Archives for March 2020

The Costs of Perfectionism: A Case Study of A Two Michelin-Starred French Chef

March 30, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Marc Veyrat, a top-rated French chef, sued the Michelin Guide in 2019 for downgrading his world-renowned restaurant in the French Alps from three to two stars. Just the previous year, Michelin had awarded Veyrat the highest ranking. That achievement had marked his comeback after he had given up cooking for several years following a skiing accident and a 2015 fire at his restaurant.

Just Excellent …

In an infamous court case, now known as ‘Cheddargate,’ Veyrat speculated he was downgraded after an “incompetent” Michelin inspector with an unrefined palate mistook the ingredients.

Veyrat claimed the anonymous inspector thought Veyrat had used English Cheddar in place of French Reblochon, Beaufort, and Tomme cheese in one of his signature soufflé dishes. “I put saffron in it, and the gentleman who came thought it was cheddar because it was yellow,” Veyrat contended.

“It’s worse than a wound. It’s profoundly offensive. It’s worse than the loss of my parents, worse than anything. It gave me a depression.”

Michelin’s review had commended Veyrat for being “true to his reputation” and described his cuisine as a “pastoral symphony” that blends “woodland fragrances and Alpine herbs.” But Veyrat would have nothing less than three stars.

… Not Exceptional

At the court hearing, Veyrat demanded a symbolic €1 in damages. He asked for proof that the Michelin inspectors had even dined at his restaurant. He demanded to see their judging notes and clarify how they had come to their decisions. (The Michelin Guide’s evaluation criteria are perhaps the biggest trade secrets in the restaurant business.)

In reply, Michelin denied the Cheddar-related allegations and accused Veyrat of acting like a “narcissistic diva” suffering from “pathological egotism.”

Veyrat lost the court case.

Nobody Likes Rejection, Certainly Not a Perfectionist

Veyrat’s wounded pride is understandable. The Michelin Guide is arguably the world’s foremost arbiter of haute cuisine. Many chefs base their entire identity on getting three Michelin stars, the ultimate culinary accolade, and, in so doing, self-inflict extreme pressure to be labeled “exceptional.”

The Michelin Guide is not without controversies. Michelin stars can bring significant prestige, but also intense pressure on chefs. The unrelenting psychological stress and the financial demands of producing ever more creative dishes have even led a few chefs to suicide. Over the last decade, several renowned chefs have also requested Michelin to revoke their stars and opted out of the system in a quest for better work-life balance.

In 2019, South Korean chef Eo Yun-gwon sued Michelin for including his restaurant in the Michelin Guide after he’d told them not to. He declared, “The Michelin Guide is a cruel system. It’s the cruelest test in the world. It forces the chefs to work around a year waiting for a test [and] they don’t know when it’s coming.” Some chefs closed their restaurants and launched lower-key eateries that still cater to discerning epicures.

Idea for Impact: Challenge the Perfectionist, “All-or-Nothing” Thinking

This Marc Veyrat-Michelin Guide episode is yet another reminder that being a perfectionist—and insisting on excellence at all costs—has a dark side. Perfectionism can cause adverse outcomes such as excessive procrastination, low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety.

Perfectionists tend to engage in “all-or-nothing thinking”—that they are either perfect or worthless. In reality, most of us operate on the continuum between these two extremes. We’re neither perfect nor worthless, just “good enough.”

If you’re struggling with perfectionism, it’s crucial to take in the concept of being and doing “good enough.”

Inspirational Quotations #834

March 29, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi

Laziness erodes a person of his enthusiasm and energy. As a result the person loses all opportunities and finally becomes dejected and frustrated. The worst thing is that he stops believing in himself.
—The Vedas (Sacred Books of Hinduism)

I urge you to work together in promoting a true, worldwide ethical mobilization which, beyond all differences of religious or political convictions, will spread and put into practice a shared ideal of fraternity and solidarity, especially with regard to the poorest and those most excluded.
—Pope Francis (Religious Leader)

I guess the definition of a lunatic is a man surrounded by them.
—Ezra Pound (American Poet, Critic)

If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

The idea of caring that someone is making money faster [than you] is one of the deadly sins. Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?
—Charlie Munger (American Investor, Philanthropist)

Look for the good, not the evil, in the conduct of members of the family.
—Yiddish Proverb

