YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
by Cal LeMon
By the time you read this, the impeachment of a sitting president may be remembered as a spike in CNN ratings or there could be an empty family residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Without exaggeration, we have surfed through some of the most catastrophic Constitutional days this republic has endured.
What have we learned? You know, it is not too early to ask that question.
Well, you would have to agree with me this mess has produced enough moral fodder for eons of stump speeches and pulpit-thumping sermons. The wrongs and rights of our national "Days Of Our Lives" will lace our coffee-break conversations for centuries.
But we have to decide what we have learned.
Let me give it a shot. We have learned that arrogance is the drug of choice in our nation's capitol. We have learned that air time is the essence of political power. And we have learned that the payback system is alive and well.
I was repeatedly amazed that both political parties built their arguments for or against impeachment on the moralism of "Sending the right message to our young people." That sentiment was tagged to, "It does not matter who you are in this society, you will have to pay for lying under oath." I agree. But I do not agree that was the message our children or any of us really heard.
Think about it. You sat with your children and watched the label "Democrat" or "Republican" filter the same information into radically different conclusions. "Nonpartisan" has been hard to find.
We all know what the real message is, "If you have the power I will keep silent until I get an opportunity to make you pay."
The reason I am making these political observations in a business format is the politics of Washington have been, and probably always will be, the modus operandi of any organization, including yours.
I spend much of my professional life teaching people the skills of openly communicating creative ideas, assertively confronting conflict and empowering themselves.
Everyone likes the skills but not the application.
When it comes time to walk these skills into the workplace, the response is always the same, "Yeah, right! The first time I question or confront my boss, I will pay big time."
Paying, I have discovered, may mean a negative annual review, the loss of a promotion, the redlining of a career or even termination. The message of this impeachment debate (a misnomer) is quite clear: whoever has the power makes the rules. In other words, the threat of vengeance is the psychological grease which keeps an organization humming.
Unfortunately, the organization is sick.
Sick organizations exist on whispers, rumors and continual carping. These collections of malcontents do turn a profit and get the job done but there is a toxicity in the air that makes clocking out the best time of every day.
There is another way. There are healthy organizations where debate is encouraged, ideas are challenged without recrimination and power is defined by ability, not position. Those are not feel-good terms; they are the practices of companies and organizations that have decided to break ranks with the ordinary.
And ordinary is what the news has been about lately. There is nothing new here. It is the same old, same old, "You get in my face and I will make you pay." I am the first to admit the precipitating acts were stupid and selfish, but much of the political resolution has not been much better. Vengeance is so ordinary.
There is another and better way. Extraordinary people refuse to play the pay-back game.
(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted at
www.executive-edge.com
on the Internet, at callemon@aol via e-mail and by phone at 889-4040.)
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