – we could save about $50 million by freezing that right now.  He says no.

Granholm (and Dillon) months and months ago (the Gov in a February budget document) agreed to very deep cuts . . . over a billion dollars worth already passed, nearly all signed by the governor. Bishop says he will agree to ZERO revenue increases.  It is not like we are talking about “balance” here.  We’re talking about total rigidity: “I don’t agree with you on anything. I can block you, so I will.”

Schools have been cut nearly $165 per pupil and based on new revenue assessments stand to lose hundreds more.  The Dept of History Arts and Libraries has been abolished.  Granholm has signed cuts averaging 15% to Veterans, Transportation, Corrections, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environmental Quality, Aging.  Every department will receive similar treatment.  Yesterday, the Governor signed a School Aid bill that, as I said, cut $165 per student out of every district.  To add insult to injury Bishop sent her a School Aid bill that did not add up, so Granholm was required by law to make it balance and she used her line item veto to cut the “extra” aid that goes to wealthier districts.  So, they’re losing even more.

One more personal point before I put the question to you.  Today we received a call from our daughter who is volunteering a year of her young life in a large-city, high-dropout school. She’s an aide to children in a 9th grade classroom.  The challenges are enormous, but they are establishing great relationships with children who have seldom had close personal attention.   Then our daughter heard today that they are laying off the young teacher in whose room our daughter is an aide.  The school system had promised to fund her, a gifted “Teach for America” teacher in a 9th grade classroom where the children on average read and do math at a 4th grade level.  So my wife is being forced and in turn forcing our schools to lay off teachers at the same moment our daughter is literally crying at the stupidity (forget the injustice) of laying off this teacher in a room of kids who are desperately in need of good teaching, and who have bonded with this great young teacher.  Now they’ll have substitutes – lower-paid, less qualified, potentially uncertified teachers.  What do you think will be the results?  I’m no genius when I predict:  higher adult ed costs and employment training costs if we’re lucky, and in too many cases, increased prison costs, crime costs, welfare costs.  $200 per pupil cuts in Michigan equate – in my rough math – to about 8 laid-off teachers in a 50-teacher high school.

Make no mistake:  These are very very tough times in Michigan.  Workers and business owners are stretched and stressed. People are earning less (and due to the structure of the income tax paying less income tax); tightening their belts and spending less (and due to the sales tax structure paying less sales tax); and their housing values are going down (and due to the tax structure paying less property tax).  It’s why we’ve seen a couple billion dollar shortfall almost every year in this decade.  That’s why the legislature and governor in Lansing have had to cut, cut and cut again; and, yes, why in 2007, they passed temporary revenue increases (I believe all those tax increases have sunset provisions) to help fill the hole.

I feel for these legislators.  They don’t want to tax individuals or businesses in a down economy.  But they don’t want to have docs stop treating people because the medicaid rates are ridiculous (they know we’ll pay even more when they go to the ER).  They don’t want to cut police and fire, which they keep forcing localities to do.  They don’t want to cut schools.  Yet they face this shrinking pie problem.

So, with tighter collective and personal budgets, what do WE want? How important are some taxes right now, when weighed against police, fire, schools and basic health care?  The legislature and governor have reduced our business tax burden so that according to the Tax Foundation (a non-partisan research group) Michigan has gone from the 28th best business tax burden to the 19th best.  To hear Bishop and Company talk we’re the worst.  And to hear their pure ideological stand on taxes, you’d think these cuts would surely have pushed us ahead of other states.  Yet we are still worst in unemployment.  Why? The driving reason is not taxes, but our struggle to survive in a global economy, that is increasing productivity, decreasing jobs, and driving our wages and benefits lower.  Is now the time to renege on the bipartisan Michigan Promise that would allow every Michigan child in this capitalist democracy to get a community college education?

