“Let us enter the New Year cheerfully. Let us resolve to look on the bright side, to make the best of whatever may befall, to maintain faith that doing the right thing will ultimately bring victory. Let us cultivate sunniness, resist sourness. We can better wrestle with difficulties, obstacles, problems, in a spirit of buoyancy than in an abject, morose mood.  How much more the radiant mortal gets out of life and puts into life than the downcast, long-faced, self-pitying being.”

 B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine, 1937.

Seldom is one so privileged to peek through this most intimate and private window into a legend’s life.

There is so much to ponder here, so much to be grateful for, and so much to learn.

My favorite quote comes from Robert Greenleaf who said, “In saying what I have in mind will I really improve on the silence”.

In this case it will not.

Growth and Employment Models

The policy prescriptions, industry models and performance incentives that emerged from an era of consumption and debt-driven growth must be transformed to deliver quality growth. Growth that is sustainable, entrepreneur-driven and employment-creating should be the outcome of the rebalancing and deleveraging of the global economy.

Leadership and Innovation Models

The leading countries and global governance institutions of the Cold War era must create space for major emerging economies, private sector institutions and multi-stakeholder partnerships. These new actors should have the responsibility not only to address important global and regional challenges but also to introduce innovative solutions.

Sustainability and Resource Models

The realization that human activities have a major impact on Earth’s ecosystem must drive future changes in behaviour and policies. Our ecological footprint will have to be fully internalized in business models.

Social and Technological Models

The next wave of technological innovation, particularly in life sciences, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, will not just deliver productivity gains but will also transform us by adding new dimensions to our lives. As the “Internet of things” that connects billions of sensors and devices becomes a reality, stakeholders should work together to safeguard the knowledge, data and networks that are critical resources for our future development.

_______________________________________________________________

…and I say all of these are laudable.

AND, let’s add one more – one that perhaps could become an umbrella “model” for all the others because it is a condition for the success of them all:

A Spiritual Model

The world needs a reinvention of current thinking in order to move us away from a competitive model based on separateness, to a new one based on collaboration and the recognition of oneness. Economic, climate, religious, technological and intellectual events are no longer local – everything is global. We are our brother’s keepers. This new model can simply be described as one where we first consider the impact our decisions, conversations, laws and actions before we introduce or implement them.  “Will this inspire others?” is a prerequisite condition that, if asked, can help us to build the world we are all seeking. We can begin here.

World leaders have a responsibility, along with all of the rest of us, to assume responsibility for setting the tone and the pace of this change of thinking.  We need it today more than ever.

A recent article in two full, illustrated pages no less, purports to explain how to play golf with your boss. Here is an abbreviated version of the advice offered:

1. Dress the part. Mismatched plaid is an easy way to dress worse than your boss.

2. You don’t want to have nicer clubs than a guy who can afford nice clubs.

3. A drink will make it easier to laugh at his jokes.

4. Don’t talk about golf or work.

5. There is a very real chance that your boss sucks at golf. If he does, he may throw clubs or unleash a tirade of obscenities. Don’t be a hero: if he blows, book it.

6. Definitely let him cheat. It’s not cheating if you don’t say anything.

7. Master the art of fake frustration. To make your frustration believable include moments of quiet between your outbursts.

8. Don’t be a moron: let him win! If you lose with dignity… he’ll never know you threw the game.

I read Businessweek every week and, generally speaking, I think it is a very good magazine. It has had a recent makeover that has led to many improvements since Bloomberg acquired the magazine. But, it can also be very inconsistent, ranging from remarkable to moronicóas the†two-page misguided advice above†underscores.

A more serious issue here is this, what are we teaching our leaders? How can we expect high standards of leadership when we dole out such inauthentic and morally barren advice? If we are shocked by the decline of values in corporate America, we should be asking ourselves if, by offering this kind of behavioral advice,†we are contributing to the problem or solving it.

Come on, Businessweek! Show some appropriate standards up your game. You can do better than this; we need better than this; and we expect you, as one of the top opinion-shapers of leadership practice in today’s business media, to set a different tone. As Gandhi so famously advised us, We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

But as I sat in an airport lounge before boarding a flight to Europe my thoughts turned to other sectors of the economy where terrible customer relationships and shabby services are common – airlines. Handcuffed with frequent-fliers plans, one routinely discovers that this is a come-on – “Lock in with us and we’ll fly you free to your dream destination”. Except that when you try to redeem your points, a thicket of hurdles will be thrown in front of you making it impossible to actually redeem your points, or the conditions will be so difficult it will not be worth your while. And don’t get me going about cable companies who entice you with low rates for the first year in an attempt to lock you in, and then jack up their fees in the second. Or magazines where the first year customer gets a better price than a long-standing one. Or cars that are so unappealing manufacturers need to offer you cash incentives to buy one.

So if loyalty programs are no more than†expensive insurance policies against shoddy service, the obvious answer is to ditch the flim-flam of loyalty gimmicks and replace them with good old-fashioned service that keeps bringing customers back – Hello Starbucks, Disney, Southwest Airlines, Patagonia, Bed Bath and Beyond, American Express, Whole Foods, Costco, Publix Supermarkets, and many others who understand this. Thanks for showing us how great service generates loyalty without the handcuffs. If you have a loyalty program, why do you need it? Is it merely an offset for the poor quality of your product or service?