While walking through Home Depot, my favorite aisles are those aisles with tools, power tools, hand tools, and so forth. My mind always goes on imaginative wanderings, thinking about what those tools will go out into the world and do. Will an inexperienced hand learn on those tools? Will they build grand buildings? Will they destroy? What will those tools help accomplish? The potential held in a tool is as much a mystery as looking at a babe in arms and thinking, what will that soul go forward and do? I never become bored thinking about the potential held in a tool as part of the ongoing saga of humanity.
Without hands, a tool is useless; the tool cannot act independently. Guns do not shoot themselves; hammers do not strike anything alone; thus, we can see that tools need someone to fulfill the measure of their creation. For good or ill, the tool is only ever a force multiplier and requires intention through another party to act. A critical point to understand is the person’s intention of holding the tool, who decides whether that tool will build or destroy, and the value to the owner.
But, this article is about people’s potential; why begin discussing tools? To a leader, each person is a tool requiring training, delegation, trust, and motivation to achieve the measure of their creation. Have you ever witnessed an unskilled manager use, or abuse, their people? My first officer in the US Army National Guard was one of these unskilled managers. The stories and experiences from this manager are legion, fraught with examples of what not to do and the hubris of a person placed into a position of power above their competence level. I have long wondered, what did this officer’s boss think about this officer’s performance?
The first lesson in building people is this; everyone has someone they report to. Do your people know who they report to, and are they comfortable talking to this person? Consider the following:
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” – General Colin Powell
In more than nine years of Military Service, I can count on one hand the number of officers I trusted enough and were approachable sufficient to bring problems to, and I won’t even need the pinky and thumb. In talking to friends and family about this issue, their experiences are similar. Worse, the same problem exists with the non-commissioned officer corps. In my professional pursuits outside military service, I have worked with precisely one boss to whom I felt comfortable bringing issues.
While I strive to be the leader I wish I could take problems to, there is a realization that to my teams, I am being measured, weighed, and if found wanting, will never know I failed to be the leader to whom I would bring problems. Consider this for a moment. A leader could be solving problems and thinking, “My people bring their problems to me QED: I am a good leader.” While never realizing they are detestable and hated by their people. All because their people only bring work-related problems, and then only rarely. In the US Navy, I experienced this exact issue more than once, and the officers all thought they were “God’s gift to their people.” Massive egos, compensating for being vile and despicable.
Leaders, take note:
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- What are the preferred names of the members of your teams?
- When was the last time you shared problems and asked for input from your followers?
- What are you learning daily, and who is teaching you?
- Do you know your followers sufficiently to advise?
- What quirks, talents, skills, or abilities do your people possess that you appreciate?
How you answer these questions determines more than your destiny as a leader and your team’s productivity in achieving business goals. When I begin a new project and select tools, I review what I know about my tools. My hammer has a loose head, but I will not change it out because it has the smoothness of age and is the best hammer for finishing work. This wrench has scratches in the head and a chisel mark in the handle that is exactly 6” and is handy in a pinch. Thus, when used on soft brass, the head will leave marks in the metal on which it is used. All this and more is reviewed, strengths and weaknesses, quirks and peculiarities, all known before engaging in a new project. When you know your tools, their potential is declared, and in communicating their potential, how and where they can be best used becomes common knowledge.
“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.” – General Schwarzkopf
“Ninety-Nine present of leadership failures are failures of character.” – General Schwarzkopf
Several of the worst people I have ever worked for had the moral integrity of a used car salesperson. They could not be trusted, except to be trusted to stab you in the back. No honesty, never forthright, always acting for the downfall of anyone they deemed was competition, and constantly engaged in stealing glory while meting out the worst punishments. While the experiences fulfilled another axiom from General Schwarzkopf, the education was brutal to suffer through.
“You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it, and, therefore, you learn how to do it.” – General Schwarzkopf
These experiences alone would qualify me to write this article; however, through a multitude of academic classes and degrees, I have gained more fundamental qualifications to justify what I am about to declare. If you think a title makes you a leader, you are the problem in your organization’s leadership! In working with newly minted, freshly commissioned, officers in the US Army and the US Navy, I have learned through sad experience too many consider the rank and titles their “Golden Ticket” to being abusers of people through “leadership.” One particular example stands out more clearly from the others.
