As AIG gets caught in the media blender, once again they are faced with choices that are no win situations. Do they ignore contracts and then face the legal battle of not paying contracted bonuses or do they fulfill contractual obligations and get hammered by a governing body that is looking for an example to hang from the yardarm for all to witness?
As a leader of business organizations you are going to be faced with choice dilemmas that appear to have no winning option. When faced with such options make a selection and defend your choice. The heat will be on and the rush to judgment will be swift and most likely misinformed. But making tough choices comes with the territory.
Do I think AIG should pay those bonuses? The contracts should be honored otherwise they are imitating the home owners who are not honoring their mortgage contracts by not paying and fulfilling their obligations. Should such non-performance based contracts even exist? Absolutely not! And this is the advantage of such economic corrections we are living through. Such times force organization to review behaviors that have gone astray in boom times and make corrections for better business practices.
In some cases, business with egregiously bad business practices pay by going under. Some get a second chance to correct their mistakes. Enron wasn't so lucky, let's hope AIG recognizes their errors and rebounds.
I know this country appears to be out for blood and a pound of flesh from bailout corporate executives. We as the American public have a choice dilemma of our own. Do we castigate these leaders and tear them up every chance we get, or do we assist them in correcting the course as fast as possible so we all can benefit from a renewed economy? We gain nothing in economic recovery with executive bashing even though we may feel better doing so. We need to make the choice where we all benefit from renewed economic strength.
Ask yourself: Does it make sense to abuse those who we want to lead us out of the recession? Will they deliver their best efforts this way? It's time this country get solutions-focused and let go of the blame-focus, so we can move ahead. It is often said the reason people who are miserable, are in fact miserable because they are more comfortable in that state of mind. The longer we are miserable the less likely we are driven to get beyond it. Leaders set the tone for finding solutions and now is the time to look ahead instead of looking how we got here.
Showing posts with label bailout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bailout. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I Want My Mommy
I learned how to ride a bike by falling off my bike. I’d wobble down the street until I lost my balance and end up knee down in the street. After a number of times doing this I was determined to learn how to stop skinning my knees because it hurt!
Although, not knowing how to ride a bike and leaving it in the garage just wasn’t an option. Eventually, I learned how to ride and rode with reckless abandon and soon I loved riding my bike. I still fell off and got hurt at times but only when I was pushing the envelope of my skills and daring do.
The consequences of falling helped teach me the importance of learning to ride the right way. I didn’t like the hurt because I knew what the hurt felt like. Today we are creating a society and workplace that doesn’t understand the hurt. If you are protected from the consequences of your actions or someone swoops in and removes the pain from you by bailing you out – what did you learn? Did you learn to ride your bike or call for your mommy? We are becoming a society crying for their mommies.
Every watch someone hit their thumb with a hammer? Who do you think learned the better lesson about hammers and thumbs; the guy who felt the pain or you watching the guy in pain?
Most successful entrepreneurs have had a failed business attempt in the past, in fact many reached the point of being penniless and bankrupt, yet they came back with a resounding success the second or third time because of the painful lessons learned the first time. What if they had been prevented from that first failure, would they have learned those lessons that created their later success? Ask them and they will tell you no. Mommy saving you doesn't teach you anything.
To grow your business, it’s time to remove the mommy strings from your organization and your employees. In these scary times, playing it safe is sure failure and a good way to lose your bike. You have to take some measured risks to be successful. Small failures and injuries such as skinned knees are part of the learning process and the growing process. In order to grow and improve your organization you need to allow for lessons to be learned.
Make today Thursday’s Lessons day and invite your employees to offer new ideas to try new things and sure there is going to be a skinned knee in the process but the benefit to your organization over all will be far greater. And will no longer need to count on your mommy.
Although, not knowing how to ride a bike and leaving it in the garage just wasn’t an option. Eventually, I learned how to ride and rode with reckless abandon and soon I loved riding my bike. I still fell off and got hurt at times but only when I was pushing the envelope of my skills and daring do.
The consequences of falling helped teach me the importance of learning to ride the right way. I didn’t like the hurt because I knew what the hurt felt like. Today we are creating a society and workplace that doesn’t understand the hurt. If you are protected from the consequences of your actions or someone swoops in and removes the pain from you by bailing you out – what did you learn? Did you learn to ride your bike or call for your mommy? We are becoming a society crying for their mommies.
Every watch someone hit their thumb with a hammer? Who do you think learned the better lesson about hammers and thumbs; the guy who felt the pain or you watching the guy in pain?
Most successful entrepreneurs have had a failed business attempt in the past, in fact many reached the point of being penniless and bankrupt, yet they came back with a resounding success the second or third time because of the painful lessons learned the first time. What if they had been prevented from that first failure, would they have learned those lessons that created their later success? Ask them and they will tell you no. Mommy saving you doesn't teach you anything.
To grow your business, it’s time to remove the mommy strings from your organization and your employees. In these scary times, playing it safe is sure failure and a good way to lose your bike. You have to take some measured risks to be successful. Small failures and injuries such as skinned knees are part of the learning process and the growing process. In order to grow and improve your organization you need to allow for lessons to be learned.
Make today Thursday’s Lessons day and invite your employees to offer new ideas to try new things and sure there is going to be a skinned knee in the process but the benefit to your organization over all will be far greater. And will no longer need to count on your mommy.
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