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.
—Marcel Proust (French Novelist)

Fooled once shame on you, fooled twice shame on me.
—U.S. Proverb

Love, like fire, goes out without fuel.
—Mikhail Lermontov (Russian Novelist, Poet)

Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration—courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth.
—H. L. Mencken (American Journalist, Literary Critic)

A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.
—John Cleese (British Comic Actor, Writer)

It’s easier to be original and foolish than original and wise.
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (German Philosopher, Mathematician)

I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
—John Steinbeck (American Novelist)

There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth … lust. When he is strong … quarrelsomeness. When he is old … covetousness.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

Let Your Work Do the Bragging for You?

March 26, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

From American clergyman Madison C. Peters‘s Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud (1900):

All the other rivers said to the Euphrates: “Why is the current of thy water not heard at a distance?”

The Euphrates replied: “My deeds testify for me. Anything sown by men at my shores will be in full bloom within thirty days.”

The rivers then addressed the Tigris: “Why is the current of thy waters heard at a distance?”

“I must direct the attention of the people to me by my tumultuous rapidity,” the Tigris replied.

The moral: The less the merits of a person are, the more he will feel urged to proclaim them to the public.

If you know that you’re great, you shouldn’t feel a strong need to tell anyone about it. “It is always the secure who are humble,” noted the English writer, philosopher G. K. Chesterton in his insightful essay “In Defense of Humility,” included in The Defendant (1901.)

Your Good Work Should Speak for Itself, But …

Reminding that there is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself, the Canadian entrepreneur Matshona Dhliwayo has said,

Let your work speak for itself:
If poor, it will remain silent.
If average, it will whisper.
If good, it will talk.
If great, it will shout.
If genius, it will sing.

Your feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence hinge on being able to take pride in your achievements. However, be mindful of the thin line between confidence and conceit—confidence is believing in yourself, but conceit is bragging about yourself.

Unfortunately, in the current world of work, it pays to promote yourself—you must speak up about your accomplishments because no one else is going to do it for you.

Use your work to lead others to view you favorably—but beware, nobody likes blatant braggarts. If other people sense that you’re trying too hard to blow your own horn, they’ll be turned off, and you’ll achieve the opposite of your intended effect on them. This is especially true if the attributes you’re trying to flaunt aren’t the ones that interest the others.

With competition more intense than ever before, what really matters is “who knows you” and “what they know about you” than about “whom you know.”

Do more than is asked. Deliver more than is expected. Show up where the action is. And make a show of your work.

As the boxing legend Muhammad Ali once declared, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

Personal Energy: How to Manage It and Get More Done // Summary of ‘The Power of Full Engagement’

March 23, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s best-selling The Power of Full Engagement (2003) is a persuasive reminder that matching your energy to a task is the key to excelling.

Personal energy, like willpower, is a “reservoir” that not only becomes depleted during a day but also can be filled up. “Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.”

Your Most Valuable Resource is Energy, Not Time

Even if you’re effective at time- and task-management, you may often find yourself with the available time to do something, but not the energy, focus, or passion needed. You can achieve so much with better time-management, but at some point, you can’t put in more hours because time is a finite resource. You can then pivot to another realm of self-management—your personal energy.

Identify the kinds of activities that drain and sustain you. If you know yourself well enough, you can make conscious, proactive choices that will help you feel more energetic throughout the day.
Understand your working pattern. Match your tasks to your energy levels throughout the day. If you are at your best first thing in the morning, work on something challenging at that time and defer the mundane and the routine until later in the day.
Start your day with a brief planning session to force yourself to be proactive. Planning is easier when your energy levels are highest, which, for most people, is first thing in the morning.

Manage Four Types of Personal Energy

The Power of Full Engagement characterizes four distinct but related sources of energy—physical, emotional, mental (ability to focus,) and spiritual (values and beliefs.) For peak performance, you must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.

Energy levels vary from person to person, and people are each energized or exhausted by different things.
If you feel wiped out, think about which of these four “reservoirs” of energy is depleted. Stimulate yourself by doing something else that can draw stamina from another reservoir of energy.

