What Is Executive Presence Anyway?

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A cabinet official at the Lincoln White House was startled to see the commander in chief engaged in a rather mundane task: “Mr. President,” he asked, “are you shining your own shoes?”

Without taking a beat, Lincoln replied: “You wouldn’t want me to shine someone else’s, would you?”

This story tells us that our 16th president was unpretentious, humble and quick-witted. Those traits add up to executive presence — an elusive quality that is easy to recognize but hard to define.

A quick search on amazon reveals that there are nearly 140,000 books on leadership. So where do we begin? Start by asking yourself a very, very tough question, the sort that will stun a room into silence: Why would anyone want to be led by you?

Would your colleagues use any of these words to describe you: inspiring, motivating, commanding, credible, confident, or compelling?

Take a lesson from Michelangelo. He wouldn’t just pick any old slab of marble for his statues. On the contrary, he’d comb through the quarries in Carrara — then, as now, a great source of high-quality stone. As a neo-platonist, he believed that he wasn’t imposing a concept on the marble, but merely extracting what was already there. The same is true of great managers. They don’t draw, they draw out.

On the other hand, strong leaders can also be tough, but only when necessary. As General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said, “There are 7 to 12 times yearly when you have to say, ‘you’re doing it my way.’ If you do it 18 times, the good people will leave. If you do it 3 times, the company falls apart.”

Determining when to act autocratically is the hard part. As Wharton Professor Michael Useem wrote, “Research confirms that executives are overly audacious when they have to make decisions on products and markets with which they are least familiar.” He also cites the Marine Corp’s 70 percent solution for decision making: “If an officer has 70 percent of the information, has performed 70 percent of the analysis, and feels 70 percent confident, he or she is instructed to decide.” If you can get to 70%, then go for it!

One of the cornerstones of executive presence is recognizing that you are on stage all the time. In his book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, Robert Stephen Kaplan notes that the people in your company will notice if your door is open or closed, where you sit, whether you stay in your office or walk around and so on. Awareness of the image you are projecting is key.

As is visibility. Former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, for instance, traveled around the globe six to seven times a year in a continuous, high level conversation. He noted that “More than 200,000 of our employees have college degrees. The CEO can’t say to them, ‘get in line and follow me.’ Or ‘I’ve decided what your values are.’ They’re too smart for that.”

There is a deep emotional component to this. If you’re not conveying passion, you are not projecting presence. Let’s take a journey inside Laurence Olivier’s mind, as he explains how he prepared to take the stage as Richard III. Note that he wasn’t acting, he was becoming:

I glanced around the stage. This was to be my world for the next 3 hours… Last questions: was I prepared? Of course I was. The spider in the stomach again. God, I should have gone to the lavatory. Deep breath… perfect. Control… control… everything geared to a fine edge, sharp as a razor… Up went the curtain and there we were: the audience and Richard, face to face for the first time. The warmth from a full house is amazing. As the curtain rises, it rushes across the footlights like a great giant’s breath. It fills your nostrils. ‘Now is the winter…’ I was inside the skull, looking out through Shakespeare’s eyes.

Never underestimate the value of theater. It worked for George Washington in 1783, as the Revolutionary war was ending. When army officers heard that the government might not have enough money to pay them, they were ready to rebel. After a speech, Washington started to read a letter explaining the US’s predicament, then fumbled in his pockets. He pulled out glasses that the men had never seen him wear.

Washington said, “I’ve already grown gray in the service of my country, and now I am going blind.” The officers were so moved that they abandoned the rebellion. Washington may not have really needed those glasses but the dramatic impact was certainly powerful.

Above all, don’t hog the credit. In Good to Great, Jim Collins says transformational leaders “look out the window to apportion credit… when things go well” and “look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.”

Ever heard of Irving Thalberg? He took over MGM at 26 and served as the model for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Last Tycoon. Though Thalberg produced some 400 films, he refused credits. In fact, his name appeared on the screen perhaps only once, after he died at the untimely age of 37. As he said, “Credit you give yourself is not worth having.”

