“Think thoughts that make you feel good. Think thoughts, say words and do things that resonate with who you really are-with that broader, wiser, securer part of you. Then your feelings of well-being, your feelings of worthiness, your feeling of value become very real to you. Then you have something to offer the world.” Abraham-Hicks 1/8/91

The Law of Attraction states that whatever you focus your energy on will grow larger. That which is like itself is drawn. So, let’s look at this in the light of world events. Are you focusing on peace or are you focusing on war? Are your conversations of world events leaving you feeling good or bad? Are you putting your focus on what you want or on what you don’t want? Notice where you are putting your attention.

Let’s take this a step further. Take a moment to get centered and quiet. Now ask yourself: “What do I want?”, “What do I want for this planet?” Notice what words, pictures, and feelings come up for you. Whatever comes up notice if you feel good or bad when you think of what you want. Focus your attention on the aspects that feel good. Bring the essence of what you want into your internal experience. For example: if you want peace in the world, focus on feeling peaceful yourself.

Do you treat yourself with unconditional love and compassion, or do you beat yourself up with critical thoughts?

Do you spend time with your kids in joy and play, or do you spend time nagging and yelling?

Do you create a positive connection with your partner by being open and listening fully, or do you hold on to your opinions until the bitter end?

Focus and acknowledge the times that you choose peace over conflict. Focus and acknowledge when you experience peace internally and in your external world.

“If we are going to experience peace we need to notice each act of peace, however small. As we notice and ignite our sense of internal peace, our actions then reflect peace and those actions will influence the whole. If we are going to experience world peace we must start with ourselves and BE peace.” –Sarah Hartzell, founder of Circles of Ten Women for World Peace.

I recently joined a local Circle of Ten. As a group we focus on outrageous acts of peace. We are supporting each other in remembering how to focus on peace rather than discuss our fears about war. Circles of Ten is a grass roots, peace activism, and leadership training movement whose intention is to facilitate personal, interpersonal and global peace.

The idea is to energize what you want. Create a clear vision of what you want and begin experiencing this internally. Then begin attending to it in your day to day life. Then broaden the vision and attend to where you can find this vibration in the world.

Lynne Morrell
http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/the-key-to-peace-197688.html

Watching our politicians at work, those referred to as ‘The Honourable Member’, is eye-popping instruction on leadership integrity. In politics as in business, leaders earn the ‘honourable’ designation not by words, but by deeds – deeds in relationship. By that measure, politicians aren’t banking much!

Any leader can speak the right words: they can purport to uphold values such as inclusion, accountability and respect. But it is in their treatment of others that a leader’s words have meaning and where they earn either trust or cynicism. The lens that is the political arena, shows how espoused principles are at odds with the relational aggression actually enacted. We have grown cynical about politics as a consequence of this dissonance, and – here’s the alert: the workplace is equally susceptible to this debilitating pessimism. A depth understanding of this link between words and deeds is crucial for those wishing to inspire confidence in their own leadership and success for their team.

Politicians have yet to demonstrate that they get it. Instead they use their considerable powers of spin in ways that are, at their core, ethically questionable. They seek to discredit the other by:
* accusing, blaming, and shaming;
* belittling through ‘clever’ repartee and quoting out of context;
* spinning events to support one side only (theirs, of course); and
* claiming (false) outrage and demanding an apology or a resignation.

Nevertheless, the majority of politicians have no doubt honourably sought out the opportunity for public service. Likewise, leaders in business often have the best intentions and are genuinely confused when these don’t yield the expected results. In the face of challenging goals or threatened security, normally skilled leaders are at risk of sacrificing relationship for appearance, service for posturing. Good people can be gobbled up by an organizational culture that exerts pressure on one’s own right thinking. The signs are not always of the eye-popping variety – hence the need to increase our awareness.

As Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller Blink makes clear, we recognize authenticity in the blink of an eye – or more tellingly, we recognize when authenticity is absent. We make an instantaneous judgement about trustworthiness. Leaders underestimate this at their peril when they show their skill – and I use the word advisedly – at manipulating the appearance of trustworthiness.

There is a difference between being in a position of leadership, and showing leadership. In fact, it is the degree of congruence between the title of leader and the reality of what that leader models that grows either cynicism or trust, discouragement or inspiration. The voter who experiences apathy in the political realm, is subject to the same malaise when working for an organization that spins its employees with the appearance of a values-based mission statement, but acts in relationship with its employees in a manner that belies the words. A business target may be achieved – or a useful bill passed – yet the outcome is tainted by the process. A short-term gain may be possible (and only may be) but the team is chagrined, the customer’s loyalty (or the voter’s loyalty) is diminished, and success is not sustained.

Does the executive have more personal choice than the politician? Is he or she free to act in relationships in ways that are congruent and respectful?

Honourable leaders are those who choose right action along with right words:
* They never give vent to yelling, name-calling or scapegoating;
* They own their errors and fallibilities and apologize freely;
* They go out of their way to celebrate the success of others, watchful of their own aggrandizement;
* They say privately only what they’d be prepared to say publicly;
* They are skilled at both avoiding and resolving conflict.

If our politicians don’t often model this for us, they do offer a means to assess honourable leadership in our own environments. If we are fortunate there are others around us whose Interpersonal Skills are worthy of emulating. And with integrity and awareness we can ensure that our own leadership values are win/win values: in the service of our goals, yet never at the expense of others.

Pat Archer
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/leadership-integrity-lessons-from-the-honourable-member-122501.html

It can make you better if you practice conflict resolution, but if not and you just practice conflict, it will destroy you…mind, body and soul…ultimately taking a toll on both physical and emotional health, perhaps even spiritual.

Every day we go into the world to create and make our way, be it to a job or a business. We enter each day with the attitude of accomplishment and achievement. However, for most people, during the day we meet some sort of obstacles or roadblocks. It could be a customer who changes the scope of the project that you just completed the night before, the bank who needs just one more piece of information to complete the loan you needed yesterday or the guy who cut us off in traffic, caused us to run off the road and miss the most important business meeting of our career. We rise to the occasion as each monster rears its ugly head. Each time, we expend just a little bit more of our energy that we had planned to use on another objective. By the end of the day we are usually one, two or even three steps behind where we wanted to be, worn out and ready to retreat to a place where we have peace and serenity. This also holds true for our children today. They encounter as much stress, be it different, in the their worlds as we adults do. They are stressed by peer pressure to act and be different than they are taught at home and by television and the media to become something that they are not. These stresses can be overwhelming and we are all looking for a place where we can escape from these pressures. If this description sounds familiar Feng Shui may be for you.

If everyday was like the one described above and you were not able to rebuild your energy, you would begin to find yourself running on reserves, feeling exhausted like you can never get ahead of the game. Running on reserves can work for a while if you are still in your 20’s and maybe even your 30’s but eventually your reserves can be depleted and you are as the song goes +running on empty¦. The stresses of each day are piled upon the stresses of the day before and the day before that, until you no longer have the patience and tolerance to deal with seemingly insignificant issues as they arise. These stresses also can make us feel less then capable, which makes dealing with situations even more difficult. This level of stress when not dealt with can start to impact your performance at work and your ability to nurture and grow interpersonal relationships, leaving you feeling like you are in a rut with no way out.

If your energy levels are at their peak you have a greater chance of successfully creating new opportunities and dealing with the day to day experiences and pressures. Feng Shui can help you. You can have the ability to clearly see and deal with each issue as it is and not through the filter of stress, frustration and feeling less than. This clarity when added to peak performance can assist you in achieving what ever you desire. We all have had those rare days when everything came together, when you were in the right place at the right time, when the answer to all of your bosses questions were on the tip of your tongue. But how did that happen? How can we create this on a daily basis?

To achieve this level of clarity and performance you must have an environment away from the demands and chaos of the everyday world, where you can go to rejuvenate, rebuild your energy and find clarity. Many people think that they can find this state of being on a vacation in Hawaii or some place similar. But, usually this state of being is only temporary. This level of being that you seek must be nurtured on a daily basis in an environment without stress, tension and conflict. A successful environment for nurturing your level of clarity, and performance will be calming, uplifting and healing.