While serving in the US Navy, my first Chief Engineer was book smart and common sense inept! This man was more dangerous with tools in his hand, even though he could verbatim quote pages from maintenance manuals. Shortly before I arrived on the ship, the Chief Engineer had started a fire on board the vessel in multiple engine and auxiliary rooms by applying shaft brakes to an operating shaft instead of to the shaft that had been locked out and tagged out. The Chief Engineer then compounded his errors by blaming the engineers who had properly locked out/tagged out the shaft needing maintenance. This was a major issue that proved cream rises and trash sinks, and this leader was absolute trash!
The bitter cherry on this crap sundae, the example of the Chief Engineer, was a symptom of a greater sickness and moral desert in the Engineering Department. Chiefs were force-multiplying the Chief Engineers example, and the senior non-commissioned officers were force-multiplying the chiefs example. Who suffered, the lowest enlisted, and the rest of the ship. Maintenace was rarely done properly, watchstanding was hit or miss, and the example plagued the Engineering Department for years after the Chief Engineer was summarily dismissed.
The only redeeming factor from this experience, I learned the lessons of what negative leadership does well. Leaders take note:
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- If character problems lead to poor performance or behaviors detestable in your teams, look no further than the reflection in the mirror for both an answer and a root cause.
- Your followers will observe what you do more than what you say. How are you acting?
- Stop looking up, you are a leader, and your first vision should be to look sideways and make sure your people are on the same level before you look up.
- Before embracing new strategies, first review character!
The following is critical to building people and promoting potential:
“To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak – you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of their strengths.” – General Schwarzkopf
Leadership is a balancing act between helping people take advantage of their strengths and training them to overcome individual weaknesses. Yet, leaders often act like managers, never training, and always micro-managing to shave strengths preventing competition with the leader. Which are the actions of neither a leader nor a manager, but a tyrant! Petty authoritarians acting the role of tyrants produce more harm than war, poverty, and disease combined.
What actions are needed? We conclude with the following:
“TRUE courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job.” – General Schwarzkopf
The job of a leader begins with being a good follower; even if to be a good follower, you must be the loyal opposition standing like a rock doing the right thing in the face of adversity. Moral integrity is critical to being a good leader and is foundational to building people. Leaders take special note and act accordingly:
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- What is your moral code?
- Why do you embrace those morals?
- Do you understand integrity is doing what is right, especially when you think nobody is watching? Do you have moral integrity?
- Do you know your identity, and are you comfortable with your identity?
- What character do you possess, and is that character tied to your morality and integrity?
When you are placed to influence people, build potential by first knowing, and then doing that which is the harder right, than the easier wrong.
© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
With gratitude to 
We conclude with this thought and provide honor to those who are the homemakers! One of the first things I learned as a military dependent is that the military spouses, the homemakers who watch hearth and tend the wounds, are incredible people. As a military servicemember, I learned a new appreciation for my homemaker and the friends and family who supported her in the ultimate career. As a veteran, my appreciation for the role of the ultimate career professional has only deepened and widened. As we go into Thanksgiving celebrations, remember the homemakers, male and female, who, through tending hearth and home, make the job of supporting the homemaker easier and more bearable.
All advanced human actions, the weather, the natural world all operate on the law. Understanding the rules of that law enables all the sciences, arts, music, and advanced human action the world has witnessed as humans have gained and lost civilization throughout history. The following is a primer on the rule of law, a concept oft mentioned in these articles, to advance our collective understanding and provide impetus towards correcting the government.
Tesla understood electricity’s laws and rules better than any other person in history and died too soon for his knowledge of those rules to be both accepted and applied to the human condition. Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla had a unique and troubled history and relationships. Due to the desire to make money on delivering electricity, Tesla’s Tower for providing electricity through the air without a delivery network of wires, substations, and generators, was forced to be suspended, and Edison and Westinghouse beat Tesla into obscurity almost. Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla’s relationship is not the topic; although highly interesting and an excellent example of capitalism working to destroy people, the rule of law and obedience to the understood rules and laws is the topic.
Some may complain; I am speaking only about natural laws, and man’s laws, as applied through government, are different from natural law. To those who suggest this, I say, unequivocally, “Hogwash!” How did man form the government; they watched the natural order and created a mimicry of the natural order into society, and then began working to improve that social order to achieve what nature, or the natural world, does automatically.
