Thursday, December 8, 2016

Democrats search for a leader

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party can't call a timeout to retool. It has to go to battle with the leaders it has. A story in The Hill today points to the party's decline in sources of leadership.

Since the number of states with Democrat Governors is way down, there are few choices. Therefore, they turn to the Senate for leadership.

In my new soon-to-be-released book, How to Select an American President (c) 2016, Archway Publishing, Dr. James Rodger and I suggest a template for building a candidate's resume. Here is a sneak preview:

"Describing the ideal candidate for President of the United States

Here we have developed an outline to guide your consideration and to encourage candidates to tell their story following this guide.

•    Candidate name:
The kind of candidate I am: (Their words)
•    Met the statutory requirements: 1) Citizen born in USA, 2) Age 35 years or greater, 3) Lived in the country for past 14 years
•    Birth date:
•    Place of birth:
•    Residences during the past 14 years:
•    Intelligence Quotient (IQ): (Provided by candidates from an accredited source)
•    Education:
o    High School (School Name/Location)
o    College Graduate (College/University Name/Location
•    Degree Type:
o    Major areas of study:
o    GPA:
o    Honors/Distinctions:
o    Post Graduate (University Name/Location) (for each)
•    Professional Certifications:
o    Bar
o    CPA
o    Engineer
o    Medical Doctor
o    Other
•    Occupation/Vocation/Profession:
•    Health Status: Healthy, sick, recovering, recovered: Verified with doctor’s report
Voter’s assessment of candidate age: (Will the candidate be able to complete two terms? Does the candidate have sufficient knowledge and experience as evidenced by the time spent to acquire it?)
•    Young 35-50, Middle 51-60, Older 61 >
•    Affected Class:
•    Candidate description:
•    Verified by Census filing
•    Voter assessment of character and behavior
From reviewing past president’s we identified certain terms that are helpful in differentiating and describing candidates listed in alphabetical order.
•    Adaptive
•    Allegiant to the Constitution and nation
•    Brave in the face of adversity
•    Leader, follower
•    Listener, talker
•    Passionate, impassionate, easy-going
•    Process-oriented (how), task-oriented (what), results-oriented (outcomes)
•    Thundering or reassuring
•    Visionary, administrator, integrator, independent, loner
This category is refined further, though this is a thought starter.
•    Voters’ assessment of leadership style
Similarly, we captured some words used to describe leadership styles.
o    Collaborator
o    Creative and inventive
o    Delegator
o    Detailer
o    Do it yourself
o    Hands-on
o    You’re fired
•    Education and Training (Professional Development)
Life-long learning – It is beneficial to observe how presidential candidates have stayed abreast of contemporary knowledge and skill requirements.
•    Knowledge:
o    American government system
o    Concept of operations
o    Concept of the role of the president in optimizing the nation’s government performance
o    Constitution
o    Economics
o    Entitlements
o    Foreign policy
o    Information and communications technology
o    International trade
o    Knowing each governmental department and primary expectations for them
o    Knowing how to create laws
o    Knowing how to work with Congress
o    Law
o    Operational architecture
o    Primary presidential tasks and associated outcomes