For most, this environment will be your home. The balance and harmony in your home is a critical factor in dealing with these stresses and are important for your success and happiness. When a home feels calming and nurturing, with no distractions, you can quiet the mind and sort out what is important and what is not. You can create new ideas on how to proceed and how to handle obstacles. You can start to see clearly what actions need to be taken. When life is full of complications it is often hard to distinguish the forest from the trees. If you have clarity, you can sort out all of the issues and deal with them one at a time, making clear decisions on each issue instead of complicating each issue with other issues. This type of clarity will also give you the ability to see solutions that you could not see before.

Unfortunately because of the pressures of society to achieve at all costs, some houses today have become purely investments and places to impress clients, customers and friends. These houses have been designed strictly for the purpose of business and that is the master that they serve. In these situations the home is completely ignored, leaving no refuge for the soul to rejuvenate. Notice the usage of the words house and home. A house is just a physical structure, where a home is a physical structure that has been created for the purpose of nurturing the soul. Ironically, if the house were used for the purpose of nurturing and healing the soul, success in the outside world would come much easier. In today’s fast pace world it is even more important to create homes instead of houses. Homes designed for business, investment and to keep up with the Jones’s, also ignore family identity and intimacy. This loss of family identity undermines the stability of the family and the role models set for children. The loss of intimacy starts to breakdown communication and the core of family relationships. These problems just add to the stress level in the home, complicating our lives.

If we are to be successful in life we must start to address the environment where our ability to succeed is created. As many psychologists have said and most people would agree, +we are products of our environment¦. But what parts of that environment shape us? How is it that some children who come from the worst of neighborhoods are able to rise above the circumstances of their external environment of crime and poverty? How is it that some children who come from homes that are in the best of neighborhoods and have ideal external environments end up with drug or alcohol problems? Are the external factors in our environment like the location that we live in or the size of the home the factors that shape us? No, it has to do with the internal environment we live in. That child rises out of the ghetto because somewhere he/she received a nurturing environment that allowed them to rise above the circumstances.

It is the internal environment we live in that plays an integral part in creating the external aspects of our lives. If your internal environment is one of balance and harmony, a space that is nurturing, where you feel safe, secure and at peace, you can let go of the days challenges and come back to your source of power. Then you can start each new day refreshed and rejuvenated.

ArtOfFengShuiInc.com
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/success-happiness-128228.html

Employee Retention begins with Employee Selection.

Gambling is alive and well in the modern work environment! It’s amazing how many organizations gamble at work by not using advanced hiring techniques that could save resources and future headaches.

Employee Selection is a key strategy that can save organizations tremendous resources, time, and energy. Proper Employee Selection is the foundation to an effective Employee Retention strategy.

Few organizations are tapping the potential of effective Employee Selection. Why? Because today’s typical Employee Selection process is a gamble at best. The good new is it doesn’t need to be. There are powerful tools to help you optimize your employee selection and hiring processes.

Several years ago, I was in Dallas attending a trade show and noticed all the beautiful sports and luxury cars and shared that observation with a friend. My friend said, “There are a lot of $30,000 millionaires.” A lot of people have everything they have tied up into that fancy automobile. Thinking that a car is demonstrative of that particular person’s overall success is an incorrect assumption at best.

What situations that you face are similar to this example? It is sometimes said that a particular person is “all hat and no cattle” when they look the part – being more image than reality. How many of your hiring candidates look the part, but deep down inside, aren’t a fit for the position but you won’t know it for 90-120 days – long after they have become an emotional part of your team?

How often are people and situations what we think they are? Perception isn’t always reality. That perception can be enormously expensive.

Analogously, in your employee selection, inspiring, and maximization of your team and organization, how often do you run into situations where things aren’t what they seem?

Making a poor to bad employee selection decision is costly to say the least. Depending upon the industry, the cost of turnover can be anywhere from 30 percent of the annual salary and benefits to over 150 percent. Numbers don’t speak to what can’t be measured. The wrong hires destroy employee morale and hurt your Customer Experience.

Consider… Through traditional hiring practices, what are the “odds” you will hire the right person? How many candidates look great initially and then when they are on your “bus” they don’t work out? Your “odds” of hiring the right person are a LOT LOWER than you think unless you are using advanced hiring techniques. Consider the following statistics (various sources)…

14 percent – Traditional hiring techniques

38 percent – Behavioral Profile

54 percent – Abilities Testing

75 percent – Job Match Testing

By the way… Your odds at winning a hand at Blackjack are in the upper 40 percent range. Yes… You have better odds at winning a hand of Blackjack than you do in hiring the right person.

Our thought process is “trust but verify.” The candidate wouldn’t be applying if they didn’t want the job. Therefore, they are going to do everything possible to get it through the resume’ that is customized to your job description. No, we don’t believe people are trying to be devious. Quite the contrary. It’s best to assume the goodness in others.

However… If you don’t use a comprehensive Job Match personality profile during your employee selection and hiring process to ensure your candidate is a good job match, you are taking unnecessary risk.

Remember that college course you absolutely despised? For me, it was accounting. I took a lot of it and couldn’t stand it. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people who went to college for a particular degree field and then came out into the real world and hated it. Ever notice how many people are in careers that are completely different from their major field of study in college? You’ve been there…

You know what is scary? With recent college graduates, unless you are Job Match Testing, you get to pay for figuring out someone doesn’t like the degree field they are going into.

Keep in mind… If you aren’t going to the highest level of understanding your new hire candidate through Job Match Testing, you won’t…

Hire the best candidates.

Reduce employee turnover.

Prevent conflict.

Maximize your training dollar effectiveness.

Know with certainty who to hire based on future leadership abilities unrecognized now.

There are several significant reasons to Job Match Test your candidates…

Employee Selection – Job fit – How well do their behaviors, values, personal attributes fit the job?

Inspiration – How do you know what “buttons” to push and which to stay away from if you don’t know their behavior profile? Remember – people leave people, not jobs. Is the way you are talking to your new hire de-motivating them?

Coaching – How do you know what skills the new team member needs to maximize their performance? Why not coach immediately rather than the normal 2-3 months process – after you are beginning to “know” the new team member? With the Trimetrix Behavior Profile system, you will know immediately – rather than having to wait for the “honeymoon” to be over.

Interpersonal Effectiveness – How do you help the team member acclimate to the rest of the team effectively if they don’t know how to effectively communicate with them? How do you help the rest of the team acclimate to the new hire candidate?

Employee Retention – If the team member doesn’t fit the job, they won’t stay. When you match the job to the candidate, morale is enhanced as well as productivity

.

Succession Planning – How do you know who will scientifically be the best candidate for potential future promotions. How do you choose the best future leader between two good, equally qualified candidates?

Training and Leadership Development – Where do you allocate scarce training resources? When you use an effective Job Match Testing program, you can identify key areas that candidate will

Without at least behavior profiling, you can’t possibly know what the full potential of the new hire candidate is. And you can’t tap what you don’t know.

Please keep in mind… It isn’t ethical to base your entire hiring decision on Job Match Testing of any type. Our recommendation is that it be no more than 20-25 percent of your hiring decision. These tools are most powerful when used in combination with your existing hiring program – not by themselves.

Chris Young
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/employee-selection-are-you-gambling-at-work-99179.html

need it for speech class and I cant find one anywhere! thanks!

try opening a play, almost all of plays are interpersonal conflict mono or dialogs.That’s what they are about, both serious and comic ones.

http://callcenteroutsourcingjobs.com/page_builder.php?page=index.php

Costa Rica’s Call Center has a major advantage when it comes to hiring qualified bilingual Spanish and English speaking customer service and telemarketing call center agents to handle your important outsourcing campaign.

Call center outsourcing jobs in Costa Rica pay more than most outsourcing jobs in India and the Philippines and are able to offer more qualified agents. Call center outsourcing jobs need to provide a very stable work environment which assists an outsourcing company when hiring many bilingual call center agents in a short period of time while launching a new outsourced campaign.