Source for Lincoln story: Speak Like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln, p. 20.

Source for Michael Useem quotes: “Decision Making as Leadership Foundation,” in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, pp. 512 and 514.

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The Incredible Arrogance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Crowd

There are few policies that show the split between elite opinion and everyone else as clearly as trade policy. On trade we see a remarkable convergence of the leadership of both parties against their base, with the elites firmly behind the leadership against what they view as the ignorance of the masses.

As is often the case, the ignorance rests largely on the side of the elites. If that seems surprising, after all these are highly educated people, remember these are people who could not see the $8 trillion housing bubble whose crash wrecked the economy. There is little reason to believe their understanding of economics has improved much in the last seven years.

For the elites, trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are a no-brainer. After all, do we want autarky? Globalization is a natural process and standing in the way is like trying to block the flow of the Amazon River.

They acknowledge that some people get hurt, like autoworkers and textile workers, and the more liberal ones feel really bad about that. But the answer is not to try to turn back the clock on globalization; the answer is a few dollars in trade adjustment assistance to try to get these workers prepared for the global economy.

There are many reasons why this understanding is wrong, most importantly that the losers are not a few people who lost factory jobs, but rather tens of millions of workers who get lower wages because of the competition with low paid workers in the developing world. But an even more fundamental error is the arrogant elite’s idea that globalization is somehow a natural process.

The problem with elite view is that there is nothing remotely natural about the course globalization has taken. It’s true that workers in developing countries like Mexico and China are willing to work in factories for much lower pay than our factory workers. But it is also true that these countries have millions of very smart people who would be thrilled to have the opportunity to train to U.S. standards and work in the United States as doctors, lawyers, or in other highly paid professions, at much lower pay than our current crew.

Our trade deals could have been written to facilitate the process of putting our most highly professionals in competition with workers from the developing world, rather than autoworkers and textile workers. This would have meant producing clear and transparent standards for joining these professions.

It also would have meant a testing process whereby people in the developing world could test in their home country to become certified as a doctor or lawyer in the United States, thereby reducing the enormous cost (to them) of having to come to the United States for these tests. (The test givers could be from the United States to ensure the tests were administered fairly, if we didn’t trust the home country.) They could then work in their profession in the United States just like someone who was born and educated here.

This process of putting our professionals in competition with the developing world is every bit as natural as putting our manufacturing workers in competition. It also would have led to enormous gains to growth of the type trade economists like to tout. But because professionals have so much more political power, we don’t allow this type of globalization. (If you’re worried about brain drain from the developing world, it is easy to compensate the home countries for the loss of educated workers. Even an economist can figure that one out.)

Another way in which our trade deals depart from the natural course of things is that they increase some forms of protectionism, most importantly patent and copyright protection. Contrary to what you hear from the drug industry and elite news outlets, patents and copyrights are not part of the natural order. These are monopolies granted by the government for the purpose of promoting innovation and creative work.

These are not the only mechanisms for promoting innovation and creative work, and it is certainly arguable that they are not the best, but most importantly they are forms of government intervention, not just the natural workings of the market. This point is especially important in the case of prescription drugs where patents can raise the price of a drug by a factor of one hundred compared to the free market price.

For example, the Hepatitis-C drug Solvaldi sells for $84,000 per treatment in its patent protected version in the United States. A high quality generic version is available in India for less than $1,000. If patent monopolies raise the price by a factor of 100, it has the same effect on the market as imposing a tariff of 10,000 percent. Markets are too dumb to know that patents are a form of government intervention that we are supposed to like, whereas tariffs are bad intervention that we are supposed to dislike.