Create Positive Energy Rituals

The authors’ study of the performance of top-rated athletes revealed that they rely on rhythmic patterns of focused performance and convalescence. In other words, peak performers push themselves intensely for a time, recuperate, and then return to another round of focused performance. The higher the performance demand, the greater the need for recovery and energy renewal.

Human beings operate in rhythms. Every 90 to 120 minutes, we transit from a high state of arousal slowly down into a lull. Our physiological constitution is designed to balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal to help sustain energy throughout the day.

Intersperse periods of intense work with rejuvenating breaks. Build a rhythm throughout the day so that when you’re working, you’re truly engaged. After a period of intense activity, take a break to renew your energy levels.
Develop intentional routines and rituals—habits that can become automatic over time. Habits are so much more potent because they can reduce the need to rely on your limited conscious will and your discipline to take action.

Idea for Impact: Energy, Like Time, is a Resource You Must Learn to Manage

The Power of Full Engagement (2003) is an essential read—it can help you operate “rhythmically between stress and recovery” and pace your day better.

For sustainable high performance, you need to find systematic ways to expend your energy positively and balance it with regular energy renewal.

Seek periods of good energy and favor them. Reconsider periods of reduced energy and manage them better.

Inspirational Quotations #833

March 22, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi

An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.
—Stephen Fry (English Actor, Writer)

We have to encourage the future we want rather than trying to prevent the future we fear.
—Bill Joy (American Computer Engineer)

A man’s genius is always, in the beginning of life, as much unknown to himself as to others; and it is only after frequent trials, attended with success, that he dares think himself equal to those undertakings in which those who have succeeded have fixed the admiration of mankind.
—David Hume (Scottish Philosopher, Historian)

The prospect of success in achieving our most cherished dream is not without its terrors. Who is more deprived and alone than the man who has achieved his dream?
—Brendan Behan (Irish Poet)

There is no original truth, only original error.
—Gaston Bachelard (French Philosopher)

Gratitude is not only the memory but the homage of the heart rendered to God for his goodness.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (American Poet, Playwright)

War is like love, it always finds a way.
—Bertolt Brecht (German Poet)

As rivers, when they overflow, drown those grounds and ruin those husbandmen, which, whilst they flowed calmly betwixt their banks they fertilized and enriched, so our passions, when they grow exorbitant and unruly, destroy those virtues to which they might be very serviceable whilst kept within their bounds.
—Robert Boyle (Irish Scientist, Philosopher)

Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.
—Emily Post (American Writer, Socialite)

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.
—Charles Dickens (English Novelist)

I believe love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve.
—Ivan Turgenev (Russian Novelist, Playwright)

Men’s fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
—Herodotus (Ancient Greek Historian)

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.
—Toni Morrison (American Novelist)

When you give power to an executive you do not know who will be filling that position when the time of crisis comes.
—Ernest Hemingway (American Author)

Land and sea, weakness and decline are great separators, but death is the great divorcer for ever.
—John Keats (English Poet)

Let the Buddha Help You Appreciate the Role of Questions in Inquiry

March 19, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

The Athenian philosopher Socrates used a dialogic teaching method, now known as “Socratic Questioning.”

Socrates famously observed, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.” He habitually posed of ignorance even though he knew more about any subject matter than he let on. He led his pupils through a sequence of questions—not to test or assess them, but to draw out their “tacit knowledge.” According to Plato, Socrates assumed that a pupil already possesses the knowledge or the understanding, but is not aware of this until a skillful teacher can help the pupil draw it out of himself using leading questions.

In his dialogues, Socrates imparted no information about the subject of inquiry, but systematically asked questions. By responding to Socrates’s teased-out line of thinking, the pupils eventually arrived at the desired knowledge.

The Buddha’s Socratic Questioning Technique

Discoursing about finding cognizance through systematic inquiry, the Zen priest and poet Norman Fischer explains how the Buddha, like Socrates, used questions to help his disciples reveal the truth:

Buddha talked not because he was particularly loquacious, or because he was given to elaborate explanations, but in order to help people see through the smoke screen of their own language and views. Once someone asked him for his secret in answering questions as effectively as he did. He said that he had four ways of answering questions.

One way was categorically—just to say yes or no without ambiguity.

The second way was to examine the question analytically, clarifying definitions and trying to determine what was actually being said, usually by deconstructing it. Most of the time when the Buddha employed this method there was no need to answer the question: under analysis the question proved meaningless.

