Fear in Tough Times

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' - Eleanor Roosevelt

I recently read an article in which the author said that the nightly news and print media were scaring him worse than any Halloween haunted house he had ever been in. Haunted houses make their money on our fascination with our own fear and so do news outlets. As news becomes more an entertainment medium, sensationalism sells soap. “Are ax-murdering fat-cat hedge fund investors causing cancer in young children? The story at 11!” Politicians also play on our fears. Negative emotions are bigger vote-getters than positive ones. It’s always easier to get people to vote against something than for something.

Justin Pinkerman in Leading in a Climate of Fear: How to Take the Reins during a Recession talks about what we expect from a leader in fearful times and I think we should be looking for these things from our politicians, the leaders in our place of work, and ourselves in family and work situations.

1) Visible Presence

“In times of uncertainty and fear, people look to leaders more than ever.” Like Rudy Giuliani after 9/11/01 or Franklin Roosevelt after the tragedy at Pearl Harbor, leaders are needed who can calm fears and address the threats candidly.

2) Clear Communication

“President Roosevelt's fireside chats gave a unifying message to all Americans.” Tell us what is wrong and what need to be done.

3) Credible Hope

“During tumultuous times, leaders must cut through the gloom and doom with rays of light.” BUT… “When introducing hope, leaders should be careful to avoid speaking in abstract terms. Hope should be mixed with substance.”

4) Difficult Decision-Making

“Leaders inevitably arrive at unenviable decisions… Time and again, they must make tough calls that affect the livelihoods of their people and partners” Bureaucrats are notoriously bad at making tough decisions, layers and layers of bureaucracy allow almost unlimited buck-passing. A leader steps up and makes the decision that is required.

While these are the things that we need from our leaders, they are the things that make a leader the most vulnerable. They are the things that are easiest to criticize. Political (and office political) enemies are always quick to attack these areas. The press can sell more soap attacking than supporting. But a leader doesn’t care. A leader does the right thing, that’s why she’s a leader.

Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems

I am reading a book that sometimes makes me mad, sometimes makes my head ache but consistently makes me think. Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership is an annoying book, it tells you what you know ain’t so. If you like paradoxes, this is a book for you. If you like things straightforward and uncomplicated stay away.

One of his easier concepts is “Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems.”

According to philosopher Abraham Kaplan, there is a difference between problems and predicaments. “Problems can be solved, but predicaments can only be coped with. Most of the affairs of life, particularly the most intimate and important ones, such as marriage and child rearing, are complicated, inescapable dilemmas - predicaments where no option look very good or better than any other.”

Take the “problem” of crime.

“We would prefer it to be a simple matter of cause and effect” brought on by bad parenting, pornography or violence on TV. “Instead, absurdly, crime comes mainly because of aspects of our society we wouldn’t think of giving up – affluence, urbanization, mobility, freedom, materialism, individual liberty, progress.” Sure we have unemployment and poverty but there are places with more of both and much less crime. “In America, as paradoxical as it may sound, crime is associated with developments that we think of as advancements.” Even our efforts to control it, prisons, for example, “harden and train criminals.”

“Thus, a predicament is often made worse when we treat it like a problem.”

Most of us think our job is to solve problems. Isn’t that what service/knowledge workers do? Find a need/problem and fill/solve it! That works OK on a day to day level.

But to address big issues like government stagnation and bureaucracy is to address predicaments, not problems. They must be seen in a larger framework for actions to have any chance of success. There are no quick fixes, and quick fixes usually backfire and make things worse. Farson concludes this chapter with the observation, “Alas, predicaments can not be handled smoothly.”

So big change will not be neat and orderly, all laid out with a complete plan and an exit strategy. Paradoxically, solving our problems is relatively easy if you accept the definition of problems as something that can be solved. Predicaments are not solved, they are changed, improved slowly, two steps forward, one step back. Predicaments are like life because life is a predicament.