Here’s what I believe matters most:  If we are to survive in this new economy the most important thing we need is a great educational system, so that our children can compete.  So that they can be great workers that fuel businesses. And so that they can be great entrepreneurs who create those businesses. Taxes for schools and retraining can be seen as “burdens,” or they can be seen as smart investments, just as the governor and legislature are doing their darnedest to spur investment in the private sector. The highest income states are NOT those with the lowest taxes. They ARE those with the highest educational attainment.

Granholm and the Dems have agreed to huge cuts, because we need them. We must get more efficient.  (State government employment is down, by the way 16% since 2001. It is shrinking.)  Bishop’s extreme, uncompromsing position that there will be NO new taxes, will mean that schools – rich and poor – will be pink-slipping teachers at the worst time in the world to do that.  He’s painted himself into a terrific corner.  He can single-handedly drive these cuts deeper and deeper (oh, not entirely single-handed: he’s got about 12 solid Republican backers, and about 5 Republican independent thinkers that he’s fighting to keep in line with his no-compromise position).  That’s a lot of responsibility on him – pretty scary and maybe a little crazy-making.  Maybe it’s why he called the governor a “liar” today and an “extortionist.”  And he declared again today that he would not support any revenue increases.

I honestly have hope for him – and a little more in some rational Republicans in his chamber.  I am reminded of the famous statement that people routinely clip from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance. My hope is that Mr. Bishop will heed Emerson’s wisdom and move from the simple safety of his ideological hard-line.  Bishop’s stubbornness has in days gone by helped win some deep cuts.  He can claim some genuine victory for pushing Granholm and Dillon further than they probably wanted to go on cuts to police, fire, schools and health care.  But now it’s time to open his mind to the non-sense of it all.  Smart voters will see in either case – the stubbornness or some ability to compromise. Mr. Emerson, please take us out:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

What do you think?

Here’s the form to write to Senator Bishop, and here to Representative Dillon, and Governor Granholm

Dan

Oct

19

Speaking of Men . . . and Maria Shriver

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Maria Shriver along with the Center for American Progress and NBC are this week launching a report – and hopefully a national dialogue – about “A Woman’s Nation.”  I’m pretty sure it’s a man’s nation too, so is Maria, and I’m glad she’s got us talking about it.  Follow me here, and let me know what you have to say Read more

Oct

18

A Time of Opportunity to Become a Great Employer

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When it comes to employers looking for employees this is an incredible buyers’ market.  Consider: The current Business Week chronicles the woes of young people entering the labor force. Unemployment nationally is nearly 10%.  In cities it’s as high as 30%.  Labor unions have made enormous concessions. White collar workers have given up benefits, had their wages cut, or been downsized altogether, left to compete for scarce jobs.  Okay, okay, enough of the bad news that you already know.

Well, one startling point about the implications.  In an amazing article in The Economist, the impact of this lax labor market is detailed:  “A survey by the Center for Work-Life Policy… found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.”

When employees feel no loyalty and express no trust, it’s only a matter of time before they leave.  Before they get the chance to leave altogether, it’s absurd to think they’re pouring their hearts and souls into the work.  From this dark tale emerges the light of opportunity:  What an incredible chance for humane and engaging employers to support their employees and thus secure their trust and productivity.

What are the central keys to doing that? They are the two oldest values in the universe:  Truth and love!  Clear truth will build trust even when the truth is tough.  Love and  care for your people by looking for non-economic ways to improve their quality of life.  At work, find ways to encourage, to celebrate, to
empower, and to underline the meaning of the work.  When you can’t reward with money look for the deep intrinsic human needs.  And in this time of great economic stress – when people are asked to do more, and their spouses are working harder too – look for ways to promote quality of life, especially through flexibility for emplolyees and their families.  Maria Shriver launches her report “A Woman’s Nation” this week.  She says that the “war of the sexes is over.” And that both sexes are clamoring for ways to support their families while accomplishing their work. 

It would be a great topic of conversation this week at work:  “What can we do to help you and your family in times when we can’t do much foryou economically?”

