Why we can not find a presidential candidate with honesty and integrity?

Why we can not find a presidential candidate with honesty and integrity?

Q: Which ONE of the following qualities are you MOST looking for in the next U.S. president?

• Toughness - 279 (5%)
• Decisiveness - 438 (8%)
• Integrity - 2,921 (56%)
• Intelligence - 826 (16%)
• Experience - 264 (5%)
• Fairness - 458 (9%)
• Compassion - 56 (1%)
• Morality
• Accountability
• Honesty
• Humility
• Sense of Humor
• Leadership and vision
• Someone with no hidden agenda
• Someone who cares about the country and its citizens
• Someone who upholds the law

assertiveness/strength, decisiveness, honesty, morality, the ability to comprehend the rationale supporting opposing viewpoints, an ability to recognize self limitations and mistakes, accountability, kindness and compassion as well as a sense of humor are all essential characteristics

“Harry Truman said, 'A man not honorable in his marital relations is not usually honorable in any other.' Some voters don't feel comfortable supporting a candidate who's not remained faithful to his or her spouse. Can you understand their position?"

Look, this is really dicey territory. Let me say it this way. I think that one's character, one's honesty, one's integrity, is a habit of the mind. I don't think people can be dishonest in one aspect of their life, and compartmentalize it and be viewed as being honest in other parts of life.

If the tendency is to cut a corner; if the tendency is not to tell the truth; the probability is, that in a moment of crisis, where that person's interests are at stake, they're likely revert to the bad tendencies. If the habit of the heart and the habit of the mind is, that whether you're dealing with promising the parking attendant you're going to be back in 20 minutes. Or you're telling your wife something, or you are going to the nation and making a commitment.

There is -- habits are habits. And they all relate to, seems to me, how an individual values what they say as being important and relevant. Everybody makes mistakes. I don't have a -- you know, I don't pass harsh judgments on people who make -- my dad used to say; very good people do very bad things sometimes. But it's more of whether it's a pattern or a mistake.

And I think that it's awfully hard to be -- have a pattern of dishonesty in relationships, married or otherwise, and be reliable in difficult circumstances where other people are depending on the veracity of what you say.

Question:

Should marital infidelity be part of the equation, in your view, when a voter is evaluating a candidate?

Answer:

I think that's for every voter to decide. Voters make -- as they should -- make decisions relative to the leaders based on their needs. The need of the voter. And if you have someone who is, you need someone to be a great general to win a battle and he is a no-good guy, you'd never want to show up for dinner. You might very well say, I'd vote for that guy to be the general. I'd vote that person or that woman to be the -- you know, the governor, or whatever.

I think people make very rational decisions based upon whether or not the character flaw in the individual they're looking at relates to something that affects their lives or the life of their country. And for some people, the overwhelming requirement, overwhelming characteristic they want is honesty. And that would be a difficult thing for ... the voter who has that as the highest priority, to vote for someone likes that.

But it's an interesting thing. I remember asking ... one of the people who's ... a smart guy, is this guy Frank Luntz, who does these groups. And I remember hearing him speak and saying that the polling data shows that the characteristic -- he asked the question generically.

What characteristic do you think the American people most look for in their ... in their president? And I immediately said, honesty, integrity. In my mind. And he said, no, no. Then he asked the audience. And they said -- the simple most important thing they're looking for is resilience. Someone who can take a "hit" and get back up and move on. That's an interesting  -- phenomena.

I've been in public life most of my adult life, and I wouldn't have said that. But you think about it. It's probably one of those characteristics that gives people confidence that you can lead the country through what they know are going to be ups and downs. But, so, that's a long answer to your short question.

I think that, for some people, if honesty, if the -- if absolute integrity of the character of a person you're looking for to be president is the criteria for you, then I think it probably matters a lot. If it is determining who can best drive this train right now at this moment, it may or may not be.

As we endeavor to live the great American leaders’ dream, let Integrity and Honesty be our bedrock; a real sign post to responsible American leadership. Remember you can not stop injustice in society, but you can fairly treat those with whom you do business. You can not stop blood shed in the world, but you can donate blood and save somebody’s life. You can not bring about world peace but you can live at peace with your neighbors and members of your family.  And finally you can not compel others to be honest but you can keep your word and live in integrity.

What matters to you most when choosing a presidential candidate?

1. honesty & integrity

2. someone who will defend our constitution, our borders and our sovereignty.

3. someone who knows the political system and can actually get things done.

4. a good public speaker who can inspire, motivate and unite our very divided country.

5. someone who can earn the respect and support of the people

6. someone who practices what he preaches

Do you think such a person exists?

If yes, can that person maintain those traits, once in office?

If no, what can the people do?

Should the Electoral College be eliminated?

How to build a culture of accountability

 

How to build a culture of accountability

Firstly, let’s clarify what culture is?