This means that in addition to making drugs unaffordable to people who need them for their health, patent monopolies lead to all the sorts of corruption that textbook economics predicts from incredibly high tariffs. In the case of prescription drugs corruption takes the form of lying about the safety and effectiveness of drugs, which leads to bad health outcomes and sometimes death.

But the pro-TPP elites don’t like to talk about such things. Their trade deals are simply good and modern, and if you don’t agree they will call you an anti-trade protectionist and all sorts of other bad things. That’s what elites do when they don’t have a real argument.

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Kevin McCarthy Warns Senate Against Extending Patriot Act Without Reforms

WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned the Senate on Monday against pushing through a renewal of surveillance powers for the National Security Agency without reforms approved last week by the House.

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation to tone down surveillance the NSA can conduct under the Patriot Act by ending bulk collections of ordinary Americans’ phone data.

The House vote sets up a fight with the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to bring forward a two-month extension of the current law, set to expire June 1.

McCarthy on Monday advised against that, saying the House vote sends a strong message supporting reforms.

“The Senate should look at that,” McCarthy said.

“When you get 338 (House votes), I think we are meeting somebody in the middle,” McCarthy told reporters Monday, when asked if House GOP leaders and McConnell could find common ground. “When you can get Republicans and Democrats beyond veto-proof, when you can get [Republican Reps. Jim] Sensenbrenner, and Devin Nunes (Calif.), and [Bob] Goodlatte (Va.) and [John] Conyers (D-Mich.) and everybody, I think that’s a great bill for the Senate to take.”

McCarthy wouldn’t say if the House would vote on a two-month extension to match McConnell’s proposal.

“I don’t know what their votes are for in the Senate,” McCarthy said. “I hear conflicting on all sides. So I don’t know where there is consensus over there, but there is consensus here that I think takes in all those concerns that I’m hearing over on the Senate side.”

McCarthy added that he hopes the Senate will take action on the House bill after trade. That, however, appears unlikely as McConnell pushs forward with the two-month extension.

Winning approval for the extension won’t be an easy task for McConnell. Senate Democrats and a number of Republicans have vowed to filibuster a renewal without reforms.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters Monday that he would help filibuster the bill McConnell plans to bring to the floor this week if no amendments are allowed.

“We’ve had a year. Actually we’ve had three years, we’ve known this date was coming for three years,” Paul said. “We ought to have full and open debate with an amendment process. I will filibuster it unless there’s a debate process.”

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3 Natural Ingredients That Clean (Almost) Anything in Your House

What includes a sprig of mint, a twist of citrus, and packs a real punch in every room of the house? Here’s a hint: It’s better suited to a spray bottle than a cocktail glass.

We’re talking about DIY all-natural household cleaners, of course — the kind that side-step harsh fumes and chemicals in favor of kitchen staples.

If your home is on the market, you might want to be careful to avoid offending a potential buyer’s sensitivities (ahem, please put down that bottle of industrial-grade bleach). If you rent, you might be looking to save money by making your own cleansers — or maybe you have roommates who can’t stand the smell of that lemon floor cleaner you’ve been using. Either way? These tips are for you.

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1. White vinegar

The granddaddy of natural, eco-friendly cleaners, vinegar is, by definition, a water-based solution containing about 5% acetic acid — a powerful solvent. Translation: The secret ingredient in your mom’s recipe for potato salad spells “lights out” for most bacteria, viruses, mildew, and mold.

