Business

Baseless Analogies and Bogus Claims

Trump was “merrily shoving America down the road to fascism and white nationalism?” Get real.

Published

1 year ago

February 18, 2021

Jeff Davidson

Last Summer, the coverage of the D-Day 75-year anniversary brought many World War II issues back into focus. One of them, that lingers to this day, is the use by those on the left of holocaust analogies when it comes to protecting our national sovereignty.

Following President Trump’s decision, which Biden is now reversing, to shore up control at our southern border, a popular blogger captured the thoughts of numerous pundits on the Left when he wrote (paraphrased):

This situation is going to become more extreme and justifiably so. We dwell in extreme times. The harm being done to each of us by the Trump Administration is extreme.

As such, we do not feel that Trump administration officials ought to be able to live their lives in peace and affluence while they inflict serious damage on significant portions of the U.S. population. Being unable to comfortably visit restaurants and attend gatherings is merely the minimum baseline. These administration officials, who are merrily shoving America down the road to fascism and white nationalism, are simply delusional if they do not believe that the backlash is going to become much worse.

Skipping Along to Fascism

“Merrily shoving America down the road to fascism?” Could the hyperbole be any greater? Or any more off-the-mark?

“White nationalism?” Several news sources corroborated that Black support for President Trump was rising during his entire term. One source noted that the Trump’s approval rating among African-Americans, pre-election, was at 24%, a staggeringly high number for Trump who won a mere 8% of the African-American vote in 2016.

The above figures were not out of line. A NAACP poll released in August, 2018 showed that President Trump’s approval among black voters stood at 21%. The Washington Examiner reported in April of 2020 that Trump’s approval rating among black voters was near 20%:

A NPR/Marist poll showed that his approval rating among Hispanics soared from 31 percent in December, 2018 to 50 percent in January 2019. Granted, polls numbers vary widely from time to time.

Holocaust Analogies

As reported by RealClearPolitics.com, “Growing support among Latinos would surely surprise many Trump critics in Washington and the legacy media, who remain fixated on border issues.” Nevertheless, “So intense is their hysteria regarding border enforcement, that people like former CIA Director Michael Hayden compared our detention policies to the Auschwitz concentration camp in a tweet and MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch proclaimed on Morning Joe that ALL Trump voters are essentially Nazis.”

If you’re on the Left, perhaps some self-reflection is in order. Do you believe that the Blacks and Hispanics have too little intelligence to know better than to have supported Trump? If you’re Caucasian, do you speak for minorities?

Do you believe Donald Trump supported Aryan Nations, considering that his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism and married a Jew, and that from this marriage, Trump has three Jewish grandchildren?

Did you show concern when Obama/Biden separated adults and children at the border in greater numbers (actually many times that of Trump) and to much worse conditions? And that Joe Biden now is picking up where he left off as VP?

Selective Concern

If you were diametrically opposed to the Trump administration’s attempt to resolve the immigration problem in general, and the border crisis in particular, here are questions to consider:

1. When people arrived 100 to 130 years ago, no aid was supplied from the rest of the country, but now we are to pay for all who step foot in the U.S.?

2. Should we open our borders to everyone?

3. Should everyone who we allow into the U.S. receive welfare, food stamps, and HUD Section 8 Housing?

4. We are $27.9 trillion in debt and counting, with both parties at fault. Should we hit U.S. citizens with a special tax assessment of, say, $5000 a year and then allow everyone who wants to enter our country to do so, and hope this money will cover the multi-millions who show up?

5. If even one child is being transported by human slavers or drug runners and we leave them together, are you taking responsibility for what they might do to the child?

6. The vast majority of the country agrees it is the parents’ fault for bringing the children. Can you see they aren’t all racists but, perhaps, have a more balanced view?

7. Thousands of U.S. citizens have died at the hands of people who shouldn’t be here. Do you have any sympathy, at all, for any of them?

8. Do you have any plan to slow down illegal immigration?

Miracles Happen Occasionally

When one actually thinks through the points above, it’s a bit easier to adopt a somewhat broader point of view. Regardless, it’s time for everyone so ensconced to leave the liberal plantation for at least a couple hours a week.

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Jeff Davidson

Jeff Davidson is the world's only holder of the title "The Work-Life Balance Expert®" as awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is the premier thought leader on work-life balance, integration, and harmony. Jeff speaks to organizations that seek to enhance their overall productivity by improving the effectiveness of their people. He is the author of Breathing Space, Simpler Living, Dial it Down, and Everyday Project Management. Visit www.BreathingSpace.com for more information on Jeff's keynote speeches and seminars, including: Managing the Pace with Grace® * Achieving Work-Life Balance™ * Managing Information and Communication Overload®

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Business

Delegation: An Ongoing Phenomena

Failure to delegate effectively often happens because team leader don’t trust the people with whom they’re working

Published

3 days ago

June 29, 2022

Jeff Davidson

For most of your career, you’ve read or heard that one of the key approaches to getting things done is to delegate effectively. This presumes that you have others to whom you can delegate. In my contact with more than 950 organizations over the last two and a half decades, I’ve found increasingly that people have fewer resources, a lower budget, and less staff people. If they want to get something done, often they have to do it themselves!

