Forgetting where you came from

Successful people are often accused of forgetting where they come from. This is true of economic, social or spiritual success. Success simply means that you are a happy person, living the life that you chose to lead. This all the more true for African Americans and Afro-West Indians, because of the small community it is all the more apparent to the people that surround them that they have attained some degree of success. I always marveled at this phenomenon and strive to keep connected to the community that surrounds me, lest I be accused of “forgetting whey I come from”.


I always thought that this was more of a physical phenomenon, where you move out of your old neighborhood and you don’t come back home to go to the barbershop or the fish fry. My experience has revealed that it is not so much the physical presence that disappears but the state of mind. In other words your personal experience has a permanent effect on your psyche thereby changing your perspective forever.

One of the most indelible examples of this is Clarence Thomas. I do not wish to stand as judge and jury so I will only speak to what he is accused of, but here is one of the most successful African American Jurist in the history of the nation denying the need for affirmative action. We won’t debate the merits of affirmative action but it is obvious that Justice Thomas stands accused of “Forgetting where he came from”. He no longer has the perspective of that young black man that feels that the deck is stacked against him. He has enjoyed the respect that education and success brings and his perspective is changed forever.

Many of us are guilty of this and the reason is that economics and social stratification in America create varying viewpoints to the same scenario. There are social rules and customs that correlate to your social and economic strata that let others know “where you fit in”.

The “givens” in one sector of the society are useless in another. For example, no one makes reservations for local restaurants but to get in to the restaurants that cater to tourist s, you have to, this may come off as annoying and even racist or classist to a local, who has never dined there before. Everybody knows that we like to “suck our teeth” or “schupps”. Continentals often adapt this trait after being here for a short time, but why do you “schupps”? We don’t schupps when the cafeteria runs out of salad, we schupps when they run out a Roast Pork or Rice and beans! Crucians have a limited attachment to salads and a love affair with rice and beans!. This is a social more that we take for granted because “everybody know dat!”

This is true in the employment process as well as on the job. As managers we feel that the ability to articulate what type of career goals that you have and create a resume and a cover letter that gives a lasting first impression of you is something you should know is required. But how would you learn that? Where are our young people learning the social mores of work and the workplace?

I grew up in an office so my natural inclination would be to say that “everybody knows how to answer a phone”. It is natural to me, it is something that I have observed thousands of time growing up. In today’s society, it is not so natural and you have to teach adults rudimentary office etiquette because they have not been practiced in these skills. These are assumptions we can no longer make.

We run into trouble when we make assumptions and “forget from whence we came”. It is very important that we assess the skills of the average employee that we are seeing and then make plans to bring them to the level of expectation that we have set. Traditionally we have made accommodation and lowered the expectation to that of the average, which has often perpetuated mediocre products and services.

Everyone is born equal but into unequal circumstances. From the minute you are born those inequalities take shape in the form of success or failure. We must remember this and help to elevate our community as a whole by explaining and teaching the mores of success. We must remember that we too had to learn many of these rules along the way and mastering them opened the doors to success. Keep in mind that a lot of times we were resistant to new rules and ideas and sometimes we kicked and screamed along the way, we must be patient. It is important that we visit the old neighborhood and hang out at the fish fry but it is more important that we remember that society and success twists your perspective and we must stay flexible so we can never forget what the view is from the other side.

Ordinary People: Extraordinary Outcomes!

As the excitement of the Obama inauguration wanes, it causes me to reflect on the miraculous series of events that led to his presidency and how extraordinary an accomplishment this is for all of us. I am amazed at his humility but understand that it’s that humility that will force us to a reckoning of our own greatness. It is easy for us to elevate him to “super human or messianic “ status because it forgives us and frees us up to go back to the hum drum of our lives without the tremendous responsibility that we have undertaken.

If we proclaim that Obama is an extraordinary man, it means that he is different from any one of us and is blessed with a special set of talents and traits that would allow him to rise above us all. We in effect are saying that, we, are not as worthy of having such responsibilities because we are “not as blessed” or “not the chosen” as he is. I beg to differ with this line if thinking.
I think that Obama is able to maintain his humility because he understands that he is an ordinary man that has accomplished extraordinary things. He truly has a special set of talents but so do each and every one of us and every day we are given the opportunity to use those skill sets to accomplish extraordinary things. We got him into this mess and now is our opportunity to share the responsibility and do our part to make this nation great.