Talk truth and offer love to lead with your best self,

Dan

Oct

11

Everyday Leaders Matter More

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Tom Walsh in Sunday’s Detroit Free Press opens a window for us to see and hear from Bill Ford, Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Company.  Walsh quotes Ford: “I grew up around money, power and fame, and I’ve had all three myself and . . .” well, read the article to see how he finishes it.  Darn interesting.  Who isn’t interested in money, power, and fame?

 

I’m not just interested but obsessed with the notion of “everyday” leadership.  And I think we need to actually fight our obsession with Top Dog Leadership.  Now, I have counseled and coached and watched enough top-authority leaders in all kinds of organizations to know that the leader matters.  Indeed, Bill Ford held that tenet so deeply, and had such personal humility, that he went out and found Alan Mulally – the only person he thought could turn the company around.  Ford removed himself as CEO and put Mulally in.  Mulally’s strategy, focus, and persistence are often credited for Ford’s great, ongoing turnaround.  So, yes, top dogs matter – hats off to Bill and Alan – two fine everyday leaders.

 

But in our time, when machines and brutally impoverished global workers can do all the mindless and even pretty mind-ful work, our survival depends on the ability of individuals and groups at all levels to innovate and collaborate.  And of course, the greatness of our families, our schools, our offices depend completely on everyday folks.  Heroic CEO’s or governors can set courageous strategy and foster an empowering culture, but everyday leaders have to step up and deliver.  One big mental block stands in our way: our obsession with those top dog leaders.  We just can’t get enough hero-making and hero-dashing.  Look at Obama: the only thing more incredible than the human tide and passion that swept him into office, has been the fierce, sudden, and vicious drive to now bring him down.  Bush faced much of the same.  Can you imagine if you had wild followers and vicious critics like that, quick to applaud you, and, yes even quicker to slay you?!  Well, I suspect you do face exactly that.

 

I imagine every everyday leader hears voices of praise, and perhaps like our top-dog leaders, even more fierce voices of doubt and disparagement.  We hear these voices in our own heads.  Perhaps part of our virulence about the leaders stems from our fears and doubts that we can’t get the job done! I suspect it would behoove us to “withdraw the projections” as psychologists would say:  Quit worshipping and demonizing our leaders and deal with our own wild hopes, as well as our deep doubts and self-recrimination.

 

What’s the alternative to attacking and defending yourself:  Be clear about your vision and your values, get your strategy straight, and build the systems and support for you to

Lead with your best self!

 

Oct

11

When Your Boss is a Bear or a Burden

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Kathi Elster and Katherine Crowley were great as they discussed their new book Working for You Isn’t Working for Me.  You can hear the show.

Oct

4

Got a Tough Manager – K-Squared Can Help

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Listeners on the Everyday Leadership radio show, have heard Kathi Elster and Katherine Crowley, co-authors of the best-seller Working With You is Killing Me.  Now, the K’s spend 2 hours with me talking about their new release, Working For You is Killing Me.  Listen in with us this Saturday at the Michigan Talk Network!  Find the K’s at K Squared Enterprises.

Oct

4

Think Football – 4th Quarter

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Friends, 

 

A quickie this morning.

 

This is the first week of the fourth quarter.  Think: Football 4th quarter.  We’re behind.  It’s been a lousy first three quarters for businesses, non-profits, and governments.  The crowds are fidgeting, angry, some are filing out of the stadium.  So . . .

 

Think: Football 4th quarter:  This is an opportunity for intense focus.  A chance for some new momentum.  A chance to put aside internal rivalries and fight the real opponent.  And a chance to take some chances.

 

I say: We can do this.  Pick some clear targets and take some decisive moves forward.  Bury some hatchets and encourage your teammates.  Go into the 2-minute offense – a few less huddles and more focus on execution and pace.

 

Ready?   Break!

 

Lead with your best self!

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