Assuming you have others to whom you can delegate, the first or second time you personally tackle a particular task yields useful information. You learn more about the nature of the task, how long it takes, and whether or not you enjoy doing it.

By the third time, a task of the same ilk as those you’ve handled before often becomes best handled by someone reporting to you. Such tasks could involve updating a database, completing an interim report, or assembling meeting notes.

All that You Can

On the path to getting things done, your quest is to identify all those things that you can possibly delegate to others and then prepare those others so that they have a high probability of succeeding. In the course of your workday there may be only a handful of things that you alone need to do because of your experience, insight or specialized knowledge. Everything else that can be delegated should be.

Some people feel they have to take care of everything themselves and to this day haven’t been able to break the habit of “doing it all.” If this someone is in your seat right now, recognize that as a category of one, you can only get so much done.

Many managers and supervisors fail to delegate effectively because either they don’t fully trust the people with whom they’re working, or they’ve always been get-it-all-done-by-myself types.

Take Time before You Assign

Prior to delegating anything to anyone, take the time to actually prepare your staff for delegation. This would involve assessing an employee’s skills, interests, and needs. You could even ask people what new tasks and responsibilities they would like to assume. You might be surprised at the wide variety of responses you receive. There may be people on your staff right now who can help you with tasks you’ve been dying to hand off to someone but didn’t see how or when you could put them into play.

While you want to delegate to staff people who show enthusiasm, initiative and interest, or have otherwise previously demonstrated the ability to handle and balance several tasks at once, sometimes you have to delegate to someone who has not exhibited any of the above. In that case, delegate on a piece-meal basis.

Ensure that the staff person is able to effectively handle the small task or tasks he’s been assigned and does not feel swamped or overloaded. When the staff person demonstrates competence, you can increase the complexity of assignments and even the frequency with which you delegate.

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Business

Multi-tasking: More Harm than Good

In this day and age, where so much competes for our attention, it is easy to stray!

Published

2 weeks ago

June 16, 2022

Jeff Davidson

I belong to a local health club, and while I was there one day, I saw a woman get on the Stairmaster. I watched as she whipped out an mp3 player and started listening to music. Then, to my surprise, she reached into her gym bag, pulled out a book, and placed it on that ledge to read. I almost asked her if she would like a piece of gum!

Today, when so much competes for our attention, it is easy to stray! More often than we care to pretend, in the office and at home, we invite more than we can handle, and then act as though we didn’t. As individuals, throughout society, we are trained to believe that the ability to multi-task is a great attribute. Unfortunately, that’s a big mistake. Here’s why, and how to avoid multi-tasking in the future.

First Things First

What’s the fastest and easiest way to handle six tasks competing for our attention? Identify the most important task, second most important, third most important, and so on, then tackle the first and finish it all the way, move on to the second and complete it, then move all the way down the list.

Any other way of tackling those items, whether they are tasks for home or work, is simply not as efficient. The catch is, any other way is more psychologically satisfying. Why? It’s almost as if juggling projects, switching gears unnecessarily or abruptly, or leaving a job unfinished to start a new project gives you the opportunity to say to other people, “Hey, look at me! Look how involved I am! Look at how busy I am! I’m great at multi-tasking.” A multi-tasker, however, can’t compete with others who tackle their to-do list, one item at a time.

What about doubling up as a procedure for tackling a number of routine items or very simple tasks? You can eat dinner and read a book at the same time. Eating and reading at the same time is relatively harmless.

How about driving and talking on the cell phone at the same time? Driving requires your sharp attention, as does carrying on an intelligent conversation with someone else who is not present; doing both at the same time spreads your attention too thin, with often disastrous results. The same is true for projects you’re working on that require your best thinking.

Tips:
* give yourself 5 to 10 minute intervals to focus on the task at hand
* safe-guard your immediate environment to avoid interruptions
* acknowledge yourself whenever you stick to one task and finish it
* repeat all the above, often, knowing that ‘more often’ is better!

Your Undivided Attention

When you’re working on a new task, brainstorming, engaging in first-time thinking, or doing creative work, it’s vital to offer your complete and undivided attention to that one task before you. To dissipate your attention or otherwise stray means you are not going to do your best work.

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