“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.

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?

In celebration of the release of The Power of Your Past, John will be leading a complimentary teleseminar on Thursday, April 21^st at 5:30 PM Pacific time (8:30 PM Eastern). Whether your top priorities right now are personal or professional in nature, join John for what will be a thought-provoking and inspiring conversation.

Special Note: If you buy the book on April 13th, all the proceeds go to Whole Child International. To sign up for the free teleseminar and to learn more about John Schuster and Whole Child International, simply click right here.

Today, she launches her new book The MAP: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life.† In this excellent work, she points out that we all†have a powerful personal map that reveals our lifeís journey and she shows us how to†plot points on this map to discover all the archetypal landscapes we have been throughóthe plains of pain, mountains of joy, mirages, beautiful oases, wastelands, and moreóthe reader becomes the mapmaker with the ultimate capacity to shape their own destiny.

When Colette first began working as an intuitive counselor some 22 years ago, she help my wife and I make dramatic shifts by encouraging us to envision our lives as a Map and look at the details of our inner landscapes. Since that time, Colette has worked with over 33,000 clients using this process and has helped many achieve remarkable inner and outer transformations. These discoveries and successes led to the design of the MAP described in her new book, The Map: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life!

With The Map, Colette shows you how to use the magic of metaphors to delve into the most profound aspects of your subconscious, the places within you that light the way to lasting change. As you discover the details of your inner landscapes, you can transform negative experiences from your past or present. Whatís more, you can also choose to navigate to a desirable location on this interior map, to a place where youíll find joy, excitement, balance, and serenity. Change where you are on the inside and the emotions and qualities you experience internally will†take form in your everyday life.

My life work is about creating inspiring lives and inspiring corporations, which, in turn, can†lead to an inspiring world.† Colette has added a great gift to this cause by writing this book.