Every North American company that outsources call center services with Costa Rica’s Call Center can be rest assured that our call center management hires less than 10% of the applicants. We only hire the top outsourcing bilingual call center agents in the outsourcing industry, period. Costa Rica’s Call Center strictly adheres to all applicable Costa Rica employment laws.

Costa Rica’s Call Center works hard every day to meet with the brightest outsourcing call center agents in the country, talking with them about joining our bilingual Costa Rican call center teams at all levels and for a variety of outsourced BPO campaigns. Since call center outsourcing jobs are in high demand, the call center’s human resource department receives on a daily basis an abundant number of solid qualified agent resumes. From a client’s viewpoint, Costa Rica’s Call Center has the luxury of choice selections of the elite in outsourcing bilingual call center agents.

Call center outsourcing jobs require that the call center agents have a strong sense of innate customer service skills as well as an especially keen ability to listen to detail in order to offer the most effective result for your outsourced campaign. Without an extroverted and relentlessly positive attitude during the initial interview or continuing through the telemarketing training period, the call center’s management team will deny the employment of that particular candidate. Call center outsourcing jobs need to be filled by the best, period.

The changing global economy and the unfortunate downsizing of the North American corporate world makes call center outsourcing jobs to a Costa Rican call center an important topic for top executives when deciding a company’s growth potential or even survival. Every outsourced Costa Rican call center job can make a difference to your company’s bottom line and increase your employee morale by offering opportunities to very grateful and hard working bilingual call center agents that will represent your company in the best light. There are ideally suited Costa Rica’s Call Center agents waiting to assist your inbound customer service call today.

Call center outsourcing jobs is simple when understanding the qualifications for the ideal bilingual call center agent for your outsourced campaign. From the many years of continuous growth, call center employment is considered a stable long term career in Costa Rica. Confidence in a call center agent is just as important as their work ethics. Punctuality, honesty, accountability and results can separate a subpar outsourced call center agent in another firm to one of Costa Rica’s Call Center’s highly trained and motivated outsourced call center agents. A bilingual outsourced telemarketer who believes that they possess advanced communication skills are the first agents we interview when hiring for an outbound lead generation or bilingual outbound sales campaign. An outsourced bilingual customer service agent that holds empathy and patience in high regard are two skills that every hand picked call center agent posses at our Costa Rican call center. Every well executed inbound phone call ensures the best in top outsourced customer service, client retention and increased referrals resulting from the first class experience given by the Costa Rican call center agent. What you would personally expect to receive from a customer service representative on the phone is exactly how we are going to handle each and every one of your inbound or outbound phone calls with your clients.

When it comes to BPO call center outsourcing jobs in web design and computer programming, a company can save up to 70% and receive better and faster results when outsourcing with Costa Rica’s Call Center. The top universities in Costa Rica pride themselves by offering advanced education in web design, computers and IT certification. Every year, brilliant Costa Rican professors graduate an army of young and talented individuals who are hungry to create a masterpiece for your company’s image on the internet. By outsourcing a job with Costa Rica’s Call Center, you will give us the ability to match your needs with a top call center web designer and computer programmer that will be strictly devoted to your outsourced project in order to ensure that you are 100% satisfied with the results.

Call center outsourcing jobs offer all bilingual call center agents entering the call center the best and most effective in advanced bilingual telemarketing training in Costa Rica. All outsourced agents are educated with a strong emphasis in semantics, phonetics, rhetoric, interpersonal communication and conflict management to make sure the inbound or outbound call is a success for our client’s outsourced campaign.

Costa Rica’s Call Center’s strong work ethic consistently produces bilingual call center agents accustomed to the high demands and professionalism expected by North American clients. Unlike large outsourced call centers in the Far East and Asia that are known for long rows of gray cubicles occupied by nameless and expendable agents, our Costa Rican call center differs by extending an appreciative work environment built on recognition and a highly structured internal career development program for long term call center career growth. We produce future leaders in the call center industry, not laggards that use it as a transitional job with no known intentions for promotion. The Costa Rican call center outsourcing jobs industry requires many different types of job positions and specialized skills in order to make an outsourced campaign successful and long term. There will always be opportunities available in our call center for the top bilingual outsourced call center agents in Costa Rica.

In today’s highly competitive outsourcing market, a closer proximity to the United States , Central Time Zone and Spanish language capability as an added value are now considered almost basic requirements when making a decision on what call center to use for your important project. Leaving this to chance is not even an option anymore. Many of the offshore call center agents are bilingual in their native Middle Eastern or Asian language which is difficult to the North American ear. Whereas Spanish is more useful and practical as a second language for potential untapped markets throughout the North, Central and South American populations as well as those countries where Spanish is either a primary or secondary language.

We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb a volcano or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.

Richard Blank
http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/call-center-outsourcing-jobs-751494.html

“We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.” (W. Churchill)

To warrant a citation as one of the most influential or the most influential man in our century, entails a convincing description of a long term devotion and impact on the direction of society and history. This author submits that in the 20th century the intractable flow of events has been towards the liberation of people, both in spiritual and material terms, and that the defining principles of some type of Liberal Democracy now hold true in many regions of the globe – many more than at the start of the century. Let us not underestimate this fact. For the first time in human history, more people have control over their own lives as a % of the population than ever before. It is too be expected that this shall continue, but of course such a trend is not certain.

There are people enough who would like to derange the liberation of the mass, and pass us back to the days of centralised or oligarchic control. However in toto there is no intellectual or economic challenger to the Liberal Democratic model at this time. One of the great new situations and driving forces of our world today is international economic interdependence. Further world-wide integration is unstoppable. There will be fits, regressions, complaining and pauses, questions, arguments, harangues, and resolutions, but always over time a forward movement towards what may be termed unshackled and fair trade and cross border integration will proceed. What needs to be addressed is how can we fairly develop the markets and the economic strength of less developed nations whilst still maintaining the economic growth and market access of more developed nations. The balancing act will be marvellous to behold. Adam Smith infused with both Galbraith and Greenpeace.

In this regard and given that the values and concepts of Liberal – Democratic society are subtle and complex, we need then to go back and ask ourselves, “How did we get here and why.” Thus the perspective of history is necessary. If we look at how this century evolved it can be determined that very few leaders have had such a imposing and sincere belief in Liberal Democracy and the accumulated spoils produced by such a society: freedom, self determination, security and a healthy standard of life, as did Churchill. He was not a corrupt politician interested in the pursuit of power for its own sake, but a statesman interested in power for its intelligent application to better the lot of the common citizen.

The program that Churchill followed in his life, and I speak here of his Liberal-Democratic program, was, with the exception of 1 occurrence (the independence of India, which will be discussed later), remarkably consistent with the theme of expanding Liberal Democratic principles. This is due in large part to his upbringing in the Liberal Aristocracy of the British Empire; due in part to his political father’s Liberal ideals and his American mother’s robust (and extremely adulterous) New World energy; and due in part to his experiences across the world as a young man, where he witnessed the power and relative success of the Liberalised (though not really democratic) British Empire, in comparison with other orders that lacked the discipline to generate and project wealth and power. As a prophet of Liberal Democracy, there could have been no better trained or indoctrinated messiah than Churchill. The man whose family history had been formed around the development of British Parliamentary, and Liberal Orthodox supremacy.

Again as with other outstanding humans he still achieved much more, than his contemporaries; many of whom were as intelligent, dedicated and immersed in the achievement of moral and political prestige as Churchill. This is where then Churchill’s story becomes interesting. What set him apart from the others ? Chance, money, dumb luck, patronage ? In human destiny all of these play a role. But to climb a pinnacle these are not enough. I would submit that Churchill provides illumination and support to many of Bennis’ leadership notions. Or how else could he have scaled the heights ? He had definite views on how a society should be structured and shaped. The love of a tempered democracy, the creation of a system to ensure proper leadership and guidance, the development of systems to allow prosperity, peace and support, occupied the mind of this man throughout his whole life. Churchill was obsessed with improving the lot of mankind and consumed by the proper use of power and leadership. And like Bennis he believed in a set of management and leadership principles that propelled him to greatness.