  • Concoct an all-purpose cleaner: Fill a spray bottle with equal parts white vinegar and water (distilled is best), upping the amount of vinegar for tougher jobs. Spray it anywhere that could use a good cleaning, but steer clear of marble surfaces.
  • Disinfect and deodorize cutting boards: Spray full-strength vinegar onto wood cutting boards, let it sit, then rinse with clean water.
  • Deodorize dishwashers: Add 1 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle of your dishwasher. The vinegar smell will dissipate, de-stinkifying dishes in the process.
  • Soften clothes and reduce static: Add 1 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle of your washing machine in lieu of store-bought fabric softeners.
  • Sweeten garbage disposals: Freeze white vinegar in an ice cube tray and then run the cubes through the garbage disposal to deodorize and clean drains.
  • Remove mineral deposits from showerheads: Unscrew your showerhead, then place it in a plastic zip baggie filled with ½ to 1 cup of warm white vinegar. Let it sit for one hour to remove mineral buildup. For showerheads that can’t be removed, secure the baggie onto the showerhead using a rubber band. (This also works for sink faucets.) Postsoak, use an old toothbrush and a toothpick to further loosen deposits.
  • Clean fresh produce: To help remove pesticide residue, gently wash fruit and vegetables in a solution of 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to a pint of water.
  • Clean your coffeepot: Fill the reservoir of your automatic coffeepot with white vinegar, then allow the machine to go through a brew cycle as usual. Follow the vinegar with two cycles of fresh water to rinse.

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2. Citrus

Like vinegar, the key to citrus’s cleaning power is its acidity, which proves the little lemon to be a cleaning powerhouse. What’s more, the peels of citrus fruit (grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, and the rest) contain limonene, the active ingredient of citrus oil, which is especially effective as a degreaser.

  • Soap scum and rust remover: Banish soap scum and rust from your shower by rubbing affected surfaces with the cut surface of a halved lemon. Allow the juice to work its magic for about a minute, then use a scouring pad to finish the job.
  • Scented all-purpose cleaner: Add enough citrus peels to fill one-half of a large Mason jar. Pour white vinegar over the top to fill the jar, then place the lidded jar in a cool, dark place to infuse for at least two weeks. Strain the solution, pour it into a spray bottle, and use it as you would an all-purpose cleaner.
  • Hands-off microwave cleaner: Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice to one cup of water in a microwave-safe bowl, then heat the mixture to boiling in the microwave. Allow the steam to penetrate baked-on grime for 10 minutes before opening the door and giving the interior a good wipe.
  • Surface whitener: Gently “bleach” stains from surfaces by rubbing the surface with the cut surface of a halved lemon. (Don’t try this on marble and granite.)
  • Fabric whitener: Add 1 cup of undiluted lemon juice to your laundry to whiten and brighten clothing.
  • Furniture polish: Combine one part undiluted lemon juice with two parts olive oil, pour a little onto a lint-free cloth, and use it to shine wooden furniture and fixtures.

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3. Baking soda

The superfine grit of this powdery white substance, better known as sodium bicarbonate, comes in handy for those jobs that require extra-gentle abrasion. And what other ingredient do you know of that can make cookies rise, soak up bad odors, and sweeten a drain? It’s all in a day’s work for this wallet-friendly ingredient.

  • Clean hairbrushes and combs: Coat hairbrushes and combs in a paste of baking soda and water to remove product buildup.
  • Deodorize carpets and rugs: Sprinkle a thin layer of baking soda all over your carpets, then allow it to sit, preferably overnight. Vacuum to reveal fresh, odor-free rugs.
  • Shine silver: Make a paste of three parts baking soda to one part water. Massage onto tarnished silver to polish and shine, follow with a rinse of warm water, then dry.
  • Rejuvenate plastic food containers: Give new life to stained food containers by scouring the surfaces with baking soda, then soaking them in a solution of water and baking soda.
  • Clear a clogged drain: Sprinkle baking soda down a clogged drain, chasing it with double the amount of white vinegar. Let it sit for a few minutes, then follow the fizzing mixture with boiling water.
  • Fight household odors: Sprinkle a little baking soda into cat litter pans, into clothes hampers, and over the bottom of garbage cans to help ward off bad smells.
  • Remove crayon marks: If your pint-sized Picasso uses walls as his canvas, sprinkle a little baking soda onto a damp sponge and gently buff away the crayon.
  • Clean your oven: Coat the surface of your oven in a paste of baking soda and water, avoiding the heating elements. Allow it to sit overnight and then use a damp rag and a silicone spatula to remove as much paste as possible. Complete the task by spraying down the oven top with vinegar, then wiping with a rag once more.