•    Skill:
o    Administrative
o    Budgeting
o    Strategic planning
o    Writing
o    Speaking
o    Negotiating
o    Collaborating
o    Debating
o    Planning
o    Problem-solving
o    Decision-making
o    Sense-making
o    Predicting
o    Modeling
o    Recruiting and staffing
o    Organization development
o    Program evaluation and management
•    Life History (Childhood to adulthood status)
The kind of person that can relate to me; the kind of person to whom I can relate; my kind of person:
o    The person next door
o    The person who lives on the best street
o    Successful
o    Hobo (like Harry Truman)
•    Ability to manage the economy: The job of president is to create an environment in which private enterprise can flourish as that is what increases revenues.
o    Optimization = Increasing GDP and higher quality service for the least cost and labor intensity
o    Presidential Platform and Agenda: Priorities, Issues, Causes, Programs, Solutions, Vision
o    Banking
o    Fossil fuels
o    Energy independence
o    Entrepreneurs
o    Food supply
o    Green renewable
o    Housing
o    Infrastructure
o    Job creation
o    Manufacturing
o    Nation-building
o    Nuclear
o    Peace-building
o    Preemptive war
o    Promote democracy
o    Sustainable economy
o    Transportation
o    War is last resort
•    Relationship with Powerful Forces: Military Industrial Complex, Wall Street, PACs and Lobbyists
•    Political Party
o    Relationships with party leadership
•    Values:
o    Attitude about big business
o    Attitude about campaign contributions
o    Attitude about educators
o    Attitude about free speech
o    Attitude about government regulation
o    Attitude about gun control
o    Attitude about health care
o    Attitude about immigrants
o    Attitude about organized labor
o    Attitude about public service
o    Attitude about rural America
o    Attitude about small business
o    Attitude about women and minorities
o    Attitude toward immigrants
o    Attitude toward monitories
o    Patriotic
o    States’ rights versus Central government
o    Work ethic
•    Military Experience:
o    Rank
o    Combat Veteran
o    Unit
o    Command
o    Wars and battles
o    Citations and awards
•    Public Office Experience:
o    Vice President
o    Judge
o    Department Secretary
o    Governor
o    Senator
o    House Representatives
o    Mayor
o    State Legislature
o    Other Public Service
•    Private Sector Experience:
o    CEO/President
o    Large Corporation
o    Medium Corporation
o    Small Business
o    Vice President
o    Director
o    Professional Manager
o    Entrepreneur
o    Inventor
o    Patents
•    Memberships: Organizations and Leadership positions
•    Voters’ assessment of candidates on religion: Faith matters; Faith is irrelevant; Faith is private."

How to Select an American President by James A. George with James A. Rodger (c) 2016 Archway Publishing.

Senators Warner, Warren, and Gillibrand scored well. The leaders may reside in the private sector. Keep looking.

"Depleted Dems look to Senate for 2020 nominee 
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 12/08/16 06:00 AM EST  1,174 
The Senate is emerging as Democrats’ most promising recruiting ground for a presidential candidate in 2020 — in part because of the party’s deep losses in gubernatorial mansions.  
The ranks of Democratic governors have been hit, with a string of losses reducing their numbers to a paltry 16. 
That’s leaving the Senate as perhaps the most likely place for the next Democratic star to rise." 
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/309360-depleted-dems-look-to-senate-for-2020-nominee

Democrat Senators who are good leaders


How to Select an American President: Operation Military Overload

How to Select an American President: Operation Military Overload: President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a third former general to the executive branch, raising eyebrows among some about the possible bi...

Operation Military Overload

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a third former general to the executive branch, raising eyebrows among some about the possible bias. It isn't a military overthrow they are concerned about, yet.

"Trump hires a third general, raising concerns about heavy military influence 
Trump picks Kelly for homeland security; the third general tapped for his administration. 
By Philip Rucker and Mike DeBonis" 
Washington Post 

Actually, in my book, How to Select an American President by James A. George with James A. Rodger (c) 2016 Archway Publishing, points are added for military service. In fact, the military has a system of advancement and promotion that is worthy of reference as a model for performance management and personal and professional development. Advancing in the military system is based upon certifications that are verifiable.

The government Senior Executive Service has a similar system. The federal government Office of Personel Management does too.

The trouble is that some presidential appointees could not pass the standards for the hiring of the people and organizations over which they will manage.  There is a complete mismatch among some nominees who have never managed a sizeable bureaucracy and now are made the senior executive. That reflects upon the President as being incompetent and irresponsible. The Senate still must approve. However, they are not guided by specific standards either.




Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Hostile takeover

What we have here in America is what business people call a hostile takeover.

"A hostile takeover is the acquisition of one company (called the target company) by another (called the acquirer) that is accomplished by going directly to the company's shareholders or fighting to replace management to get the acquisition approved."

In the case of President-elect Trump, he is the acquirer. Voters are the shareholders, and Trump is fighting with governance, Congress and the bureaucracy to install his team and his brand. The trouble with this metaphor is that the US government is not a private enterprise, it is a pluralistic democratic republic. The rules are different.

Given that more people voted against Trump than for him, and given his and his party's penchant for attacking programs and services that help people, sooner than later, he is going to run into a buzz saw of public opinion.

Like him, or not, his actions are inappropriate.