Culture is embodied in the phrase “this is the way we do things around here”. More precisely, “what people perceive they have to do to fit in, be accepted and rewarded around here”? Culture is the sum of the behavioral norms of the workgroup, team, division or organization. It is relatively common to have different cultures between teams or divisions within the one organization. These are referred to as sub-cultures and they can range from being marginally different from the culture of the overall organization to being quite radically different. This has implications for not only understanding an organization’s culture but also for managing it effectively.

Why is culture important?

Have you ever tried to stay within the speed limit when everyone around you is driving at speeds well over the speed limit? The behavioral norms of a group can strongly influence the behavior of the individual. Culture defines the behavioral norms (accepted behavior) in a group, team, division or organization. In turn, behavior underpins the performance (what gets done, when it gets done and how it gets done) of the organization and perceptions (reputation) of that organization.

A Framework for Managing Culture

While managing culture requires a range of approaches and cannot simply be managed by dictating the culture you want, it is essentially about managing messages. The objective is to ensure messages are consistently conveyed through aligned behaviors (especially of key people), systems and symbols.

What is accountability?

The key concept is the notion of having a sense of ‘responsibility’ and a willingness to be ‘answerable’ to others and is the difference between a group and a team. In our experience, the most important factor in developing accountability is the quality of leadership and management (and this is the only aspect leaders or managers are really in ‘control’ of). Good leaders and managers generate high levels of accountability in their people.

Whilst organizations should plan to recruit the right people in terms of their willingness to be team players and be accountable; recruitment is only the starting point. The real key is what leaders and organizations do from that point onwards. Good recruits can be ‘lost’ in poorly lead organizations with unsupportive cultures. Many managers see accountability as being attributed to an individual’s values; therefore they blame the individual and underestimate their own role in creating an accountability culture. In doing this, a great opportunity to build a high performance organization is missed.

Responsibility is not blame

It is important not to mistake responsibility for blame as they are diametrically opposed concepts. Where one exists the other will not remain. Responsibility is the ability to make a response; it is future and action focused. Blame is past focused and is more about the ego – isolating people, teaching them a lesson, point scoring or making them feel guilty/bad than it is about accountability. Guilt and fear is not a good basis for developing accountability.

A Framework for Building an Accountability Culture

We see the steps in building an accountability culture as being:

1. Building trust as the foundation:

The four key elements of trust are

·        Openness/transparency (giving and accepting feedback, transparency in decision making)

·        Reliability (doing what you say you are going to do)

·        Congruence (saying what you mean)

·        Acceptance (acceptance of others and acceptance of differences).

2. Engage your people: meaningful involvement with alignment. Remember you can’t truly and sustainably motivate another person but you can engage them. It is through engagement that motivation will grow.

3. Ownership: once the first two elements are in place people start to ‘take’ ownership they start to think and act like owners. (As this happens the future possibility for selling down equity, as part of the firm’s succession plan, becomes a reality).

The level of accountability is directly related to the level of trust, engagement and ownership that exists within an organization. Certainly work at improving all levels simultaneously; however remember higher levels in the pyramid cannot progress any faster than the base they are built on, there are no short cuts. Without trust and engagement no performance measures and rewards will be particularly effective over the medium to long term you cannot buy accountability. The key to building a culture of accountability is to find a way to lead people without ruling them.

Trust in government

Trust in government

The ability of governments and the global community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, ensure security, and promote adherence to basic standards of human rights depends on people's trust in their government. However, public trust in government and political institutions has been declining in both developing and developed countries in the new millennium. One of the challenges in promoting trust in government is to engage citizens, especially the marginalized groups and the poor, into the policy process to ensure that governance is truly representative, participatory, and benefits all members of society. Where governance processes are exclusionary and basic services are not accessible, intrastate conflicts and violence within the country can negatively impact national and global security and peace. Weak systems and processes of governance tend to erode trust in government. Within this context, the issue of how to build trust in government and trust between socio-economic actors has emerged as an increasingly important issue in both developed and developing economies.

Government is abandoning, or even overlooking, the great significance of its domestic policies

Government is abandoning, or even overlooking, the great significance of its domestic policies

But it is important that those who hear and read this message should in no way confuse that approach with any thought that our Government is abandoning, or even overlooking, the great significance of its domestic policies. (This seems to be the case)
The social and economic forces which have been mismanaged abroad until they have resulted in revolution, dictatorship and war are the same as those which we here are struggling to adjust peacefully at home.
You are well aware that dictatorships--and the philosophy of force that justifies and accompanies dictatorships--have originated in almost every case in the necessity for drastic action to improve internal conditions in places where democratic action for one reason or another has failed to respond to modern needs and modern demands.
It was with far-sighted wisdom that the framers of our Constitution brought together in one magnificent phrase three great concepts--"common defense," "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility."
More than a century and a half later we, who are here today, still believe with them that our best defense is the promotion of our general welfare and domestic tranquility.
Our constitutional rights are abused and ignored - it seems money is KING and the hell with everyone else.
But Special Interests and Corporate America has taken over our great nation.
We are in the worst economic crisis since the depression and a diminished world power with dire consequences to our citizens.

