. . . is the topic of my latest Trade Tripper column in this Friday-Saturday issue of BusinessWorld. Excerpts:
"On the other hand, Confucius goes on to relate, the following are things no leader should do: 'Cruelty — leaving the people in their native ignorance, yet punishing their wrongdoing with death. Oppression — requiring the immediate completion of tasks imposed without previous warning. Ruthlessness — giving vague orders, and then insisting on punctual fulfillment. Peddling husbandry --stinginess in conferring the proper rewards on deserving men.'
Confucius must have worked here in the Philippines. Wannabes usually fall into a similar pattern: the up-at-dawn workout buff, the intense participant and note taker in meetings, the swagger in corridors with the ever-present sheaf of papers, the always-late-for-the-next-meeting demeanor, the propensity to play favorites to sycophants, 'elitista' in the shallow 'sosyal' sense of the word, and the stealing of credit due to others. However, the most common similarity is that wannabes never get anything done or are never known for being good at anything whatsoever, be it in a technical area or some other field. All that activity with nothing to show for it, compounded by high staff turnover, low employee morale, and minimal profits. Obviously, guys like that haven’t read The No-Asshole Rule, or Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein."