In his inauguration speech he remoinded us that it is the people that ultimately make the change. he has provided the leadership that has enabled us to garner the hope that allows us to see his VISION. Now that we se the vision we have to start moving toward it. We cannot abandon him and go back to the monotony of everyday life. We have to fuel the revolution and move toward what we have seen.

The poem, Our Greatest Fear, comes to mid because the beginning line is …”Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.” For if we are truly powerful beyond measure we have a responsibility and an obligation to live up to that potential. What a tremendous burden to carry, to feel responsible for fulfilling your maximum potential. This means that every day of your life must be lived to the fullest and that you have a responsibility to things that are greater than you.

Imagine waking everyday knowing that you are the symbol of HOPE for the entire world, you are the epitome and role model for African American males and that you must lead the way to the new America. What a tremendous burden this must be that in your every waking moment you stand as a tribute to a many other things leaving yourself last.

I think it’s only fair that having helped him to saddle that burden, we carry some of that burden ourselves. Let’s pick up the burden of being an emissary of the principles that Obama holds dear. Let us carry ourselves as world citizens, responsible not only to our country but to our fellow man. Lets live the ideal that we will do what we need to, to make a new America, a reality. Together we can do this..Yes we can, “ with our eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us!

Motivating a ME Generation

With the emergence of the internet generation into the workplace, employers are being bombarded with individuals that are accustomed to rapid results. If you are still in doubt, just think of any pondering question and then time how long it takes you to get the answer on Google. This will be the average time span and unfortunately attention span of your internet generation employee. They will want to their day to flow at that speed and yes, their paycheck increments as well. How do we keep them engaged in the workplace?

Employers have to look at different management styles and strategies to get these workers to "be all they can be". Some employers will say that they are lazy or unmotivated but the truth is that they have spent a lifetime getting quick results and the hum drum of the typical workplace will be excruciatingly painful! They will not be willing to wait years for retirements and promotions to find their way in life and the short term plan will rule the day.

One thing that is evident of these workers is that they value their free time and will be less willing to put in those long days and overtime hours at the office. I think that in this facet lies our opportunity. Just like the internet we have to start looking at the office as a replication of the internet. The net is virtual and so our offices will follow suit. This means that the workplace will be guided by timelines and not time clocks.

The office will be project driven and everyone will therefore be assigned tasks and set about completing them. Teams will communicate by webcam and Voice over technology. This way, you can be at the beach and your 10 am meeting at the same time. You can hit the gym at 8 am and complete that report at 12 midnight when you work best. This is the reality of the 21st Century workforce and employers had better start adjusting or they will fail.

We as employers have to figure out ways to constantly capitalize on the new workforce’s creativity and their passion for new and changing technology. This of course will be a monumental challenge but if we can incorporate the technological skills of the young with the managerial and implementation skills that years of experience bring we will have a workforce second to none. Just my two cents. Where’s yours?

Big Brother You Win

I have been thinking about doing this for quite some time as I think that it is an excellent way to preserve thoughts over the days, months and years. The fear is that it does preserve thoughts over the years and those thoughts may come back to haunt me when I least expect it. As we dive further and further into the technological age we are learning that having everything committed to writing, whether in text on your cellphone or in email on your laptop, can have some very daunting consequences. It almost seems ironic that the instrument (internet) that was supposed to provide us with the freedom of all the information, all the time, has now imprisoned us in our electronic word, sound and video.

We only need to look to the presidential election to see how we an unlikely candidate such as our friend Senator Obama is made to be held accountable for the sermonizing of his pastor. The text records form cellphones and hard drives have been used to incrimnate several individuals in high profile cases. How do we manage to keep our thought and discussion free in a world that records and memorializes our day to day frustrations? When will they come back to haunt us? What will it be that will force our final undoing? How about that risque Utube video that you made one night in your college days, or that cell phone shot of you in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Big Brother is not only watching but he is keeping tabs. It is the proverbial cow that has already left the barn. Once you hit send,upload or enter it is forever committed to the electronic eternity. There is no way to get it back, it will be copied, pasted, bolded nad italicized. It will be emebedded in a 4th graders report on the tropics and emailed to your co-workers on the job. So be carefull and be cautious of electronic commitment as there is no electronic annulment and no getting it off the NET!

Nevertheless, I blog on (very naievely) in hopes that my thoughts will not come back to haunt me and hope that this blog will stand as a historical record of a life well lived and a blog well written.