I beg to differ

My doctor is a very bright guy and we have some enjoyable conversations during our sporadic meetings. Unfortunately, his foray into light conversation is his way of relaxing you, and is the harbinger of the digital exam. Digital sounds so high tech for something that is most definitely manual.

We were discussing recent comments by an office holder we both have confidence in. He agreed with them, but I thought he was falling prey to the halo effect. I disagreed by the stance taken in this instance. Mental note: don’t debate with someone who has you in a compromising position.

I first heard of the halo effect in reference to employee performance reviews. Don’t fall into the trap of viewing a good employee as doing everything as good as it should be done, and vice versa. But, it applies across a much broader spectrum, including people I look to for wisdom.

Ben Franklin – “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.” Too sweeping for my taste. True genius will out, with or without education. Education is valuable, but it’s generally just the rules of the game, not how to win. There’s a whole lot of people out there with degrees, but relatively few making breakthroughs or setting records.

Lee Iaccoca - “Management is nothing more than motivating people.” Management is analysis, planning, execution and post-analysis. Motivation is a small part of that and is mainly positive reinforcement of those who are already motivated. If someone isn’t self-motivated to excel at what they’ve accepted the job to do, that’s their nature. There’s nothing you can do about it.

Kay Henry (entrepreneur) – “Women are better at building teams.” While Kay is right on with many things, this doesn’t wash. Teamwork is scripted at an early age, usually in sports, and most girls didn’t participate until fairly recently. You learned to savagely compete for a starting position, and then to turn around and mentor those who wanted to win it back from you. You were taught to be a wedge-buster, hurtling yourself into the phalanx of blockers on a kickoff, so a teammate could slip through and get credit for the tackle. You were coached to hit that sacrifice fly, so a runner could advance. “Taking one for the team” was reiterated to you then, so you recognized it later when it was part of business. Most girls of my era, and for a long time subsequently, were scripted to compete individually. That’s changed and there’s been much progress with the help of mentoring. But, with a relatively short history of team scripting, it isn’t valid to say they’re ahead of the game.

Lewis Black (comedian/social commentator) – “Success is becoming what we hate.” If aspiring writers hated published authors, why would they strive to join the ranks? If you thought it was shallow to be wealthy, would you strive to make big money? I suppose some reasons could be posited, but none are especially rational. Besides, hate is not a primary trait of successful people.

Winston Churchill – “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” Even Winnie contradicts this, urging us to look farther into the past so we can see further into the future. The first to foresee are the first to plan and act.