For those who write, think and practice true leadership, Churchill possessed radical views. Not of the immoderate, intolerable type. But those of classical, orthodox, Liberalism. Churchill believed in the need for the State to take an active part, both by legislation and finance to ensure that minimum standards of life, labour and social well-being for all citizens were maintained in an atmosphere conducive to fair trade and entrepreneurialism. Among the areas where Churchill during his varied career, took an active part were; prison reform, unemployment insurance, state-aided pensions for widows and orphans, permanent arbitration for labour disputes, state assistance for the unemployed, shorter hours of work, improved retail shop conditions, a National Health Service, wider access to education, taxation of excess profits and employee profit-sharing. Quite a list from a man who was supposedly one dimensional – the World War II embodiment of victorious unconquerable Britannia.

Other great men and women could be analysed and presented. But Churchill, one of the most complex, energetic and effective of history’s leaders, stands as an unparalleled example of leading and dealing with crisis, while defending, developing or discerning the limitations, values and concepts of political leadership and importantly freedom and democracy. He was unique. His style, mode of governance, deeply rooted and strongly held system of beliefs, and importantly his gaping weaknesses, should serve as a serious model upon which to reconstruct the training and choosing of our political leaders and governmental workers. It is not a perfect model. But certainly it is better than the ad-hoc, clandestine, shaded political leadership system we have today. Let’s then take a cursory look at Churchill’s skills according to the framework laid out in the last chapter. A fuller explanation of his skills will follow in Chapter Four when we discuss his actions during World War Two.

Character:
In reading any volume about Churchill’s life the most blinding aspect in understanding his success, is the quality, depth and strength of his character. Many other men would long have given up, or perished in their chosen professions, if they had been subject to the same trials as Churchill. In general from studying his life I can safely state that he never took the easy route. He was certainly never offered the easy spoils. Yet he never bowed his knee to opinion polls, party whips, or popular expressions that ran contrary to his own judgement and sense of purpose. In comparing Churchill with other great’s of this century there is no one that had to endure the opprobrium, distrust or number of setbacks as did Churchill. Even the witch hunt instigated against William Clinton, is pretty mild stuff compared with what the press had to say about Churchill during the first half of this century. I am always amazed that Churchill was able not only to survive through it all, but survive with a smile.

This is not to romanticise his or anyone else’s macho strength and egotism. Both in large doses are negative. However, without strength of character change is impossible, adversity cannot be overcome and good never triumphs over evil. In the dawning age of ‘Principle Parties’ as replacements for the outmoded ‘Political Parties’ trained individuals, relishing and brandishing these 3 traits will be needed to cut through the Gordian knot of the insoluble political drift we have today. We must remember the tenets of evolution and that change is not always progressive or better. To advance the human species needs change and conflicting ideas. These are necessary — not lobby groups, supine presidents and empty suits.

Upon the scarred field of politics Churchill stressed strength and magnanimity as the cornerstones of his behaviour. If impatience was his great weakness than offering magnanimity to the defeated – whether a local political opponent or Germany after World War II – casted Churchill as a strong but gallant knight and a man raised above the normal dash and din of political conflict. He fought all battles with limitless reserve and strategy. He offered friend and foe alike illimitable goodwill and respect after the conflict. His ideals imbued with history and coupled with a vision of where his country should be in the world were marked by a sense of fair play. Principles and not parties dictated his actions. For these reasons he is a man to be honoured and acclaimed as a defendant of democratic right and privilege.

To be effective statesmanship must lay on established principles and constraints rather than on emotive impulses and frayed passions. We should not forget that nations have no permanent friends, only semi-permanent interests, a covenant that often offends popular sympathy and belief. For it is these realism’s, that politics is a game of shifting fortunes, relationships and situations, that disgusts the great majority in democratic lands. Politics is like making love– natural, necessary and enjoyable– only if it is done properly. What is discernible about Churchill is his hard-headed realism and practicality in accepting such truths. Consequently he looked ahead a great deal more carefully and cautiously than many of his contemporary observers thought mutating viewpoints and re-evaluating some of his opinions. Of course some cried that he was too fluid and perhaps could not be trusted and other criticasters weary of Churchill’s rhetoric, would delight in emphasising that Churchill was a product of the late 19th century immutable and intractable. Thus from both sides – conservatives and liberals – Churchill received a drubbing, regardless of the integrity of his actions.

Churchill’s bellicosity caused much of the drubbing. One should consider the weight and purity of Churchill’s virtue and charity to all he contacted – friend or foe – even though he received the most acidic and heavily concentrated attacks of any politician in any era. Critics never tired of chopping at the tree of Churchill’s accomplishments. It began when he crossed the floor in 1904 to join the Liberals. It received a great accretion in strength during the winter of 1913-4 when Churchill was the subject of a broad protest by pacifists, economists, and social reformers who thought that as First Lord of the Admiralty he was too profligate and was promoting the arms race. At the root of the discontent and many to follow, was the fact that Churchill was not a good party man. As such the image of the war mongering pirateer was born and created by an aspersive socialist press. Churchill was not a war monger, “his thought has always been, between the wars, upon the means of making peace among the peoples.” For his critics such distractions were carefully ignored. It was during 1913-14 that the apparati to hang Churchill politically was established and raised for action.

What is inestimable is the fortitude and resilience of mind and body to withstand such brutal, crabby treatment that Churchill received at the hands of malcontents and frustrated plotters. His closest friends recognised clearly the political courage of Churchill. On November 11 1922, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), wrote to a friend; “The man is as brave as six, as good-humoured, shrewd, self-confident and considerate as a statesman can be and several times I’ve seen him chuck the statesmanship course and do the honest thing instead.”

The honest thing included enacting proper change. When we view the broad balance of Churchill’s career and factor in the jealousy inherent in the political field and the degree of envy held by many of Churchill’s excessive successes we observe that many of his greatest contributions to the establishment of public welfare and governmental responsibility were initiatives driven from within, without concern to reputation, personal circumstance or fortune. Most were decidedly modern and far sighted. This is quite clear in his advancement of ‘Tory Democracy’ – economic growth with general support for the masses. Tory Democracy is another prescription for centrist governance. Often times this led him to advocate the dismemberment of party politics and the establishment of a broad nationally based governance: “Parliamentary debate has become largely meaningless. All the time the two great party machines are grinding up against each other with the utmost energy, dividing every village, every street, every town and city into busy party camps. Each party argues that it is the fault of the other. What is certain is that to prolong the process indefinitely is the loss of all…Once it can be seen that a great new situation or great new issues lie before us, an appeal should be made to the people to create some governing force which can deal with our affairs in the name and in the interest of the large majority of the nation.”

Part of Churchill’s trajectory to statesmanship can be seen in the light of time. First accumulate a reputation for outspoken principled action. Second, accumulate power via alliances, learning and public positioning. Then state a vision resplendent with clear principles, meanings and images while solving local problems. Lastly accede to great affairs and the devising of solutions in a national and international context. This trajectory needs to be buttressed by character, skills (verbal and technical), vision and power accumulation and recognition. To have these skills imbedded in action is not enough. A person must also have as a bedrock a clear and clean sense of duty and morality.

Importantly Churchill was clean. Adultery, conspiracy, or treachery were never a part of Churchill’s character. Loyalty, aggression and impulsiveness were the main exciting agents in Churchill’s life. His extreme ambition bordering at times on foolhardiness but always driven by an abnormal energy galvanised all around him. Churchill was always a contrarian thinker, and a statesman of the highest order, but he was not a Machiavellian posturer. His success rested on energy, innovation and positive thinking, all in a consistent framework employed in over 50 years of statesmanship.

Skills:
Churchill personified the well instructed and knowledgeable Leader. He was a self-developed man. As a youth he immersed himself in governing, leadership and policy. He never ceased learning and improving all of his life. He spent a great deal of time learning skills from his contemporaries such as Lloyd George, Lord Fisher, Herbert Asquith, F.E. Smith, and Max Beaverbrook amongst many others. On a political level this education led to a vision not only of strong morality but of rationality. In very few instances did Churchill compromise his personal code of morality for the sake of political gain. In this he was exemplary. But he was also a realist. He was adept at combining power and ethics in a compelling package. Very few understood the effective use of political leverage better than Churchill.