The third way was by posing a counterquestion, the purpose of which was to bring the questioner back to his or her own mind, redirecting attention away from the entanglement of the language of the question to something real that stood behind it.

The fourth way was simply to put the question aside, knowing that some questions are so hopelessly entangled that to take them up at all means beating your head against a wall—there is no end to it and you end up with a bloody head. To put the question aside is simply to walk around the wall. This way you can get to the other side without beating your head bloody. So sometimes the Buddha’s response to a question was silence.

Idea for Impact: Rational Inquiry is Driven by Questions

Become skilled at how to facilitate critical thinking with the Socratic Questioning technique. I recommend Richard Paul and Linda Elder’s excellent The Thinker’s Guide to the Art of Socratic Questioning (2006; excerpt.) Here’s a handy primer on the nine types of Socratic Questions.

With patience and loving-kindness, ask questions in such a way that can skillfully lead your interlocutors to a better understanding of themselves. Help them cross-examine and uncover the inconsistencies and errors of their thinking, and even change their mind—all without arguing with them.

You can also use Socratic Questioning for self-reflection, which in itself is a rhetorical device to discover the true self. Engage yourself in contemplation not to judge your past choices, but to ponder on them, learn from them, and make whatever changes you believe are right for you in the here and now.

The Checkered Legacy of Jack Welch, Captain of Quarterly Capitalism

March 16, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

The legendary Jack Welch, the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) 1981–2001, died two weeks ago.

Welch was the most prominent business leader of the post-war era. Under his leadership, GE metamorphosed into one of the world’s largest, most profitable, and best-admired companies. He expanded GE’s market capitalization from $12 billion to $410 billion on the back of the steady economic expansion of the 1990s. Welch also became the poster child for “new globalization,” and GE led American companies in gaining access to new markets and lower-cost labor. (Note: GE Medical Systems was one of my first consulting clients out of college.)

For nearly three decades, until his star faded away in about 2008, Welch was the talk of corporate America. He was lionized for streamlining the industrial giant’s top-heavy bureaucracy and empowering managers to spot problems and make changes promptly.

Welch became the font of all sorts of pearls of management wisdom. He was the exemplar after whom American managers patterned themselves—“What Would Jack Do?” became a familiar business mantra. Companies borrowed six-sigma, rank-and-yank, stretch goals, and his other managerial innovations. In 1999, Fortune magazine designated Welch as the “manager of the century.”

Jack Welch Legacy #1: The Messy and Embarrassing $180 Million-Divorce

In 2002, Welch’s reputation took a first big hit when his wife Jane Welch exposed his extramarital affair with Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlufer (later his third wife.) The affair started when she was interviewing him for her publication. Jane, a sharp corporate lawyer whom Jack had extolled as “the perfect partner” in part for taking up golf and playing with his business associates, had even confronted Wetlufer over the phone and cast doubt on her journalistic objectivity.

Welch’s private life became fodder for gossip, and he became a regular feature in New York’s supermarket tabloids. The proceedings of the divorce divulged the extravagant pension benefits that Welch had gotten for himself. Among other lavish allowances, he had kept a company plane and an apartment in New York’s Central Park West—just these cost GE some $1.7 million a year. GE would supply Welch with fresh flowers, wine, dry cleaning, and even vitamins. After a public outcry, Welch was forced to forfeit many of these retirement benefits.

Jack Welch Legacy #2: The Aura Deflated

Welch transformed GE into a super-conglomerate and a Wall Street-darling during his 21-year tenure as CEO. Sadly, Welch’s business model became overly complicated, and many of the mistakes of his strategic deals manifested years later. The most consequential case in point was GE Capital, the finance division that delivered the parent company a near-fatal blow during the 2008 financial crisis. Welch had overconfidently let GE Capital grow unchecked during his tenure, and its easy profits had masked problems at GE’s core industrial divisions.

After a much-publicized “Super Bowl of CEO succession planning,” Welch bequeathed his successor Jeffrey Immelt with a puffed-up corporation. Welch retired in September 2001, and the “house that Jack built” started to crumble right away in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. After failing to curb GE’s sagging profits, Immelt was fired in 2017 following his ill-timed deals for GE’s power division.

