political pundits | CorporateIntel

This post will be short and to the point. If you haven’t voted already, you must do so before Election Day. Who am I to tell you what you must do? I’m your fellow citizen. Your vote is equal to mine. If my vote matters, so does yours.

Almost exactly two years ago at this time, I wrote a piece called Ten Bad Reasons Not to Vote. There is no reason for me to write it again. I don’t have more to say on the subject, other than to repeat it with deeper conviction. If your vote mattered during the midterm elections, it matters more now.

There’s a broad consensus building that there really aren’t many (any?) undecided voters left in the nation. With the nearly two-year-long assault on our senses, how could anyone still be undecided? To the extent there remains a cohort of undecided voters, many political pundits presume they are only undecided in whether they will bother to vote, rather than how to cast their votes. Maybe this is true, maybe not. Each of us has an easy way to prove the pundits wrong.

Voting is a right a great majority of the world is still waiting to gain. I think it is also a responsibility. Perhaps the notion of democracy is so ingrained in our culture as “normal” that we forget how precious a gift it is. Elections provide us with the ability to change the course of history. It’s easy to become cynical and think your vote doesn’t matter. Nothing good was ever much accomplished by cynicism.

Yes, elections and ballot collections are imperfect. Yes, vast amounts of cash spent on media to confuse us or change our minds with partial truths or lies can be demoralizing. Yes, gerrymandering can render some individual votes moot by partisan concentration in manipulated geographic districts. Yes, the Electoral College is a can of worms designed hundreds of years ago for a very different population map that probably needs reform.

As real as those obstacles might be to the perfect selection of candidates, none of them is substantial enough to cause you to vacate your precious right to exercise your vote. Excuses are endless. The choice to participate in an election despite any arguments to the contrary is what matters.

Vision is what changes the world. Courage is what changes the world. Aspiration is what changes the world. Engagement is what changes the world. Participation is what changes the world.

Do not abdicate your right or responsibility to be a part of change. Respect and cherish this right with whatever flaws that might cause you to consider otherwise.

Am I selfish in asking you to play your role in our democracy? Perhaps. Many key races will be determined by staggeringly few votes. Some of these contests are national, some are hyperlocal. When opinions are polarized, numbers matter more than ever. We live by the adjudication of majority rule. To get that majority, opposing views need the numbers to prevail. I am convinced if we get out the vote, we will see better outcomes than if we stop encouraging each other to let our voices be heard.

Your voice matters. Your vote matters. The results of all elections matter. There are many ways to get your ballot in the box, it should not be a burden or inconvenience. Don’t kick the can. You must vote.

And please tell others to do the same. Choice is still up to us if we choose to exercise it. If you haven’t already, exercise that choice before you might be faced with results you chose not to impact.

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Image: Pixabay

Those distant from decisions often have many opinions to offer.

Sports journalists tell team managers what they should have done in yesterday’s game and what trades are worth making for the second half of the season.

Political pundits tell elected incumbents how to vote on legislation if they want to be reelected and opposing candidates what to include in their platforms.

Business columnists tell CEOs what companies to buy, what assets to unload, where to cut costs, and how to allocate dividends.

It’s all noise to those who are supposed to be listening.

If you sit in the seat, you listen to customers, team members, mentors, data, research, and the instincts that develop as a result of all these factors over a lifetime. You don’t look to those who sit on the sidelines and fire in potshots.

Until you own the outcome, until you have felt the weight of what could result as the effect of your decision, you are largely consuming air when you tell us what we should do. We may be unsure, but you don’t know.

“Carry the bag” is a term most senior leaders understand. It dates back to the days of door-to-door salespeople who carried their wares in satchels, literally bearing the weight of the product to be sold from one household pitch to another. Today we think of it as maintaining a sales quota, but despite the fancy titles top business people may hold, when you’re in charge, if you don’t deliver the sales required to achieve agreed goals, everything else in a company quickly becomes a lot less critical.

The scope of sales responsibility in a company transcends the actual exchange of dollars for goods and services. You could be selling a new strategy to an ownership group or board. You could be selling your vision for change to public or private investors. You could be selling a new initiative to employees whose buy-in and expertise are critical to transforming an idea into action.

In every instance of competent management, whoever owns the responsibility for transformation takes the matter seriously, understanding that ideas often are a dime a dozen and execution matters more than lofty commentary. Actions have consequences. Outcomes are unpredictable and even fleeting, but regardless of win or lose, whoever owns the decision to take action owns accountability for its effect.

A company can grow, shrink, be reinvented, or become obsolete based on sometimes unpredicted and cascading ripple effects of chess moves made real. If you’ve ever carried one of these bags, you know the difference between opinions argued in a bar and making a hard call you can never completely predict.

When I read a columnist’s assessment of a complex situation and see their confident, succinct remarks on what a CEO should do at any moment in time, I wonder what audience they are targeting. Are their words just filling space on deadline, at best a form of toss-away entertainment? Are they setting a beat to reference in a subsequent story when a company doesn’t heed their wisdom to say, “I told you so?” Do they think their opinions will rally shareholders to align with their insights and lobby a company under their influence?

They know top management isn’t their audience. Top management thinks differently about opinions. If a critic is wildly wrong about something strategic, no one cares. If top management is wrong about something strategic, a lot of people care.

I often see former bosses of mine and accomplished colleagues receive such advice in publications of global note and otherwise. They don’t need this kind of advice. They are way ahead of you. They are getting advice they trust — and still carrying the bag in ways their public critics could seldom imagine.

I read a number of newspapers and newsletters on a daily business. I am always looking for insights. When a great journalist reports researched news credibly and objectively, then puts it in some form of relative or historical context, I am grateful. It helps me form opinions about tangential matters I can test in all kinds of ways.

It’s also immensely helpful when a disciplined reporter exposes lies, scams, market manipulation, and other illegal activity — all tentpoles of investigative journalism. When John Carreyrou shined a bright light on Theranos in the Wall Street Journal, he provided a public service. Eyes on hidden crime are noble, particularly the bravest voices who endure their own criticism until proven accurate.

When instead a lazier writer suggests the headline, “The list of X things this troubled CEO must do now,” I turn the page. If I could, I would hand that individual a bag and tell them to come back when their sales quota was met. I’m sure they would reject that notion as unrealistic and irrelevant, not their job. That would make my point.

There are many ways to be humbled, nothing quite so much as an unanticipated outcome. When you don’t get what you thought you would, you’re still left holding the bag — until you’re not. That’s the difference between an offered opinion and a real decision. One fades away and is forgotten instantly. The other is reality.

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Photo: Pexels