The Other World Around the Corner

I took a little time off this week and attended several workshops at Trenton Small Business Week. I also attended the Small Business Expo at The Sovereign Bank Arena. It was very interesting and I learned a lot about new technologies and services (some governmental) available to the Small Business person. It’s a jungle out there, and some are scared because 1) in these tough economic times it is hard to get financing unless you really do a LOT of work before you even get started and 2) most small businesses will fail anyway. Those of us who have chosen to work in a bureaucratic system might wonder why they would even try. Let me tell you about some of the folks (names changed) that I met and got to know a little:

Chuck is an aging counter-culture type who still has long (graying) hair and who still is easily offended by “the man” and “the suits” strutting around looking important at these affairs. He wears jeans with wide suspenders and would like to run a small specialty construction company that does quality work and pays good wages to his people.

Andy is a young, exceedingly earnest, intelligent, hardworking, tech-savy marketing guy who is Mr. Positive, even in these down times. He sees everything as an opportunity for himself AND OTHERS and seems to have things going his way.

James is a thirty-something guy who is “just looking” because he thinks he might like to do “something like this someday.” He was very interested in finding out where the nearest Labor One-Stop was located, because he has to go there this week to claim unemployment benefits.

Anne is a middle-aged woman with a friendly, businesslike demeanor and appearance. She claimed to be there to check things out “for a friend.” But she was taking in everything she could get.

They were all bright, friendly people. I don’t know how many of them will ever start their own business and make a go of it (except for Andy, it will take a large meteor collision to stop him.) But they all seemed to have one thing in common –A DREAM.

Some were on their way to making it come true, some were trying to make it a reality, some were trying to flesh out a basic idea, and some were still too scared to even mention it out loud. But they all had a dream, every one of them, or they wouldn’t have been there. That made them fun to be around. I don’t think you can be a successful small business person without that dream, it just won’t work.

There is a big difference between trying to live a dream and sleepwalking.

They are excited and scared about what is coming tomorrow. For the most part we are bored by yesterday, today and tomorrow. Is that how it must be? Can a government worker be excited about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Sure we can, but it takes as much risk for us as it does for the entrepreneurs. Our government bureaucracy does not encourage risk takers, it discourages them. Bureaucrats must be willing to take risks and DREAM for a good cause. Sure, we must plan, budget, implement and revise. So do the dreamers, or they will fail.

After a few days out among them, I am not tempted to go out and join them. I am not an entrepreneur and I have always known it. But I envy them their dreams in a system where dreams are currency. In our system, our dreams may not bring us much money. But working towards them may make us happier and make the world, ourselves and government (of the people, by the people and for the people) better.

Acres of Diamonds - An Abridged Motivational Classic

Russell Conwell was a Baptist minister, lawyer, writer, and outstanding orator. He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia PA, and for his lecture and book Acres of Diamonds. Acres of Diamonds originated as a speech which Conwell delivered over 6,000 times around the world; it was eventually published as delivered in Conwell's home town, Philadelphia. Conwell's was able to establish Temple University and fund his other civic projects largely derived from the income that he earned from this speech. Before movies, radio and TV, people would spend good money to be entertained for a few hours by a great orator or storyteller like Dickens or Twain or Conwell. He tells a story of taking a trip to Bagdad, where…

The old guide told me that there once lived not far from the River Indus an ancient Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. He said that Ali Hafed owned a very large farm, that he had orchards, grain-fields, and gardens; that he had money at interest, and was a wealthy and contented man. He was contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented. One day there visited that old Persian farmer one of these ancient Buddhist priests, one of the wise men of the East… The old priest told Ali Hafed that if he had one diamond the size of his thumb he could purchase the county, and if he had a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth. Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, "I want a mine of diamonds," and he lay awake all night…

So he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds… and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay… and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.