America has a lot of rules and laws. In an attempt to capture the width and breadth of laws and rules in America, the following statement is made, “
America, consider the number of “Executive Orders” written by the current and fraudulent president? The UK, consider how long it took to leave the EU and the bureaucrats who continue to thwart the people’s will? Israel, how many elections will it take for you to have a stable government again? German, you get the same question as Israel, and we all know how France and Greece could not form a cohesive government even though their lives depend upon a functioning government.
What does a citizen of these governments do?
Remember, this is but a starting point in changing government, but we must start! Embrace a “Liberty FIRST Culture,” and let us citizens act, for we own the government, not the other way round! Never stop trying, learning, and reaching out. When the government breaks the natural order, death becomes a real possibility, either through war, rebellion, or simply anarchy as government dies.
[Public Service notice: All quotations arrive from Paulo Lionni’s, “The Leipzig Connection.”]
The first of Wundt’s American students to return to the United States was G. Stanley Hall. Hall became known for his intensive studies of child development, directly fostering the child study movement in America. In 1904 Hall published his masterwork, the two-volume “Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education,” welding experimental psychology to child education. Never forget, many of these new K-12 Educators also crossed professional paths with John Dewey, who remained adamantly opposed to literate students. Another name in early K-12 progressive education is Edward Lee Thorndike, who was fond of declaring, “Subjects such as arithmetic, language, and history include content that is intrinsically of little value.”
The shift in defining education changed the teacher’s role in the classroom. The insistence upon modern psychology having a free reign in the K-12 classrooms meant that the students were always being experimented upon, measured, sensory gratification induced, and socialized into education, not taught. I have read accounts of progressive education experiences from England in the early 1900s, where the learning experiences meant some kid got pummeled by a bully, and the bully and victim had to relate what they learned from the experience. Unfortunately, the same tripe is occurring in today’s classrooms. While substituting, I experienced continual class time interruptions for standardized tests, surveys, information-gathering research, etc. All examples of modern psychology’s influence still treating K-12 students as pieces of information to be harvested instead of minds needing education. My K-12 years were spent taking standardized tests, one in the fall, one in the spring, a big one at fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades, not mentioning SAT, ACT, ASVAB, etc.
I asked full-time teachers what they thought and was surprised that their frustrations were not more significant. One particularly fine comment has stuck with me, “You either learn to live with frustration, or you get out of teaching.” I am a third option kind of person; I want to change the system, save children’s potential, and keep the American Heritage alive for another generation.
Admittedly, the most basic and essential skill a child needs is the ability to read. Reading is paramount in everything a person does; math, science, history, language, etc., all depend upon the ability to read well. Yet, Cattell removed the learning and honing experiences in reading, and the world has been worse off. But, to refuse whole-word memorization and teach phonics in a classroom is a sin comparable to eating your own child. Want an interesting fact, whole-word memorization, also known as sight-reading, has been confirmed through peer-reviewed research as not increasing literacy rates. Since Dewey was adamantly opposed to literate students, the psychologists won, and phonics was replaced.
Who determines “undesirable hereditary traits?” Is poverty an undesirable hereditary trait? If so, then which gene is the poverty gene? Which race is “undesirable” and needs “bred out of the human genome?” Which “disabilities” are “undesirable characteristics” dyslexia has been made a handicap, injuries that lead to handicaps are those “undesirable?” Who chooses “selective mating?” How are selective mating couples selected? The abortion movement and Margaret Sanger are mentioned here due to the stress of Eugenics upon student education beliefs:
For example, a child is handed an assignment book. Keeping the book clean and neat earns them a star, doing assignments earns them a star, being clean, and a myriad of other “socially accepted stimuli” will earn them stars, with the promise of a huge reward at the end of the year for those who collect the most stars. Programmed behavior became integral in pedagogical instruction methods, not training the mind to independence, responsibility, and accountability. Like Pavlov, Thorndike wanted to stimulate a programmed response, controlling remotely those who were deemed lesser. Including anybody who disagreed with their aims, methods and was not converted to Wundtian methods.
Forward action is explicit, we must stand against the tyranny occurring in the classroom, rooting out the progressive education that was sold, and enslaved us, or our children will lose this precious country. There is no third option here, we either win the classroom and remain a Republic, or we lose the classroom and lose the republic. First, we must learn and raise our literacy rates. Second, we educate our children and increase their literacy rates. Third, we challenge, respectfully and legally, the actions of those on school boards.