Want to find out how to clean with essential oils, Castile soap, and salt? Read more on Trulia!

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The Vietnam War: After 40 Years

Today, 40 years after the American war in Vietnam ended in ignominious defeat, the traces of that terrible conflict are disappearing.

Traveling through Vietnam during the latter half of April 2015 with a group of erstwhile antiwar activists, I was struck by the transformation of what was once an impoverished, war-devastated peasant society into a modern nation. Its cities and towns are bustling with life and energy. Vast numbers of motorbikes surge through their streets, including 4.2 million in Hanoi and 7 million in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). A thriving commercial culture has emerged, based not only on many small shops, but on an influx of giant Western, Japanese, and other corporations. Although Vietnam is officially a Communist nation, about 40 percent of the economy is capitalist, and the government is making great efforts to encourage private foreign investment. Indeed, over the past decade, Vietnam has enjoyed one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. Not only have manufacturing and tourism expanded dramatically, but Vietnam has become an agricultural powerhouse. Today it is the world’s second largest exporter of rice, and one of the world’s leading exporters of coffee, pepper, rubber, and other agricultural commodities. Another factor distancing the country from what the Vietnamese call “the American war” is the rapid increase in Vietnam’s population. Only 41 million in 1975, it now tops 90 million, with most of it under the age of 30 — too young to have any direct experience with the conflict.

Vietnam has also made a remarkable recovery in world affairs. It now has diplomatic relations with 189 countries, and enjoys good relations with all the major nations.

Nevertheless, the people of Vietnam paid a very heavy price for their independence from foreign domination. Some 3 million of them died in the American war, and another 300,000 are still classified as MIAs. In addition, many, many Vietnamese were wounded or crippled in the conflict. Perhaps the most striking long-term damage resulted from the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange (dioxin) as a defoliant. Vietnamese officials estimate that, today, some 4 million of their people suffer the terrible effects of this chemical, which not only destroys the bodies of those exposed to it, but has led to horrible birth defects and developmental disabilities into the second and third generations. Much of Vietnam’s land remains contaminated by Agent Orange, as well as by unexploded ordnance. Indeed, since the end of the American war in 1975, the landmines, shells, and bombs that continue to litter the nation’s soil have wounded or killed over 105,000 Vietnamese — many of them children.

During the immediate postwar years, Vietnam’s ruin was exacerbated by additional factors. These included a U.S. government embargo on trade with Vietnam, U.S. government efforts to isolate Vietnam diplomatically, and a 1979 Chinese military invasion of Vietnam employing 600,000 troops. Although the Vietnamese managed to expel the Chinese — just as they had previously routed the French and the Americans — China continued border skirmishes with Vietnam until 1988. In addition, during the first postwar decade, the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party pursued a hardline, repressive policy that undermined what was left of the economy and alienated much of the population. Misery and starvation were widespread.

Nevertheless, starting in the mid-1980s, the country made a remarkable comeback. This recovery was facilitated by Communist Party reformers who loosened the reins of power, encouraged foreign investment, and worked at developing a friendlier relationship with other nations, especially the United States. In 1995, the U.S. and Vietnamese governments resumed diplomatic relations. Although these changes did not provide a panacea for the nation’s ills — for example, the U.S. State Department informed the new U.S. ambassador that he must never mention Agent Orange — Vietnam’s circumstances, and particularly its relationship with the United States, gradually improved. U.S.-Vietnamese trade expanded substantially, reaching $35 billion in 2014. Thousands of Vietnamese students participated in educational exchanges. In recent years, the U.S. government even began funding programs to help clean up Agent Orange contamination and unexploded ordnance.

