A Cardinal Rule….Sunlight is NOT the best disinfectant…..Trust the Man Who Can Say “I don’t know”….Econ Recon: Crisis? What Crisis?….. A Little Fun

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled.  For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are most likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

M. Scott Peck

Author, “The Road Less Traveled”

 A Cardinal Rule

On Friday night, the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Pennant in a 9-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Great hitting, pitching and fielding…all these were present and took the Cards to victory.

But where do they come from, really? Given the focus in nearly all sports on individual superstars, it’s easy to lose sight of the rest of the team.

Sports writer Bernie Miklausz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch looks at what made the Cards the best team in the National League and concludes that it’s by being something many other teams are not….a team where teamwork really matters. Take a few minutes to learn where the ”Cardinal Way” comes from and what it means to be a Cardinal. Maybe you could use these “Cardinal’ rules” in your business? What leadership from you could turn your independent contractor employees into company team players?

Sunlight is NOT the best disinfectant

President Harry Truman once remarked that “Sunlight was the best disinfectant”; that transparency regarding controversial matters was the best way to resolve them. Greater transparency on executive compensation in recent years, including a new SEC requirement that the ratio of CEO pay to that of the median worker be disclosed, was intended to pressure boards to be more conservative in their CEO compensation decisions.

It appears, however, that more “sunlight” has had the opposite effect. Over the past 50 years, that ratio has skyrocketed from 20 to 270.

Most Vistage members run small to mid-size privately held enterprises and therefore don’t fall into this category of CEOs; but  a closer look at this phenomenon of ‘excessive’ CEO pay may be edifying nevertheless.  A recent one page New Yorker article, “Open Season” examines the drivers behind the CEO pay phenomenon and how the remarkable psychological forces that are driving CEO pay are also impacting other areas like health care costs (after reading the article, one has wonder if professional sports salaries and ticket prices aren’t  being similarly propelled).

Trust The Man Who Can Say “I don’t know”

Technology has put more information at our fingertips than at any other time in history. Yet how much of what we think we know is actually just what we believe? Those with the courage to admit they don’t know may be the most important people in your next meeting. Try this business of advice from the HBR Blog: Don’t Trust Anyone Who Offers You the Answer.

Econ Recon: Crisis? What Crisis?

Mercifully, the political theatre about the government shutdown and the debt ceiling has abated, a least for a little while. The media and party leaders predicted and still maintain that damage was done to the economy as a result of the other political party’s (take your pick) intransigence. Are they right?

Hardly, say economists Alan Beaulieu and Brian Wesbury. Dr. Wesbury looks at the economic metrics (i.e. those available despite the government shutdown) and sees No Sign of Economic Problems.

Alan Beaulieu, Vistage Staff Economist and President of the Institute for Trend Research likewise can find no reason to change the forecast he held before the yelling and screaming started and asks what’s “The Big Deal about The Big Deal?” (Be sure to heed his continued predictions: mildly negative second-half 2014; recession in 2019; Great Depression in 2030 – which can only be headed off by taking action now to put our nation’s fiscal house in order, which could only happen with real compromise, which neither party is willing to do now.)  Will you be ready?

A Little Fun to Start Your Week

Comedian Steven Wright is that laid back, dead pan comedian who’s been making people laugh for decades.  If you’d like to get your week off to a light start click here for a quick compilation of some of his best lines.  Enjoy!