Yesterday, April 15th, was tax day in the United States. This year it was marked by "Tea Party" protests in many cities.
The protest arguments can be summarized to the following: taxes are too high and expected to grow, bailout fatigue, and an anti big government sentiment.
There are articles in the NY Times and the WSJ. In addition you can read the left and right wing blogs if you are interested in mudslinging from both sides.
While I support the rights of all sides to be heard and believe peaceful dissent is critical for a democracy to properly function, I am mentioning the tea parties in this blog as I believe there are some leadership lessons embedded in these events.
Leaders Propose Solutions-
There was much discussion of what people were against but where were the leaders to propose alternative solutions? I have not seen any real leaders emerge to propose alternative solutions and a way forward.
Social Networking is Powerful-
These tea parties were arranged via social networking. Pretty powerful to see the numbers of people that can be mobilized. How are you using social networking to reach prospective clients; to reach your employees; and to stay in touch with how your brand is perceived in the market?
Until Next Time,
Gail
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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Gail great point. I agree, it's ok to express strongly what you don't want, but leaders propose an alternative solution! I drove into the middle of one of the protests yesterday afternoon and stopped my car a moment to listen... i didn't hear tangible, counterproposals. I saw a lot of passionate people, and thought what a lost opportunity that they weren't truly rallying around an alternate outcome, rather an expression of discontent.. which probably wont give them the change they wanted.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and keep them coming. Good to hear from someone that witnessed these get togethers.
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