Although, in part, this U.S.-Vietnamese détente resulted from the growing flexibility of officials in both nations, recently it has also reflected the apprehension of both governments about the increasingly assertive posture of China in Asian affairs. Worried about China’s unilateral occupation of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea during 2014, both governments began to resist it — the United States through its “Pacific pivot” and Vietnam through an ever closer relationship with the United States to “balance” China. Although both nations officially support the settlement of the conflict over the disputed islands through diplomacy centered on the ten countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, officials in Vietnam, increasingly nervous about China’s ambitions, appear to welcome the growth of a more powerful U.S. military presence in the region. In the context of this emerging agreement on regional security, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and U.S. President Barack Obama will be visiting Vietnam later this year.

This shift from warring enemies to cooperative partners over the past 40 years should lead to solemn reflection. In the Vietnam War, the U.S. government laid waste to a poor peasant nation in an effort to prevent the triumph of a Communist revolution that U.S. policymakers insisted would release a Red tide that would sweep through Asia and imperil the United States. And yet, when America’s counter-revolutionary effort collapsed, this dire prediction was proved false. Instead, an independent nation emerged that could — and did — work amicably with the U.S. government. This development highlights the unnecessary nature — indeed, the tragedy — of America’s vastly destructive war in Vietnam. It also underscores the deeper folly of relying on war to cope with international issues.

Lawrence Wittner (www.lawrenceswittner.com) is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany. His latest book is a satirical novel about university corporatization and rebellion, What’s Going On at UAardvark?

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Ten Ideas to Save the Economy #4: Bust Up Wall Street

When Americans think of how the economic rules are stacked against them, they naturally think of Wall Street.

When the Wall Street bubble burst in 2008 because of excessive risk-taking, millions of working Americans lost their jobs, health insurance, savings, and homes.

But The Street is back to many of its old tricks. And its lobbyists are busily rolling back the Dodd-Frank Act, intended to prevent another crash.

The biggest Wall Street banks are also much larger. In 1990, the five biggest banks had 10 percent of all of the nation’s banking assets. Now, they have 44 percent – more than they had at the time of the 2008 crash.

They have a virtual lock on taking companies public, play key roles pricing commodities, are involved in all major U.S. mergers and acquisitions and many overseas, and responsible for most of the trading in derivatives and other complex financial instruments.

And as they’ve gained dominance over the financial sector, they’ve become more politically potent. They’re major sources of campaign funds for both Republicans and Democrats.

Wall Street banks supply personnel for key economic posts in Republican and Democratic administrations, and lucrative employment to economic officials when they leave Washington.

It’s a vicious cycle. The bigger they get, the more likely it is that government will bail them out if they get into trouble again. This, in turn, confers on them an ever-larger competitive advantage over smaller, community-minded banks that don’t have the implied guarantee – which gives the biggest banks even more economic and political power.

What should be done?

First, resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that used to separate investment from commercial banking.

Second, put a small sales tax on every financial transaction. This would discourage speculation and slow down the casino. Not incidentally, such a tax could generate billions of dollars a year for, say, better schools.

But the most important thing we should do is bust up the big banks. Any bank that’s too big to fail is too big, period.

Antitrust law should be used the way it was against the big oil trusts and the telephone monopoly. The idea was to prevent too much economic and political power from concentrating in too few hands. And that’s precisely the problem with Wall Street.

The only sure way to stop excessive risk-taking on Wall Street so you don’t risk losing your job or your savings or your home, is to put an end to the excessive economic and political power of Wall Street.

It’s time to bust up the big banks.

ROBERT B. REICH’s film “Inequality for All” is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:

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What I’ve Learned, Learning To Ride Mountain Bikes

I used to ride mountain bikes when I was a kid. They were a fun toy that took me places. But man, I never remember them being this much hard work! Looking for a little more adventure, I’ve been teaching myself to ride them again. This is what I’ve learned so far.

Read more…


A Robot From The Future Reviews Tomorrowland

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