All told, Welch’s undoing was his exceptional obsession with shareholder value. He made countless deals—many unrelated to GE’s traditional core competencies—and championed corporate efficiency to the detriment of initiatives that may have sustained GE’s long-term competitiveness.

GE is now a derelict shadow of its former self. Its market capitalization has fallen from a peak of $600 billion in 2000 to $82 billion today.

Jack Welch Legacy #3: The “GE Man” Turned out a Dud

Welch’s other legacy was going to be the “GE Man.” Trained at the knee of Welch, GE’s vast managerial talent was commonly recognized as one of the world’s best. Its leadership development program, headquartered at the famed Leadership Center in Crotonville, New York, was the best training ground for future executives. In April 2005, Fortune magazine noted,

When a company needs a loan, it goes to a bank. When a company needs a CEO, it goes to General Electric, which mints business leaders the way West Point mints generals. … One headhunter estimates the company harbors another dozen execs of FORTUNE 500 caliber.

Alas, Welch’s protégés were mostly disappointments. Much of the long line of managers whom he had mentored at GE has failed to achieve runaway success in running big firms—3M, Boeing, Chrysler, Home Depot, Honeywell, Pentair, ABB, and, undeniably, GE itself.

John Flannery, another “GE Man” who succeeded Immelt, was fired after just 14 months. Flannery was replaced by Larry Culp, the first outsider to run GE in the company’s 126-year history!

Jack Welch Legacy #4: “Jack’s Rules” for Management Success

Welch and his management style earned much criticism for insensitiveness and abrasiveness. Yet, some of his leadership techniques are worth emulating.

Nurture a “boundaryless” culture. Cultivate an open organization by removing the barriers that inhibit people and organizations working together. Foster an informal culture that expedites the free flow of ideas, people, and decisions.
Involve everybody to enhance productivity. Welch instituted a brainstorming process called “Work-Out” that enabled frontline employees and workers to propose improvement ideas to the bosses who are required to take action “on the spot.”
Empower people. Delegate and get out of the way. “We now know where productivity-real and limitless productivity-comes from. It comes from challenged, empowered, excited, rewarded teams of people.”
Embrace meritocracy. Let ideas and intellect rule over hierarchy and tradition. “The quality of the idea is determined by the idea, and not the stripes on your shoulder.”
Eliminate bureaucracy. “Anything that you can do to simplify, remove complexity and formality, and make the organization more responsive and agile, will reduce bureaucracy.” Welch once called bureaucracy “the Dracula of institutional behavior,” since red tape and rules and regulations tend to rise from the dead every few years.
Simplify. Drop unnecessary work. Work with colleagues to streamline decision-making. “The way to harness the power of these people is not to protect them … but to turn them loose, and get the management layers off their backs, the bureaucratic shackles off their feet and the functional barriers out of their way.”
Focus on continuous improvement. “Don’t sit still. Anybody sitting still, you can guarantee they’re going to get their legs knocked out from under them.”
Act with speed. “Speed is everything. It is the indispensable ingredient in competitiveness.”
Get good ideas from everywhere. Study competitors. Abandon the “not invented here” mindset and embrace best practices that are “proudly found elsewhere.”

Welch’s playbook has been studied in dozens of management books, including the three best-sellers he wrote: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001,) Winning (2005; with wife Suzy Welch,) and The Real-Life MBA (2015; also with Suzy.)

Jack Welch: Captain of Capitalism Whose Star Faded Away

Welch’s most significant legacy will be the Wall Street-orientation of business corporations. He promoted an obsessive focus on creating shareholder value, and in so doing, helped incite the current fixation on quarterly earnings. That, and the burn out of the General Electric that Welch left behind, is testimony to the potential after-effects of sacrificing the long-term well-being of corporations to meet short-term targets.