…A few days later this same old priest came in to visit Ali Hafed's successor, and the moment he opened that drawing-room door he saw that flash of light on the mantel, and he rushed up to it, and shouted: "Here is a diamond! Has Ali Hafed returned?" "Oh no, Ali Hafed has not returned, and that is not a diamond. That is nothing but a stone we found right out here in our own garden." "But," said the priest, "I tell you I know a diamond when I see it. I know positively that is a diamond."

…"Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own cellar, or underneath his own wheat-fields, or in his own garden, instead of wretchedness, starvation, and death by suicide in a strange land, he would have had 'acres of diamonds.' For every acre of that old farm, yes, every shovelful, afterward revealed gems which since have decorated the crowns of monarchs."

Now, I was born in Philly, moved to Jersey, got married and moved back to Philly, moved back to Jersey, worked (taught) in Philly and ended up back in Jersey. So I know Philly can be a tough town, famous for its “attytude” and for being hard on itself. So it interested me when Conwell, himself a converted “Philly Guy,” said:

…I say to you that you have "acres of diamonds" in Philadelphia right where you now live. "Oh," but you will say, "you cannot know much about your city if you think there are any 'acres of diamonds' here."

…I have come now to the apex of my thought. I have come now to the heart of the whole matter and to the center of my struggle: Why isn't Philadelphia a greater city in its greater wealth? Why does New York excel Philadelphia? People say, "Because of her harbor." Why do many other cities of the United States get ahead of Philadelphia now? There is only one answer, and that is because our own people talk down their own city. If there ever was a community on earth that has to be forced ahead, it is the city of Philadelphia. If we are to have a boulevard, talk it down; if we are going to have better schools, talk them down; if you wish to have wise legislation, talk it down; talk all the proposed improvements down. That is the only great wrong that I can lay at the feet of the magnificent Philadelphia that has been so universally kind to me. I say it is time we turn around in our city and begin to talk up the things that are in our city, and begin to set them before the world as the people of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco do. Oh, if we only could get that spirit out among our people, that we can do things in Philadelphia and do them well!

Conwell gave this speech all over the country and adapted it to the various cities in which he spoke. But what he said was probably never truer than in Philadelphia. But, like any great orator or writer or entertainer, he saved his greatest truth for the end:

…Greatness consists not in the holding of some future office, but really consists in doing great deeds with little means and the accomplishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life. To be great at all one must be great here, now, in Philadelphia. He who can give to this city better streets and better sidewalks, better schools and more colleges, more happiness and more civilization, more of God, he will be great anywhere. Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and what you are, in Philadelphia, now. He that can give to his city any blessing, he who can be a good citizen while he lives here, he that can make better homes, he that can be a blessing whether he works in the shop or sits behind the counter or keeps house, whatever be his life, he who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.

…or Trenton, or Newark, or even Nutley! Everywhere there are “Acres of Diamonds!”

And as Buckaroo Banzai told us, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

What is really required?

"Sometimes our best is simply not enough. We have to do what is required." - Winston Churchill

"220, 221, whatever it takes." - Michael Keaton from "Mr. Mom"

What happens when our best comes short of our goal? Or short of what is required of us? Should we quit? Should we renegotiate? Or should we say, “Hey, that’s the best I can do”?

We live in a society that no longer emphasizes personal responsibility. We are what we are. We do what we can do and no more, why should we? If we can’t measure up, is it our fault?

The idea of working to do better that our best seems passé, reserved, maybe, for those few extraordinary athletes we idolize. But not for us.

We are not Don Quixotes, fools who don’t really understand the way things really are. We are not fools, willing to tilt at windmills, fight city hall, dream impossible dreams. That’s for losers, not folks like us, folks with our feet on the ground, not with heads in the clouds. We’re not young and foolish and idealistic like we once were. We’re normal, not crazy.

I have to admit something. Every time I hear, or sing or even think about the lyrics to “The Impossible Dream,” I get teary-eyed. Still. After all these years. I have never laughed at the poor benighted fool who boldly declared himself to be Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha, even though everyone else knew he wasn’t. I have never laughed at his chivalrous love that elevated a lowly slattern to his goddess and muse. He told us why we must fight impossible odds; try to do what can’t be done, why we must do better than our best…

“…(so) my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to me rest.