Compare Churchill’s self-education program with the political elite today. How many are steeped in history, philosophy, and the rigours and tribulations of historical notables ? What percent of our esteemed political masters exhibit such a rounded appreciation of the conditions and matters that shaped and will continue to shape the human story ? As Churchill sourly commented to then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in 1928 concerning the ease with which World War One could have been avoided: “Think of these people, decent, educated, the story of the past laid out before them. What to avoid, what to do etc. Patriotic, loyal, clean — trying their utmost. What a ghastly muddle they made of it ! Unteachable from infancy to tomb — there is the first & main characteristic of mankind.”

In looking at his life nothing can sum up the traits and skills of Churchill in short pleasing verbiage. He was patently too many people, a definite renaissance man, engaging in politics, writing, reporting, painting, farming, hunting, polo playing, warring and investing. Besides a massive intellect and memory Churchill possessed a spirit spurred with the whips of energy. It was unrelenting. His was the creed of action and contempt for delay. Mission was founded and achieved by exploring, questioning, trying, failing and trying again. During the 1930’s when the Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay Macdonald governments neglected the build-up of British war making strength and sought the treacherous path of appeasement to satiate the Nazi beast, Churchill who had long criticised the insipidity of such a program exclaimed in 1936 the memorable words about Baldwin’s government revealing his contempt for hiding inactivity in political closets; “The government simply cannot make up their mind, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

Brilliant diction summing up the most hated of Churchill’s dislikes – inaction. But we have still to reach that quality in Churchill, which warrants us in calling him great. For a man may be gifted far above the ordinary, without earning the emblem of true greatness. Churchill had brilliant gifts. He was, in addition, driven by a limitless, borderless, shifting, resolute ambition. Without such magnificent ambition, men never have, and never will accede to the summit of power, prestige and greatness. “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (that last infirmity of noble mind), To scorn delights, and live laborious days.”

But unseemly ambition is insufficient to earn the appellation of great. It has to be elevated by noble principles (‘that last infirmity of noble mind’), to allow a man to rise above the supine mass. Flaming pertinacity is dangerous without the fibre of moral strength. Credibility rests on the broad shoulders of honesty and reliability. No Leader can shrug off those characteristics of success. Genius and energy do not necessarily shape the epiphanies of leadership. They have to combined in harmony and strength with the skills and qualities that we discussed in the last chapter, and which illuminate true leadership.

Intelligence:
But character, skill and morality are not enough for leaders. Intelligence is necessary. It does us no good having a clutch of well intentioned clods fouling up the process. Intelligence can only really be measured by verbal capacity and skill. IQ measures and tests are inaccurate. Churchill owned the English language and he owned the skill of persuasion. As such he commanded the heights of leadership. He could communicate the moment, the mission, and the energy. Churchill was one of the few politicians in our century that had a beautiful, lucid communication and vocabulary. Emboldening this was his common sense, technical skill and creativity. Above all the dynamism of his verbal adroitness lied in the desire for action and not drift.

A baser form of intelligence is what can be termed ‘Political Antennae’. In most political circles this skill is usually too overdeveloped. In the case of Churchill it was surprisingly weak and poorly unused. Churchill’s rhetoric was maybe too developed and at times not flexible enough for his audience or plainly inappropriate. But this weakness is still overshadowed by his capacity at conciliation and political problem solving and more vitally by his verbal capability. Churchill engineered delicate dispute resolutions over South Africa, Ireland, and social reform in England to name but a few, quickly striding across political boundaries and ideologies and involving himself intimately with those who had the greatest grievance in order to solve the conflict. Coupled with his strong array of communication skills he achieved a political pre-eminence that darkly shadowed his companions.

His oratory and conciliatory skills were allowed to flourish due to the mastery of technical details. Churchill was one of those rare politicians that actually knew what he was talking about. This dedication to lucidity ties in with persuasion and compromise and the knowledge of details leads to flexibility because plans can be made for each situation. Churchill always had three or four contingency plans for every situation. Strategy and vision thus sprung from intelligence and from being able to see the whole picture and from the confidence that one way or another the vision would be achieved.

This vision coupled with creativity gave Churchill adequate resources to enact change and innovation. In political spheres Churchill was light years ahead of his companions in collecting, analysing, and synthesising information at the micro level and relating it to the big picture. His innovation stemmed from patient practicality and discipline and not inspired genius as romantic novels about great change would like us to believe. This vision included fair economic trade and economic liberalism, adequate welfare for the population, peace and democratic governance, classical and scientifically or technically based education, and a powerful security apparatus to combat evil and aggression.

In achieving his aims, and in using his native and educated intelligence Churchill consciously chose to be nobody’s knave. He flaunted his independence, not only in action, but also in flamboyant dress and style. Yet his romantic urges were touched by the humbleness of most people’s lives, but to those at the summit where power corrupts, contracts are broken, lies are purveyed as half-truths, the issue of spirit and mores takes on a different colour. Basically Churchill trusted his own counsel and that of a half-dozen friends. To the rest of the world he looked like a recluse. To those who knew him well, he was defending himself against the often wicked and spiteful attacks of political banditos. Hence sympathy for the mass, trust for the few.

In this regard Churchill was exceptionally callous and rough to friend and foe alike in his early years. But as time tempered and beat down the baser impulses of searing rhetoric, Churchill acquired another skill — that of informal networking and interpersonal persuasion. He became as he aged refreshingly human. However, it was not until the 1930’s when he was in his late 50s and early 60s, that strident verbal missives were shelved for moderate expositions (with some notable exceptions) of the situation at hand, and fair treatment was meted out to friend and foe alike.

As Churchill matured so did his attention to friendship. “If F.E. (Smith), was strong meat and stronger drink, then Churchill in contrast to his public reputation as a ‘domineering’, even ‘rude’, figure, had in the intimacy of personal friendship a quality which is almost feminine in its caressing charm” As F.E. wrote, Churchill had a ‘simplicity which no other public man of the highest distinction possesses.’ He also endeavoured to perform many deeds of goodwill to aid friends and family. It can be summarised by Philip Snowden a long-time Churchill opponent and liberal critic, “Your generosity to a political opponent marks you for ever in my eyes the ‘great gentleman’ I have always thought you. Had I been in trouble which I could not control myself, there is none to whom I should have felt I could come with more confidence that I should be gently treated.”

A budget of good humour, tact and some considered patience fund the other necessary resources and tools to achieve success. Alone they are unsubstantive. It is better to be dour and effective, than gay and incompetent. Allied to well-developed skills and principles, sensitivity, embedded in the formidable array of humour and tact, provides a potent and efficient tool. About Churchill it is fair to say that he was ambitious and calculating; but not cold and that saved him. As a colleague stated, “His ambition is sanguine, runs in a torrent, and the calculation is hardly more than the rocks or the stump which the torrent strikes for a second…queer, shrewd power of introspection, which tells him his gifts and character are such as will make him boom….He was born a demagogue, and he happens to know it.” Yet ambition without a defining purpose can not only corrupt, but it can also destroy.

Vision:
A crowning vision is really the linchpin that will attract followers. Most good and great individuals have displayed a pretty consistent approach to the world and a pretty stable world view. Some superficial analysis may suggest that because Churchill changed parties, challenged convention, criticised incompetence and insipidity and usurped obedience, he was a grasping, clawing, malevolent opportunist. If rigid conformity is the sign of good political standing, Churchill was indeed recklessly unpredictable and unreliable. However, the picture of Churchill as a soldier of fortune, an adventurer and a troublemaker was and is incorrect. Strong ethics, values and principles guided his actions. He had little of Lloyd George’s cunning or the well-disguised craftiness of Stanley Baldwin. His decisions might have been unpredictable, but his motives were seldom hard to fathom. Churchill rarely embroiled himself in the base pettiness of political intrigue in part from a distaste of such ignominy, combined as well with a guileless personality.