The Survival of Humankind, and Improving the World, Society, and Yourself!

The Survival of Humankind, and Improving the World, Society, and Yourself!

Yet who can the world trust to be idealistic and moral enough to help all of humanity and the environment, and at the same time, be practical enough to make extremely difficult decisions that can and will harm a great deal of people?
Humanitism is a philosophy for the continued survival and perpetuation of the human race. Humanitists (people who believe in humanitism) do not have the luxury of trying again after failing. Humanitists must be more vigilant than environmentalists, because we will not have a second chance at survival.
The survival of humanity is more important than the well being of our environment; however the environment is necessary for humanity to survive. That does not give the right for big businesses to continue doing whatever they want with only minimal or no consideration for the environment, so long as our surroundings support human life. We need to protect the environment for the continued survival and future well being of humanity. Keep in mind that without the human race, there would be no one and no need to protect the environment. Therefore, humanitism is more important than environmentalism.
It seems that in the past 50 years the human race has pursued the money train, that such desire for financial gain has caused society to ignore and abandon honesty, values, morality and candidness etc.
The race to financial gain has caused our leaders and the executives of the corporate world to disregard laws, ethics and the caring for each other and humanity as a whole. Deception, fraud and outright theft are their new motto all for the sake of financial gain, personal ego, fame and success.
It seems that for the sake of success and profit people will step on anybody, family friends, co-workers and anyone who stands in their way or take advantage of anyone that could help them achieve what they want.
That is not to say that honest and compassionate people who care do not exist, where honesty and integrity is a way of life for them, but they are a very small minority.
As we begin the year 2011, we should all look at the past and decide with determination that everyone will from now on contribute to the betterment of humanity, society and mankind.
We should all learn to live with each other and respect each other for the sustainability of mankind. Humanity should strive for harmony, tranquility and peace
Compiled by: YJ Draiman – 1/5/2011
PS
The human survival instinct prods us to outlast afflictions and, if circumstances permit, to reach old age. Nothing, of course, could be more quintessentially natural than aging.
These ideas stated within are where mankind has already been slowly diluted and polluted over time. Aristotle knew it, he said Tradesmen "money-makers" should not be accepted as citizens because they were pre occupied with making a profit and would not do what was right for the people regardless to what they know is right. Mankind knows wrong from right every day of the week. It's time to eliminate apathy and Encourage, nay demand this world to act on what hey know is right. We are on the cusp of falling towers the great or the evil. I will not take one day off, I will not hesitate to state my opinion and I will not hesitate to Work everyday to stifle the ignorance and enlighten all. Light up the darkness. Time to act, not tomorrow, not two days from now, not a year from now but right now! I refuse to digress. We can do this. We have a responsibility to all of mankind before us. And to all of mankind to come. I have had these feelings for years. Please spread the word, spread the love, and pay it forward. Everything hinges upon this one event. It will be the most beautiful thing to occur in history if we will just stand up and fight for what we believe in. And patiently educate those in the manner of what is right and what is wrong and how to act. We are all affected. Together as one we will survive. This is my generation.  I still have the most massive compulsion to do everything in my power to help. We must serve as an example and an inspiration to current and future generations.

American economy in crises - a long time coming

American economy in crises - a long time coming

When a country and its society import more than they export for over a quarter of a century, it is bound to erod the economy to its primate state.

We have only ourselves to blame, what goods and products are we exporting, what goods and services are produced in the USA, the answer is very little by comparison.

In the past 50 years as our population has increased, technology advanced, we have become a nation that consumes enormous amounts of resources, we shop for competitive prices. Corporate America is constantly looking to increase the bottom line.

Most of the goods for and by Americans and its companies are produced overseas and in the past decade with the advancement of telecommunications, many of the services sector are also imported.

The increased costs of energy over the past 10 years, has affected the economy to unimaginable comprehension.

This economic activity has eroded our economy to its core. It seems that the situation is getting worse every year. American debts are increasing beyond our wildest dreams, endangering the future economic vitality of our future generation.

I hope it is not too late for our society to recognize the graveness of our economic predicament and its resolve to take appropriate action to stem the tide of our economic downturn.

Americans are a nation of great technology and knowhow. We must utilize that technology and our resources to find new means to regain our economic independence.

We must face and implement fiscal responsibility, both by the government and the population with its infrastructure of corporate America.

It is no longer an option, it is a must if we as a nation want to survive and retain our way of life and economic vitality.

Inflation, recession and financial crises are here. Let us take the bull by the horn, initiate immediate actions to minimize and hopefully reverse our economic crises.

YJ Draiman, Northridge, CA.

PS

The US economy has enormous momentum. Metaphorically speaking, if someone turned off the locomotive that drives the US economy, the economy would go on for miles before anyone would likely notice something was wrong. But something has been wrong for many years. Is there really hope for the future? Maybe. But the terrible truth is that no one really knows. But if there is hope, we're already on the wrong track. And that has to change..