• BUSINESS LEADERS CREATE VISION, BUT MANAGERS ARE CRITICAL to effectively implementing strategy, by leading their teams toward common objectives and coaxing optimal productivity. Strong Managers generally: (1) Clearly communicate direction & expectations to their workers and monitor consistently to ensure alignment; (2) Meet regularly with individual team members to coach, develop, and focus on any resource needs or barriers to their performance; (3) Hold employees accountable to reality-based performance measures; (4) Roll-up their sleeves and work alongside if/when necessary, beyond facilitating the process. “The more Managers understand their team’s work, the better they’ll be at analyzing & improving it… as well as freeing executive leades from day-to-day operations to focus on more tactical issues.”  [KELLOGG INSIGHT –Dec 20]
  • CALIFORNIA COVID LAW UPDATE:  If employer knows, or reasonably should know, that an employee has tested positive: (1) Details are reportable within one day, including Notice to all employees (and employers of subcontract workers) who were on premises during the 14-day infectious period; (2) If more than three other employees then test positive, it’s considered an ‘outbreak’ with LOTS of other detail reporting required – including benefits available under federal/state/local laws, and of the company’s ‘disinfection & safety plan’ per CDC guidelines. Pay attention to guidance from your HR advisors.
  • “CRITICAL THEORIES” NOW CONSISTENTLY TOUTED AS ORTHODOXY by elite media, Foundations, large corporations (pursuing greater market share) and liberal politicians are “highly contestable, frequently inaccurate, limit facts & historical accuracy, and make objective analysis impossible.” The most dangerous contend that: (1) The Western World is responsible for most major problems and to be morally condemned; (2) White Racism is “systemic, omnipresent & frequently unconscious, arising from Privilege”; (3) Capitalism creates unequal & unfair concentrations of power; (4) Pursuing “universal individual human rights disregards imbalances in group identities… These theories, all in the name of Social Justice, encourage a mindset of victimhood that fosters bitterness & deep resentment toward the Western World (America in particular), and which undermines the willingness of non-Western peoples & countries to pursue domestic reforms & improvements – instead perpetuating a continuous cycle of dependency.”  [ASPEN INSTITUTE REPORT – 11/30/20]
  • ODDS & ENDS:  Smoking in an apartment is now illegal in San Francisco unless it’s marijuana. //  ‘Water Futures’ now can be traded as a commodity on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; the contract price for California water futures is close to $500 per acre-foot. //  More than one in every six U.S. restaurants, over 110,000, have now closed permanently or long-term because of the pandemic. //  Federal legislators, who have access to enormous amounts of nonpublic info, have been banned since 2012 from ‘insider’ day trading; however, the law is toothless and despite much evidence of congressmen/women and senators doing so, none have been prosecuted.
  • DEMENTIA IN AGING PEOPLE CAN USUALLY BE RECOGNIZED.  It is a progressive biological braindisorder that makes it more and more difficult for them to remember things, think clearly, communicate with others, and take care of themselves, as well as causing mood swings and even changing personality and behavior. Early signs include: (1) Losing sense of social norms, inappropriate comments or behavior, failure to recognize social cues; (2) Failing to recognize sarcasm or lying; (3) Losing awareness of what objects are used for; (4) Eating spoiled, rancid or non-food objects; (5) Reduced eye-tracking, increased staring or gazing; (6) Loss of empathy; (7) frequent falling. Just be aware. Some practical strategies for supporting a person in this stage of life are at: https://www.caregiver.org/caregivers-guide-understanding-dementia-behaviors
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

   No one knows how Covid will impact this year’s Flu Season, but CDC reports that in the last year pre-pandemic season (October thru March) up to: 56 million infected, 26 million medical visits, 740,000 hospitalizations and 62,000 deaths may have occurred.

   Smart phones and social media have changed our youth from being an irresistible force into being immovable objects.