Inspirational Quotations #832

March 15, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi

If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you… . The world will be yours and everything in it, what’s more, you’ll be a man, my son.
—Rudyard Kipling (British Children’s Books Writer)

The more I see the less I know for sure.
—John Lennon (British Singer)

No one can become rich by the efforts of only their toil, but only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

The worst superstition is to consider our own tolerable.
—Doris Lessing (British Novelist, Poet)

It is a delicious moment, certainly, that of being well nestled in bed and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs are tired enough to render the remaining in one posture delightful; the labor of the day is gone. A gentle failure of the perceptions creeps over you; the spirit of consciousness disengages itself once more, and with slow and hushing degrees, like a mother detaching her hand from that of a sleeping child, the mind seems to have a balmy lid closing over it, like the eye—it is closed—the mysterious spirit has gone to take its airy rounds.
—Leigh Hunt (British Author)

He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (British Author, Politician)

My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring.
—Anne Bronte (English Novelist, Poet)

What is it which is bought dearly, offered for nothing, and then most often refused? Experience, old people’s experience.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer)

Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.
—Michel Foucault (French Philosopher)

When strangers start acting like neighbors… communities are reinvigorated.
—Ralph Nader (American Activist)

No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.
—Frederic William Farrar (British Theological Writer)

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
—Rene Descartes (French Mathematician, Philosopher)

For him who has no concentration, there is no tranquility.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

This is Not Responsible Leadership: Boeing’s CEO Blames Predecessor

March 12, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

In January, Boeing’s former Chairman, David Calhoun, became CEO after the board fired Dennis Muilenburg. Less than two months later, in a New York Times interview last week, Calhoun blamed Muilenburg for the misfortunes plaguing Boeing:

Asked why he wouldn’t give up his salary (he gets a $7 million bonus if he can get the 737 MAX back into the sky) in light of the 737 MAX-related woes, Calhoun declared, “… ’cause I’m not sure I would have done it [taken the job without a salary].”
On Boeing’s systemic culture problem (a steady trickle of revelations has exposed software problems and corners being cut in the engineering and certification processes,) Calhoun characterized the contents of the leaked emails as unacceptable but also downplayed the issue: “… I see a couple of people who wrote horrible emails.”
Calhoun has been on Boeing’s board since 2009. While the MAX crisis snowballed and Boeing’s crisis management went from bad to worse, Calhoun took over as the board’s chairman. In that capacity, he fully endorsed Muilenburg saying, “from the vantage point of our board, he has done everything right,” “he didn’t create this problem,” and “shouldn’t resign.” Now, in the last week’s interview, Calhoun had a different take: “Boards are invested in their CEOs until they’re not. We had a backup plan. I am the backup plan.”
Acknowledging that Muilenburg boosted production rates before the supply chain was ready, Calhoun declared, “I’ll never be able to judge what motivated Dennis, whether it was a stock price that was going to continue to go up and up, or whether it was just beating the other guy to the next rate increase. If anybody ran over the rainbow for the pot of gold on stock, it would have been him.”

Calhoun and the rest of Boeing’s board of directors were part of the context right from the outset. The roots of Boeing’s current crisis embody decisions made by the company’s leadership over a decade and fully sanctioned by the board. The board is wholly accountable for everything that happens under its authority.

Idea for Impact: Blame is an Accountability Killer

This is not responsible leadership. A true leader doesn’t pass the blame for failure but graciously accepts responsibility for the problems he inherited. Even though Boeing’s lapses may not be traceable directly to him in his capacity as a member of the company’s board, Calhoun should have acknowledged his—and the rest of the board’s—failing to keep an eye on Boeing’s leadership team over the last decade.

Leading with integrity means taking personal responsibility. It’s tempting for people to take flight and avoid the personal consequences of what happened, to reject personal responsibility, and to pass the blame on to other people.

Calhoun could have acknowledged that the board’s actions had a role in the situation. By facing up to these criticisms and admitting that Boeing and it’s board could have done things better, Calhoun could have encouraged others at Boeing to do the same, especially considering that he must overhaul the company culture from the top down.

The Sensitivity of Politics in Today’s Contentious Climate

March 9, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

If you feel like you’ve been overdosing on news and conversations related to politics and Trump, much to the exclusion of other meaningful subjects, try the “No Trump Rule” evoked by essayist Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal:

Every Friday I meet for lunch with three or four friends from high school days. I instituted at these lunches what I called the No Trump Rule: ‘No’ not in the sense of being against Trump’s politics but against talking about him at all, for doing so seems to get everyone worked up unduly. The rule, I have to report, has been broken more than the Ten Commandments. No one, apparently, can stop talking about our president. The Trump talk quickly uses up most of the oxygen in any room where it arises, and can bring an argument to the shouting stage more quickly than a divorce settlement.