To the charge of unreliability Churchill retorted that, “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to have changed often.” In actual fact the changes were due to some effort at self improvement, but to a fidelity of what he already was. Churchill was most consistent with his own true north direction when he was the least supportive of his party’s policy. Churchill never could swallow the party line always choosing and deciding for himself. In assessing Churchill’s skill base the following is a reasonable portrait: “Far from changing his views too often, Mr Churchill has scarcely, during a long and stormy career, altered them at all. If anyone wishes to discover his views on the large and lasting issues of our time, he need only set himself to discover what Mr Churchill has said or written on the subject at any period of his long and exceptionally articulate public life, in particular during the years before the First World War: The number of instances in which his views have in later years undergone any appreciable degree of change will be astoundingly small….When biographers and historians come to describe his views…they will find that his opinions on all these topics are set in fixed patterns, set early in life and later only reinforced.”

This historical reality is evidenced when studying Churchill. What drove Churchill in his personal intellectual and political journey’s can also be said to mirror the advance of imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries . Thus not only did he possess grand skill, he was also a student but more importantly a conscious product of history. In this regard he closely resembles (consciously no doubt) British and world history. Even in his literary works this is reflected. For instance in Churchill’s book, ‘The Story of the Malakand Field Force’, which depicts British soldiery in north-western India at the turn of the 20th century he questioned what motivated men and nations to face great hazards. The principal elements that Churchill discovered were preparation, discipline, vanity and sentiment and he remarked that sentiment was the most important of the group. Churchill believed that civilisation can only march forward if it clings to a vision – a sentiment that ennobles its occupation and galvanises its spirit. Empires fall because the sword begins to dominate the sentiment and the people lose hold of the impulse and spirit that the sentiment contained and made the use of the sword in the first instance appropriate.

This spirit and vision was evident and mature. He commiserated with the poor, the downtrodden or the straggling. Some of his mightiest missions and political forays were instigated on behalf of those who lived lives beyond his comprehension but not his beyond his compassion. Yet here lies a paradox. Within political circles and in the ring of friends and associates he could be extraordinarily blind, politically inept, insensitive and roguish. Or so it appears from a distance. Yet for the great mass of ‘Poor England’ or for the devotion of the Commonwealth nations, tears would be produced, sagas told, and emotion unleashed. The difference is dramatic but crucial.

If we examine for instance his stand on fair economic trade he was malleable to changing circumstance but rather solid in his underlying belief in market forces, with government succouring the unlucky. He left the Conservatives over Fair Trade in 1904, when they put forward a policy of protectionism, anathema to an orthodox Liberal like Churchill. He only returned to the Conservative party in 1924 when undue governmental interference in trade had been expunged from their agenda, and when the political costs of doing so were at a low threshold. Fair trade in the mind of Churchill did not preclude beneficial and justified government involvement to at times, stimulate employment and counteract nefarious foreign practice. For instance by 1908 Churchill had developed a respectable appreciation of contra-cyclical public works feeling that in useful but uncompetitive industries such as afforestation, public departments should be constructed to allow the expansion or contraction of work according to the needs of the labour market, much like the utilisation of an accordion. He was also much taken by the notion of having a governmental body dedicated to intelligence gathering on market conditions and inputting clever designs regarding the balance of trade and the proper use of employment. These concepts were never tried.

Supportive of free or at least fair trade, Churchill throughout his career could never conceal his concern for the effects of such unbridled combat upon the poor man and women. Speaking in a lecture at Oxford in June of 1930 he posited that unencumbered free trade was not at that time working: “The growth of public opinion, and still more of voting opinion, violently and instinctively rejects many features of this massive creed. No one, for instance, will agree that wages should be settled only by the higgling of the market. No one would agree that modern world-dislocation of industry…should simply be met by preaching thrift and zeal to the displaced worker. Few would agree that private enterprise is the sole agency by which fruitful economic activities can be launched or conducted.” Churchill appended to this suspicion of market forces the idea of an economic council, chosen in proportion to parliamentary representation as an agent of economic advice. This concept of an objective economic watchdog was never viably pursued.

These economic doctrines – fair trade and support for the common worker – were strictly consistent with his life long pursuit of social stability, prosperity and opportunity. In wider party politics Churchill was a radical who consistently attacked the Conservatives as a party of wealthy vested interests conspiring to exploit the poor. He had a rough belief in proper mass democracy (though part of him sympathised with the viewpoints of the controversial Nietzche who feared for mass democratisation feeling that the great features of aristocratic or privileged existence would disappear), and most of his actions were ‘de Tocquevillian’. Churchill was fundamentally concerned that there should not be governmental obstruction to the mass of the people realising the benefits that a liberalising democracy could bring into their lives. In 1908 he wrote to Asquith:

“There is a tremendous policy in social organisation. The need is urgent and the moment ripe. Germany with a harder climate and far less accumulated wealth has managed to establish tolerable basic conditions for her people. She is organised not only for war, but for peace. We are organised for nothing except party politics. The Minister who will apply to this country the successful experiences of Germany in social organisation may or may not be supported at the polls, but he will at least have a memorial which time will not deface of his administration.” If we consider the tremendous tasks in which the human race and governments; local, regional, national and hopefully international, will struggle against in the near future then social organisation and re-organisation, probably of a brutal or dislocative nature will not be completed in the current ‘pork and play’ atmosphere in today’s political systems. Politicians engaged in change will need the courage to ignore the polls and do what needs to be done.

Churchill was a master at this, usually getting the House of Commons to agree to his proposals even if he was in a subordinate or even antagonistic position. The skills used to complete such duties were varied. Very rarely did they include threats, bullying, trampling on souls, or the use of political power. Logic, parliamentary procedure, emotional colour and well-researched positions counted as more important. Churchill proposed and acquired the acceptance of the House on a number of far reaching proposals, including;
- Institution of Labour Exchanges and unemployed insurance
- National Infirmity Insurance
- Special state industries such as roads, afforestation
- Modernised poor law (law mandating that children should support their parents)
- State control of the railway
- Compulsory education until age 17

Churchill’s economic beliefs and education though broader and more profound than many politicians were attached to a series of principles. He loathed dependence and esteemed individualism. He was fully in support of laissez-faire and the doctrines of 17th, 18th and 19th century English economics. His faith in Adam Smith, John Locke and Edwardian experience compelled Churchill to espouse his support in the benedictions of unshackled economic exchange. In October of 1902, in a letter to a political colleague while still a member of the Conservative party, Churchill commented that it was necessary by an ‘evolutionary process’ to create a wing of the Conservative party which would either infuse vigour into the entire unit, or allow the formation of a central coalition. Churchill realised as he stated in the letter that his plan would become most important as an incident in or possibly as a herald of the movement, but that it would also move suspicion that he was moved only by mere restless ambition and not substantive issues. He needed a grand theme and found it in the Free Trade debate of 1903-4. Churchill was unable to countenance the stance of the Conservative party in their clamouring for protection and left joining the Liberals on May 31 1904. Allegations of opportunism, deceit and cowardice, rained down upon him as he shifted sides. In a note to a friend Churchill admitted; “(The) Free Trade issue subsides it leaves my personal ambitions naked and stranded on the beach – and they are an ugly and unsatisfactory spectacle by themselves, though nothing but an advantage when borne forward with the flood of a great outside cause.” Indeed without a great cause ambition is a rather repulsive picture.

For Churchill and others liberal ideals as exemplified by the Free Trade question meant more than simply the abolition of protective tariffs. It personifies a whole philosophy of political, social and economic organisation. John Stuart Mill in ‘Principles of Political Economy’ in 1848 developed the ‘Laissez-faire’, concept and every departure from it, unless required by some great good, is a certain evil. This commandment created the key notes of mid-Victorian liberalism: the reliance upon individualism, the establishment of self-respect, and self-reliance, and the organisation of voluntary and co-operative societies to better the plight of the weak, wounded and suffering.

Support for such mantra was rooted in an earlier period of excitable prosperity. Coinciding with the advent of Free Trade in the years 1850-1870, there was an economic boom in the UK. It can be fairly argued that the removal of tariff barriers probably had only a marginal impact on the British economy. Nevertheless, psychologically the advent of free trade was closely associated with entrepreneurial zest and commercial success. It appeared that market forces working within the social and political structure solved the question of English strength, which preoccupied the country from 1820-50.

