Fight Hard But Be Fair To All American President Obama – Please!

PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a political column. I think President Obama is a very smart person. Labor Secretary Solis has earned her position. Both have and will continue to contribute to the future of our nation.

I also respect the loyal, boisterous at times, opposition. It would be truly scary if everyone got along. That isn’t the nature of our system. Politics were played much, much tougher than today as early as President John Adams (some would argue President Washington). It is exactly this boisterous dialogue that improves our decisions and unites us finally into a cohesive nation. I thank every protestor, radical and partisan in American for contributing their passion to our noble process.

I am disheartened by two things that are going on right now – two things that are meant to shut down the dialogue – to short-circuit the process for political expediency.

The first is the idea that President Obama would use a parlor trick to make a fundamental change to its healthcare system. This simply shouldn’t be a 51% decision – it just isn’t enough. The healthcare system is in need of reform but not at the expense of the good faith of Americans of all political stripes. President, sir, more than 51% of Americans aren’t sold on the law that is being passed. Please, let us continue the dialogue until there are true answer and consensus.

Secretary Solis – you hinted at a recess appointment of Mr. Becker to the NLRB today at the AFL-CIO annual meeting. I hope you were misunderstood. If not, the ideas is as legal as it is wrong.

I won’t argue the merits of his appointment – he is a very bright person. I will argue that your sense of urgency is betraying your sense of longer term value. A dead duck appointment (dead because Mr. Becker will have little support if appointed in this way; duck because the administration is ducking the real question and proven processes here) is literally worse than an empty seat. Wait a little while and all will be well, with Mr. Becker or another candidate that is still acceptable to the administration and less unacceptable to the opposition.

Sometimes winning an argument isn’t a good thing. Both sides need to get together and talk about what is really important and make meaningful changes on both these issues.

Mr. President – fight hard for your agenda – but fight fair. You are the leader of the free world; the expectation for your behavior are great.

Trust or Rust

I’ve been in business for 34 years. During most of that time, I relied on contracts with vendors, non-competes with employees and similar contrivances. About 15 years ago, I noticed a trend—I either very rarely had to enforce a contract or similar agreement, or they were widely unenforceable or of little net value (minus attorney’s fees and headaches) when enforced.
Please don’t get me wrong, I think that a mutual understanding of responsibilities, deliverables, costs is beneficial. I also think that in certain cases these items should be reduced to a formal contract. Unfortunately, I think we do too much contracting in America today and much of it isn’t worthwhile. Some of it is actually hurtful.
I started Performance Growth Partners Inc. approximately 10 years ago. As many of you know, we are a full-service profit improvement consulting firm that does many things – profit improvement consulting, training, executive coaching, outplacement, employee surveys, human resources consulting, employee handbooks, and human resources audits with a variety of customers nationally. We have many clients and pride ourselves on our incredible record of client retention.
One of the key contributors to our success, in addition to caring about our customers and doing first quality work, lies in the fact that we never ask a client or vendor to enter into a contract with us. We reason that if we can’t win the hearts of those with whom we do business through our actions and good faith, nothing else really matters. We go out of our way, everyday, to thrill and delight our clients. We leave nothing to chance. We plan to become so important professionally and personally to our clients and vendors that they would never even consider paying us late. We don’t rely on the belief that a contract will save us. We recognize that only being a good business partner will do that. We’ve been richly rewarded for our trust and more than good faith efforts to ensure that our clients and vendors are treated properly.
I believe more companies should spend more time focusing on the connection they have with their clients and less on their contracts with them.
You have 2 choices in life; trust people and be occasionally disappointed, or choose not to trust people and be occasionally happy.
Do your business and personal life a favor – start choosing the first option consistently.