Look, I understand that everybody has been amped up to eleven since Trump emerged as the Republican Party’s nominee in May 2016, but some of us don’t want to talk about him—or politics.

I, for one, don’t think it’s a good idea for so much of our news, talk shows, and social media feeds to be devoted to a single subject for this long. Yes, Trump is a polarizing figure, and our country is so divided. But we don’t need to let him, and the anger he provokes, besiege every moment of our lives.

Awareness and activism are vital to civic duty, but hatred isn’t meaningful activism

I’m happy to listen to everybody’s opinions, but I’m fatigued by the extent to which politics dominates present-day exchanges. Ordinary conversations about routine topics tend to degenerate quickly with any evocation of the current state of affairs. Even banter about the weather (“the last refuge of the unimaginative” per Oscar Wilde) can quickly spiral into climate change, the environment, fossil fuels, oil, Russia, Putin, and so on.

More than anything else, I can’t bear the way most people currently think about politics—in particular, how ill-informed they tend to be. I am dismayed at people’s shallow understanding of the significant issues of the day—immigration, trade, nationalism, economic inequality, healthcare, etc. The stakes are high, and, given the depth of people’s political convictions, their anger is understandable. Nevertheless, the propensity to lash out against those with different views and dehumanize them is deplorable.

I will talk about politics with people who aren’t as much interested in winning an argument and convincing opposing people of the wrongness of their positions as they are about understanding more fully why others hold a particular conviction.

Our values, not politicians, should mold the policies and positions we support

Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers’ commendable I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations (2019) proposes a framework for having productive political conversations with those you love and yet disagree with.

Somewhere along the way we stopped disagreeing with each other and started hating each other. We are enemies, and our side is engaged in an existential battle for the very soul of the country. We are no longer working toward common goals. We are no longer building something together. Our sole objective is tearing the other side down. Nothing short of total victory is acceptable.

…

The reality is that we never stopped talking politics altogether—we stopped talking politics with people who disagree with us. We changed “you shouldn’t talk about politics” to “you should talk only to people who reinforce your worldview.” Instead of giving ourselves the opportunity to be molded and informed and tested by others’ opinions, we allowed our opinions and our hearts to harden.

The authors, hosts of a popular discussion-podcast, invite readers “to hear each other’s thoughts, to test our own beliefs against each other’s philosophies, and to better appreciate our own core beliefs by having to articulate and challenge those beliefs.” They emphasize an earnest curiosity for the counterargument and the open-mindedness to leave room for nuance:

Engaging with other people is never easy, but it always will be worth it. Engaging with other people about politics is no different. Let yourself take that chance. Let yourself rise to the challenge. Your ability to stretch and grow will surprise you, and so will the people around you. Once people see you as a person willing to have thoughtful, curious, calm discussions, you will have all kinds of interesting conversations that seemed impossible a year ago.

Postscript: Things are far more awkward in the workplace. Politics has always been a sensitive topic—but in today’s contentious climate, such conversations can rapidly escalate into arguments.

Archives for March 2020

Just Excellent …

… Not Exceptional

Nobody Likes Rejection, Certainly Not a Perfectionist

Idea for Impact: Challenge the Perfectionist, “All-or-Nothing” Thinking

Wondering what to read next?

Your Good Work Should Speak for Itself, But …

Wondering what to read next?

Your Most Valuable Resource is Energy, Not Time

Manage Four Types of Personal Energy

Create Positive Energy Rituals

Idea for Impact: Energy, Like Time, is a Resource You Must Learn to Manage

Wondering what to read next?

The Buddha’s Socratic Questioning Technique

Idea for Impact: Rational Inquiry is Driven by Questions

Wondering what to read next?

Jack Welch Legacy #1: The Messy and Embarrassing $180 Million-Divorce

Jack Welch Legacy #2: The Aura Deflated

Jack Welch Legacy #3: The “GE Man” Turned out a Dud

Jack Welch Legacy #4: “Jack’s Rules” for Management Success

Jack Welch: Captain of Capitalism Whose Star Faded Away

Wondering what to read next?

Idea for Impact: Blame is an Accountability Killer

Wondering what to read next?

Awareness and activism are vital to civic duty, but hatred isn’t meaningful activism

Our values, not politicians, should mold the policies and positions we support

Wondering what to read next?