Churchill knew his economic history well. It moulded and galvanised his political and philosophical beliefs. It shaped his political attitude and formed one of his bedrock principles – free movement of goods and services. This created in his political philosophy a paradox — Churchill was at once a radical and a traditionalist. He was a radical in changing structures and governmental organisations and arcane laws to facilitate the movement of finance and trade on a more fair and free basis. He was also a radical in his determination to raise the general standard of living, economic opportunity and chance for decent education and welfare. He was a traditionalist in his empathy that the productive capitalistic system as the only guaranteed method of sustaining society and providing a nation with the capability to ensure adequate standards of wealth and progress. It must be protected at all costs – vision must be enjoined by the means to protect its vested interests.

Power:
In assessing the use of power Churchill’s career and leadership in this regard actually represents Britain’s peculiarity as a Great Power which during its hegemony was formed in the conjunction of three factors: her naval strength, her imperial possessions, and her financial hegemony. Through two stints as First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer and through two World Wars, Churchill devoted the lion’s share of his time and energies to upholding these interlocking causes, making it conspicuously clear in the process that he had no intention of presiding over the liquidation of the British Empire. As Chancellor of the Exchequer Churchill presented 5 budgets (1925-1929). In British history only Pitt, Walpole and Gladstone can equal that record. Though vastly entertaining as pieces of oratory and acting adroitness his budgets adhered as much as it was possible to economic orthodoxy. Many times Churchill was accused of slight of hand sophistry in the compilation of his numbers and in the collection of his tax revenue. However, this allegation has been and could be made with more convincing effect against every other Chancellor in this century. What is more important to note is that Churchill’s orthodoxy underpinned the Victorian notion of Britain’s greatness.

Churchill was a realist and understood power. Power is really to be embraced and used and is in some ways the centre piece of leadership. To ignore it is to perish. Because of his somewhat apolitical view of the world Churchill could discern very clearly the different perspectives on how nations viewed peace and how any destroyer of peace would appear in various forms to different nations. To prevent war and general international dislocation he at times called for zones and regional structures, including World-Grand Alliances. Power and strength were vital: In his words, “Appeasement from strength is magnanimous and noble and might be the surest and perhaps the only path to peace.”

Though primarily remembered as a war-hungry demagogue, Churchill on at least half a dozen occasions defiantly crusaded against the level and purpose of military spending. These personal programs were driven in part by his political position. That is only a small part of the answer. During the 1920’s Churchill felt that military expenditure was too high and should be curbed given the threat of inflation, the spectre of economic dislocation and the vital investments needed in infrastructure and social programs. These economic indicators drove Churchill to proselytise against excessive taxation and to insist on reviews of defence expenditures. It was necessary Churchill felt, to augment the Royal Air Force allotment and decrease the high administrative costs of the army and look suspiciously into the Royal Navy claims of needing more funding. The cabinet agreed with Churchill: “that the Fighting Services should proceed on the assumption that no great war is to be anticipated within the next ten years” although, “provision should be made for the possible expansion of trained units in case of an emergency arising.” Little of the war-mongerer appears in this sentiment though security was never to be imperilled.

Churchill was emphatic that the 10 year rule be reviewed each year. This 10 year dictum uttered in the mid 20’s obviously proved false since in 1936, the Germans seized the Rhineland. Beginning with the rise of Hitler and the stench of his ideology, Churchill began advocating not only a mammoth increase in armament production but also a closer relationship with Russia. Strategy had changed again. This option was proffered from a man who in the early 1920’s had supported the incursion of British soldiers into the heartland of Russia to cleanse it of Bolshevism. Churchill regarded Bolshevism as the lowliest creed and construct of mankind’s civilised history. These adjurations were consistent with his concept of maintaining a balance of power and bargaining from a position of strength, all in the name of effacing and avoiding an evil tumult. It is – and should be – one of the chief reasons for our admiration and support of Churchill that he consistently advocated peace by international understanding and if understanding were to collapse to resist any impingement of freedom by force.

But his political courtship of Russia was based on seemingly obvious and important facts. As Churchill previsioned in the early 30’s a new line of French fortifications established only along the French part of the Rhine would enable Germany to attack France through Belgium and Holland. He knew that Germany would not respect the neutrality of the Low Countries in her desire to rip and tear the French to pieces. He also warned that Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Austria and the Baltic’s, were at risk, and that Britain could not detain a German advance into these areas from her current submissive position of weakness. Churchill wanted to station a part of the British fleet in the Baltic to outnumber the German fleet. To achieve measurable, guarded security an alliance with the Bolshies was inevitable, vital and more importantly achievable.

If stronger lines had been followed in the 1930’s World War Two could have been avoided. With a ‘Churchillian’ leadership of the world and vision of power and morality we could have escaped the disgusting slaughter of 70 million people. In a 1945 speech to the combined Belgian Senate and Chamber, Churchill stressed what is still surely relevant in our world today; namely the resistance and prevention of dictator aggression: “If the United States had taken an active part in the League of Nations, and if the League of Nations had been prepared to use concerted force, even had it only been European force, to prevent the re-armament of Germany, there was no need for further serious bloodshed. If the Allies had resisted Hitler strongly in his early stages, even up to his seizure of the Rhineland in 1936, he would have been forced to recoil, and a chance would have been given to the sane elements in German life, which were very powerful especially in the High Command, to free Germany of the maniacal Government and system into the grip of which she was falling. Do no forget that twice the German people, by a majority, voted against Hitler, but the Allies and the League of Nations acted with such feebleness and lack of clairvoyance.”

After the Second World War he continued such pleas arguing in various speeches for France and Germany to bind wounds and for Russia to be a partner with the West in the greater development of a peaceful Europe. When it became obvious that the Soviets intended to challenge if not supplant the West (especially after the communist seizure of power in Czechoslovakia in 1948), than the tone of conciliation turned to a growling of an affronted bulldog as Churchill told American officials, that now is the time, promptly, to tell the Soviets that if they do not retire from Berlin and abandon Eastern Germany, withdrawing to the Polish frontier ‘we will raze their cities’. In his signal ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton Missouri in 1948 Churchill implored that the UNO must work effectively to prevent another war recognising Russia as a leading nation, remembering the gallantry of its efforts in the last war, and acknowledging its ‘Iron Curtain’ control of Eastern Europe which necessitated the banding and collation of Western strength and might.

It is a complex issue and drives to the heart of politics that so many of us view with revulsion – peace through strength and shifting alliances and geopolitical supporters. To understand such necessities today we need to understand the human animal. In scanning leadership and the great broad stretch and gesture of events, the basic construct of the human animal has to be borne in mind. Churchill constantly reminded his associates of the base fact that we really have not changed genetically in the last 100,000 years. DNA and microbiology are 1 of 2 great frontiers of human discovery in the next generation, (the other is information technology). As advances are made in understanding the human genome, advances must also be made in the way society and the leaders of society are structured and educated.

Churchill’s view of international affairs was pragmatic though not Machiavellian. He had two basic precepts of security — use history as a guide and foster a balance of power between the strongest lands, and ensure that the internal national health was seasoned and keen. Churchill frequently referred to his debt to those who had laboured before himself as he did to Katherine Asquith, on April 5 1929; “How strange it is that the past is so little understood and so quickly forgotten. We live in the most thoughtless of ages. Every day headlines and short views. I have tried to drag history up a little nearer to our own times in case it should be helpful as a guide in present difficulties.”

This enduring commitment to knowledge and of increasing the power, and not the dependency of the layman, both intellectually and politically was the central tenet of Churchill’s political genius. He could combine the new world with the old gleaning the important knowledge from the past, to help shape the institutions of the current and future. To say he was old-fashioned as some critics contend is simplistic. Churchill more than any other figure helped create the modern welfare nation state (though he would be appalled at its size and generosity today), promote peace through strength and ensure that the precarious balance of power between east and west, that was the only stability guaranteed to mankind for 44 years, was not toppled. Pure motives, unflinching devotion to good, ambition stemming from benign aspirations, all lead to quality. As one commentator explained of Pitt, so it could be ascribed to Churchill: “Pitt desired power, and he desired it, we really believe, from high and generous motives. He was, in the strict sense of the word, a patriot. He saw the national spirit sinking.” In conclusion then, we can state that Churchill matches many of those qualities and skills that define true leadership and greatness. It is these defining values that warrant the assertion that Churchill was indeed this century’s most important catalyst in propelling the world to where we are today. And I have not even discussed in detail his stand against Hitler and totalitarianism.