An Educational Assistant (EA; Teacher’s Aide) was called upon to be a substitute teacher in Seventh Grade math; because APS is bereft of substitute teachers and is experiencing a teacher drought. The EA is not a licensed substitute teacher; thus, when asked how this is legal, to have an EA substituting outside her regular work and expertise, she said she “didn’t know” and then acknowledged this is standard practice. The EA went on to further elaborate saying that when she has asked for a substitute teacher because her teacher was out or off, she had a very low probability of ever getting a licensed substitute teacher and generally had to teach the class, with no extra money for doing extra work. Why does the NM Professional Licensure classify licenses, and charge horrendous fees for licensure, if EA’s can be “regularly called upon to substitute teach?” My friend has worked in four other states in the US as an Educational Assistant/Teacher’s Aide, and has never been licensed to be a substitute teacher; yet, somehow in APS, she can be regularly called upon to substitute teach.
With a total grant budget of $1.6 Billion, no numbers have been found for the amount of tax revenue APS is handed, the school district is certainly well funded. From the 2018-2019 school survey on APS performance, we find a common theme from the citizens to the APS school district, reduce administration costs. The answer from APS school administrators was to, “Increase Counselors, Social Workers, Security and other staff to support our student’s mental and physical health … Increase Custodians across the schools [sic].” The Albuquerque Journal reports that APS is the lead agency for taking tax dollar revenues. With Bernalillo County and City of Albuquerque, plus property taxes, all being collected at ridiculous rates, APS must be getting a significant chunk of revenue; still, APS demands more money “For the children.”
During the summer of 2019, for the first time in 15-years, APS full-time licensed teachers received a pay raise. Not for the first time in 15-years, the teachers saw a slew of additional requirements, mandates, and reductions in alternative licensure to “pay” for the teacher pay raise. All while the school board received yet another pay increase. The voters have already told APS NO on a slew of tax increases and bond sale schemes; however, in November 2019, APS is trying again to raise taxes, raise money, and raise administrator salaries. Albuquerque, the next time Bernalillo County, City of Albuquerque, or APS asks you for more money, ask them when they will deliver education to students, a reduced administration, and fix the teacher drought? It is blatantly apparent to me that when APS, City of Albuquerque, or Bernalillo County claim, “It’s for the children,” they really mean they want a pay raise on your blood, sweat, and tears; tell them no!
Having just completed a project that saw me leading a team in a call center, I want to make something clear; quick fixes and flavor of the month philosophies do not work. I cannot stress this enough; yet, the practice continues to the detriment of call center employees and the organizations served by call centers. Flavor of the month philosophies is the latest bestseller to fix the problems in business. We have all seen these programs including, FISH, WAIT, Strengths Quest, and so much more. These ideas are good ideas, and they possess value, but when changed monthly, these programs, never do more than briefly mark the surface intellect of the call center. I am not disparaging these ideas in the least; let me elaborate as to why the flavor of the month idea fails.
Organizational change begins with information output; then collect data, preferably through listening and observation while doing the work; interpreting the data includes obtaining data, evaluating meaning, deciphering intent, and understanding value. Please note, the assumptions should not be made in a vacuum and could be wrong; thus, always return to the data producers and ask questions to ensure mutual understanding. Once conclusions are mutually understood, they become beliefs; but, don’t stop until beliefs become actions.
Corporate training continues to be a difficult topic to describe, mainly because everyone seems to “know” what training is, but cannot understand what it is not, even when receiving inferior corporate training. As an adult educator, schooled and experienced in corporate training, let’s discuss corporate training, the principles, the need, and the student.
ial for good or ill to the bottom line of an action, process, tool, employee, etc. Green money is cold, hard, cash, and the food of bottom line health. What is the potential of cross-training employees? If done properly, incalculable positive results and consequences are forthcoming. If done incorrectly, immeasurable adverse effects and consequences will abound. Leading to a stunning observation; if enough blue money is burned, green money evaporates, and the business leaders have no idea how or why the bottom line is vanishing, and market share is shrinking. Since training is all about increasing an employee’s potential and runs the risk of the employee leaving the company, the potential costs and benefits remain difficult to quantify in dollars and cents.
often the problem in lost bottom-line or dropping market share is not found in green money costs but in blue money waste. When costs need cutting, always look first for lost potential and save the potential first. If the potential waste is not stopped first, the blue money will continue to burn and will morph into different budget areas because the potential lost is a raging forest fire untended and burning green money.
DNC-Consulting 