And the world will be better than this, that one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star.”

If we wish to “lie peaceful and calm” and work so “the world will be better that this,” we may need to stretch beyond what we think (and others think) we can do. We have to do what is required of us even if our past experiences say it’s not possible.

If we are not good enough as we are, we must work to become something better. To evolve. To change.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for?” - Robert Browning

"220, 221, whatever it takes."

Joe Festa

Joe Festa is the barber-philosopher of the State Street Barber Shop, Trenton NJ. You will find him in-residence Tuesday to Saturday 6AM-6PM. You may also see him out on Warren Street, wearing a red bowler hat or twirling a cane or bouncing a ball and greeting passersby. That’s what he does when he’s not cutting hair or working out in the back of the barbershop. This is a happy man, a septuagenarian who looks like the late George Carlin with muscles.

He loves his work. He loves his customers. He loves his non-customers. He loves his fellow merchants, Trenton, life, people and loving. It’s great to watch.

A hair cut from Joe is an experience. He sings (Everybody loves somebody… sometimes…,) tells (clean) jokes and spreads the good news of a positive attitude. He is an evangelist for Life, he enjoys his work and he is a great barber. Stop by, get a haircut or just stick your head in and say “hi.” It’s worth the trip.

“Joe” - isms:

· Soap and manners are cheap; no one should be dirty or impolite.

· If you expect to keep anything, you’ve got to give back more.

· The mind and body is like an ax. If it’s not sharp, you’ve got to work twice as hard.

· Don’t let kindness be mistaken for weakness.

· We all want to get to heaven, but we don’t want to die to get there.

· Everyone wants a wonderful life, but few of us take the steps, make the plans.

· What’s wrong with using the word “love?” In order to be loved, you’ve got to love others.

· There’s a lot of working people. God must love us, because he made a lot of us.

· Misery loves company and I will not be part of it.

· You know what I ask the Lord every day? Energy. Give me energy.

· There are no shortcuts. The right way is the straight and narrow.

· I was born to a family of 13. I was lucky I had a name. And you know what? I never said I was “poor.” Not ever. If God makes you healthy and gives you a life, don’t tell me you’re poor.

· It all comes from sharing a giving back. I start my day, my giving back, just by saying “Good Morning” to people I meet on the street, opening a door for someone. I like giving back. I like sharing. When you touch other people’s lives, guess what brother? You’re touching your own.

State Barber Shop, 116 S. Warren Street, (609) 392-2211 (Directions)

also on hiddentrenton.com

Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed To Do and What You Can Do About It

In the last issue of the B&G Report there was a recommendation for a little book, about 100 pages long, called Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed To Do and What You Can Do About It by Ferdinand F. Fournies, written 20 years ago. I found it at a local library. It is an amazingly simple approach to performance based-management. No frills. His research over the years developed a list of universal performance problems and he recommends a few solutions for each. Here are his reasons “Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed To Do.”

They don't know why they should do it.
They don't know how to do it.
They don't know what they are supposed to do.
They think your way will not work.
They think their way is better.
They think something else is more important.
There is no positive consequence to them for doing it.

They think they are doing it.
They are rewarded for not doing it.

They are punished for doing what they are supposed to do.
They anticipate a negative consequence for doing it.

There is no negative consequence to them for poor performance.

Obstacles beyond their control
Their personal limits prevent them from performing.

Personal problems
No one could do it.

I have tried to think of an example that could not be accounted for by one of those explanations and have not thought of one. Can you?

His solutions are equally comprehensive and brief but could provide a lifetime of solutions for managers.

This is a book I now want to buy, reread, highlight, outline and work on. There are lots of good books on management philosophies and gimmicks. They come and go. This could stand with “The Prince” and “The Art of War” in timelessness.

It is comprehensive, brief and practical. What more could a manager ask for?