Thus, as a new millennium dawns I do believe that if we can revise our current system of educating ourselves and our leaders along the principles already evinced; namely, character, skills, intelligence, vision and understanding power, that we can create a proper cadre of leading men and women and that all of society will benefit from the reduction of intrigue and pettiness. Human nature can be changed, however painfully long it will take. In order to understand how we can do this it is often times necessary to understand how the ‘great’ or historically important at any rate went about it. I don’t think that in the 20th century there has been any more dedicated man who defended the Liberalised view of freedom, economic exchange and human dignity, better than Churchill. For this reason, he should be nominated as the most influential man of the past century. And for this reason his skills and weaknesses should be studied and appreciated with especial care.

C. Read
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/churchill-right-or-wrong-an-analysis-700334.html

An interpersonal perspective on psychopathology poses characteristic questions: What do people want from interpersonal interactions? How do they succeed or fail in satisfying those wants? How are interpersonal processes related to the person\’s self-image? How are the symptoms and signs of disorder related to unfulfilled interpersonal goals and motives?Interpersonal Foundations of Psychopathology proposes that psychopathology is closely connected to interpersonal processes. In order to treat these disorders successfully, one must first understand the person\’s typical interpersonal interactions. This book examines findings from developmental, social and personality psychology and organizes those findings into an interpersonal approach. The resulting approach is integrative. Like the cognitive-behavioral approach, it emphasizes objectively observable behavior. Like the psychodynamic approach, it considers interpersonal motivation, conflict, and defense. Like the humanistic approach, it emphasizes the self, relationships, communication, empathy, and support. Using this perspective, the author demonstrates how communal and agentic motives help clarify most personality disorders and many Axis I disorders.This engaging book shows the importance of social processes in many disorders and, in doing so, exposes interperonal subtleties that are required in treatment. It will be an illuminating resource for students of clinical psychology as well as professional psychologists and researchers. Readers will be richly rewarded with a fuller understanding of interpersonal processes and their role in personality, emotion, and psychopathology.

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One of the reasons I got involved in multi-source (360-degree) feedback technology over ten years ago was the frustration I experienced as a management consultant. A typical assignment had me creating and presenting a customized leadership development program. I worked hard on these projects, conducted some first-rate training and was well paid for my efforts. The problem was, while the courses were well received, they had little or no impact. In a few weeks, most participants returned to their comfortable but ineffective habits. At first I blamed myself. Over time, however, I discovered that the problem wasn’t me. It had to do with the very nature of “soft skills.”

Hard skills vs. soft skills

In the world of work, “hard skills” are technical or administrative procedures related to an organization’s core business. Examples include machine operation, computer protocols, safety standards, financial procedures and sales administration. These skills are typically easy to observe, quantify and measure. They’re also easy to train, because most of the time the skill sets are brand new to the learner and no unlearning is involved.

By contrast, “soft skills” (also called “people skills”) are typically hard to observe, quantify and measure. People skills are needed for everyday life as much as they’re needed for work. They have to do with how people relate to each other: communicating, listening, engaging in dialogue, giving feedback, cooperating as a team member, solving problems, contributing in meetings and resolving conflict. Leaders at all levels rely heavily on people skills, too: setting an example, teambuilding, facilitating meetings, encouraging innovation, solving problems, making decisions, planning, delegating, observing, instructing, coaching, encouraging and motivating.

Obviously, people come to organizations with interpersonal behavior patterns already thoroughly ingrained, and they weren’t learned in a classroom. Instead, individuals learn how to deal with relationships and other life challenges “on the street” at a very early age. They observe how the people around them do things, they experiment, and they stick with what works for them. So everyone ends up with a unique portfolio of people skills; some behaviors may be effective, but others cause problems. By the time employees get to a training room, they’ve already worked hard for decades to reinforce the way they deal with people.

Like all behavior patterns, Interpersonal Skills are “hard-wired” in the neuronal pathways of the cerebral cortex. This means that at some point a behavior was repeated often enough that neurons grew dendrites that reached out to other neurons to make the connections needed to make behavior pattern automatic. A myelin sheath coated the cells like electric wire insulation, making the connection extremely efficient. The end result: these ways of behaving now feel natural, easy and comfortable.

The bottom line

Introducing a new interpersonal skill is extremely difficult, because it means replacing the old skill. The brain may be an information processor, but it doesn’t work like a digital computer. There is no “delete” key for unwanted programs. Behavior patterns are physically established at the brain cell level. Any new pattern, even one that makes sense, even one that is desired and expected, will seem extremely awkward. The only way to replace an old pattern will be to establish a new one that gets better results. If this new pattern proves to be more satisfying than the old pattern, and if there’s an adequate period of reinforcement, there’s a chance that new connections will establish themselves. If the new pathway is a superhighway, it can become the preferred conduit, and over time even a familiar path associated with lots of memories will eventually fall into disuse, just like old Route 66.

Ensuring success

Without this reinforcement, however, the pathways will not establish themselves, and most people will predictably fall back on the old, comfortable patterns they grew up with. Unfortunately, this disappointing scenario happens more often than not. An organization invests heavily in a people skills training program, no plan for reinforcement is in place, and the intervention fails to have the hoped-for result. There is virtually no return on the investment. The money is mostly wasted.

This is why a program of lectures, group exercises and handouts-even a week-long course personally conducted by a world-famous celebrity author-cannot by itself provide enough reinforcement to establish the new pathways needed to change ingrained behavior patterns. Without reinforcement, even people who want to change are likely to return to their comfortable patterns, and so dysfunctional behaviors remain the same. If this happens too often, employees may come to feel cynical about people skills programs.

Frequent reinforcement

What an understanding of the brain teaches us about learning is that the only thing that can create permanent behavioral change is frequent reinforcement over the long term. If someone who truly desires to change an interpersonal behavior is supported by a knowledgeable coach’s ongoing encouragement, new patterns can be established. The most useful perspective on people skills training is that it’s an essential first step-a necessary “introduction” to the right way of doing things. After that, ongoing reinforcement of desired behaviors has to be there. When a newly trained individual returns to a workplace, he or she needs knowledgeable coworkers to give ongoing feedback, guidance and encouragement.

A proven solution is the top-down approach

If executives start by working on their own people skills, then they can establish the right expectations and coach their managers. An organization can employ executive coaches to ensure frequent feedback, encouragement and reinforcement. Managers can then coach their supervisors, who can coach their team members.

To provide the desired motivation and accountability, it’s a good idea to assess people skills in advance of the training. By far, the easiest, most practical and effective way to do this is 360-degree feedback, which was designed to provide a reasonably objective assessment of skills that are otherwise hard to observe, quantify and measure. Identifying the weak skill areas has two huge benefits. For one thing, training programs can be focused on the areas of highest need, making the best use of limited training funds. Second, attendees will have a powerful motivation to change: the weak areas have been spotlighted, and a repeat assessment can be administered in the future to evaluate improvement.

People can learn how to work well together

With an environment of support, encouragement and reinforcement, an organization can achieve the desired return on a considerable investment in people skills training. But executives really have to want it to make the right kind of investment. There’s no magic pill-no short cut. It’s like losing weight. If you really want to keep the pounds off, you have to establish new eating and exercise habits. If you want lasting changes in your organization, you have to be willing to pay the price.

How to Get ROI on People Skills Training:
- Use multi-source feedback technology to spotlight needs
- Repeat multi-source feedback assessment to motivate and measure improvement
- Create a plan of follow-up reinforcement
- Define expectations for desired behaviors
- Develop skills top-down to empower reinforcement
- Include special focus on feedback and encouragement skills
- Employ executive coaches to reinforce skills

Copyright © 2007, Performance Support Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dennis E. Coates
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/people-skills-training-are-you-getting-a-return-on-your-investment-131194.html