"The Six Ingredients of Trump’s ‘Hostile Takeover Playbook.' 
By FRANK GREGORSKY Published on December 7, 2015

How many political insiders do you know who are opposed to Barack Obama and his nefarious works — IRS abuses, corporate bribes, climate fantasies, bailouts for Iran, importing saboteurs — yet save their peak agitation for Donald Trump, a presidential candidate they say “can’t” be nominated? 
If it “can’t” happen, why sputter to the point of apoplexy? Perhaps because “it” is being defined too conventionally. 
Let’s try a different lens: Trump’s terrain-shifting methods fit the Hostile Takeover Playbook. The rules of corporate raiding are quite different from the ordinary rules of primary politics and seem to fit the mood of over a third of the Republican rank-and-file, who favor Trump over his primary rivals and over the timid “Directors” they sent to Congress to stop the Obama Onslaught. Seen in this light, what we’re watching is one heck of a Proxy Fight for “GOP Incorporated.” 
(1) Trump is a long-suffering “shareholder” himself. He speaks of backing John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. He described the latter as a competent golfer who starts to choke on the final three or four holes. Isn’t that the way one business guy sizes up another? 
(2) His track record is pragmatic and opportunistic. Trump has backed candidates from the other party, including Hillary Clinton for Senator in 2000. Like classic corporate raiders Carl Icahn and T. Boone Pickens, he treats consistency as the hobgoblin of small minds. Lucky for him that many Republicans no longer see “ideological correctness” as Priority One. 
(3) As of June 2015, the stage is set: He opens the Takeover Campaign by floodlighting an issue — one product line, one pulsating niche — starved for attention by the existing Management: Border Control, Sanctuary Cities and most graphically the violent crimes committed by illegals. 
(4) Because every another presidential candidate except Ted Cruz has been evasive on that matter, Trump’s candidacy quickly gains critical mass, which grows further as he shows how to escape the boxes long used by Big Media to constrict Republican officeholders and policy options. 
(5) As personal attacks arrive, he either flicks them off — e.g., handing out Lindsey Graham’s phone number — or responds with tactical nukes. Yes, the latter has made Trump look like a hypersensitive Tweet-monger. But such pinpoint aggression also shows he’s comfortable sustaining a battle. And it strongly indicates he won’t be a calculating controversy-dodger in 2016. 
(6) Trump mixes big-picture opportunity with kitchen-table directness. For the latter: “If I win, we will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism. We will keep America safe. And we will make America great again.” The takeover sketch also includes new suppliers and new customers: Trump can win 25% of the Black vote in 2016, one poll suggested. No national Republican ticket has done that since the 1950s.” 
https://stream.org/six-ingredients-trumps-hostile-takeover-playbook/




How to Select an American President: Tyranical Unpredictability

How to Select an American President: Tyranical Unpredictability: What Donald Trump doesn't get is that he is not a dictator operating a family-controlled enterprise. The US government works in a plura...

Tyranical Unpredictability

What Donald Trump doesn't get is that he is not a dictator operating a family-controlled enterprise. The US government works in a pluralistic democratic republic with a division of power. Trump acts like a tyrant when he "tweets" pompously as if he is a one-man band.

Attacking businesses, one by one, is ludicrous. Oppressively acting as if Trump can without checks and balances (he cannot) makes him an abuser of power. As a result, that makes him a tyrant.

Trump and many American citizens have issues about corporations outsourcing jobs and about dodging taxes, for instance. However, Trump is the pot calling the kettle black.

If he wants to make a difference, he needs to settle down and show discipline that he can produce legislation and rules with Congress that will incentivize businesses while also imposing disincentives for doing the wrong things. He hasn't stepped foot in The White House yet, and he is off to a destabilizing start.

“Trump’s unpredictable style unnerves corporate America 
By Drew Harwell and Rosalind S. Helderman December 6 at 8:49 PM 
The turbulence began Tuesday morning with one of President-elect Donald Trump’s signature tweets of wrath: a public jab at Boeing alleging that the cost of building Air Force One had spiraled out of control.” 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trumps-unpredictable-style-unnerves-corporate-america/2016/12/06/6e3f3976-bbea-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.92cb4fd0dae5&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1


Image from http://controversialtimes.com/


Monday, December 5, 2016