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I am a great fan of Lao Tzu and use the final lines from one of his many discourses on leadership in the header of this blog.

Bennet Simonton, when commenting on a recent post, said, “I like your Lao Tzu quote, by the way. I also like these two.”

“The consummate leader cultivates the moral law and strictly adheres to its methods and discipline.
The moral law causes people to be in complete accord with their ruler so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.” –Sun Tzu 400-320 BC (I’m not a lover of the Art of War. Leaders aren’t (shouldn’t be?) rulers.)

“You Should Value People Most, Yourself As Leader The Least.” –Mencius 400BC (Love this one. Any ideas on how to sell this to today’s oversize corporate egos?)

What’s your favorite description of a leader?

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Its not that Im a big lover of laws and regulations, but theyre necessary these days, since it seems to take the fear of jail to affect the myopia of executives and Boards.

The games played, messes created and the just plain malfeasance done by executives, whether backed or ignored by Directors, have a global reach beyond anything that could be imagined just a few short years ago.

Sarbox has been reviled by corporations since its inception and every effort has been made to water it down, but it still has the very real effect of making execs and directors far more aware and cautious, since their own skin is at risk.

One result is carbox, a far more careful look at the companys carbon footprint.

“Sarbanes-Oxley, or Sarbox, requires companies to disclose any business risks facing the company to investors in public filings… “Sarbanes is a lens through which management and boards should view climate risk,” said Bob O’Connor, a partner with Palo Alto, Calif.-based law firm Wilson Sonsini and member of the firm’s Carbon Counseling Practice. “In viewing climate risk, management and boards must be governed by the standards that Sarbanes establishes with respect to transparency and accountability.”"

The problem with Sarbox and other rules and laws is that they are only passed when there is a very loud public outcry; they are created and passed in outrage.

They pass because they’re designed and brought to vote when emotions are hottoo hot for lobbyists or partisan politics to overcome.

Careful, considered legislation is less likely to pass as is; rather it’s a watered down version acceptable to foes, but falling short of what’s needed that becomes law.

What do you think? Is there any way to change “business as usual?”

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Leadership belongs to those who lead and who leads better than Rush Limbaugh?

He must be a leader since Clear Channel is paying him a one hundred million dollar sign-on bonus and $38 million a year for eight years.

But it seems to me that the only difference between Limbaugh and radicals of other political and moral persuasions around the world is his paycheck and the focus of his hate, bigotry and fanaticism

Announced just in time for our annual celebration of freedom its nice to know that hate, bigotry, and fanaticism are worth more here than in other countriesin the Middle East people spew it for free.

The comments are especially interesting,

If Mr. Grasso can get his huge retirement and “W” can get elected twice, than Mr Limbaugh obviously deserves $400 mil. I still won’t listen to his clipping service rants. P.T. Barnum had nothing on this character. –Jerry McG, Hartford, Ct.

In the immortal words of P.T. Barnum, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” –Jeff Cox, Tacoma, WA

Apparently there is no ceiling to the price Americans are willing to pay for gas. –Expat, Nova Scotia

My best wishes for a safe and happy holiday!

What do you think?

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Dont miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL Tags: bigotry, fanatics, hate, ideologue, Rush Limbaugh

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CandidProf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at a state university. Hell be sharing his thoughts and experience teaching todays students anonymously every Thursday anonymously because thats the only way he can write really candid posts.

Knowing your audience is important for any public speaker. That is particularly true for someone who is teaching. You need to know where your students are coming from.

A few days ago, one of the local high schools brought several bus loads of students to campus for a college day. They wanted us to give presentations to the students on why they should go to college and what sort of things that they could study when they got here. These were summer school students. The students who take summer classes at college are often the better students, the ones who are trying to get ahead.

The summer school students in high school are normally different. A few are working ahead, but most are in summer school because they failed classes and are having to go to summer school in order to advance a grade. These are students who don’t want to be there, and often don’t want to go to school at all. These are what they call “at risk” students.

They are the ones that are unlikely to go to college in the first place, but the school is trying to do the right thing. These are high school freshmen. They still have a chance if they buckle down and study hard for the next few years, but if they continue to not take high school seriously they won’t be ready for college when they finish. Even if they go to college, they are unlikely to finish.

These students are bussed to the college and they are led around to different departments where somebody gives some presentation about their areas. We are given a specified time period. They have me following someone talking about the health sciences. The kids arrive late. The previous presentations have all run over. The person in charge tells us that we’ve got about 1/3 of the time that we were allotted, since they are running late and need to catch the buses.

The person before me gives a standard sort of thing, like probably everyone else had one all day. She has a Powerpoint presentation. She talks about what is offered, what programs of study are available, and what jobs in those fields entail. It is pretty standard; each slide has too much information (lists and such). I know that these can be interesting fields, but the presentation is boring even to me. The kids are falling asleep. She races through her presentation, but it still takes as long as mine was planned to take. There’s no way she could have finished in the allotted time if she’d gone at normal speed.

Then it is my time. (Contd Thursday, July 10th)

Is this a good approach to motivating high school students?

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Check out my other ww: rate of change

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