Romney's 47%

Now that the initial splash of this video has died down, now that the right and the left have discussed and dropped this, I'd like to look at this through a more genuine lens.

First, let me say, I don't think we should be too hard on Romney. He was speaking in what he thought was private, to a select audience for a select purpose. Can you imagine if someone recorded you when you were speaking off the cuff to a very particular group of people and then shared it publicly? So, he gets judged by the public with a level of scrutiny they could never endure. This happens in politics, when running for public office, but the rational should see it for what it is.

There is a significant upside to this point, though, which I think is worth discussing. I think 47% is probably the wrong number, but there are definitely a significant number of people who feel entitled. They want a government which pays for their house, buys them groceries, pays for their school and covers their healthcare. I am not talking about the guy who is taking unemployment for the first time because the auto plant he worked in for the last 20 years closed and he hasn't yet found a job, I am talking about the able bodied adult who has been taught how to play the welfare system from a young age and seems perfectly content gather checks from the government which increase as they have children, which, in turn, they are training to do the same thing.

Romney's comment, though, his continuing thought was, he's never going to get the votes of these people. They are never going to want to work, never going to vote for someone who is going to cut their programs. So, he writes those people off and tries to get votes from the Americans that don't have this entitlement mentality. I get his frustration, I get that this is very appealing to the audience he is speaking to, but I believe it is wrong headed.

In the work place you get the same problem, you have employees who look at the company as a vending machine, which is there to give them a paycheck no matter what they produce. They live on the project they launched a dozen years ago, even though no one is quite sure what they do today. We call these people disengaged. They have lost the spark of life you get from a job well done.

As a leader, when you see this, you need to first figure out what the problem is. What is causing the person to be disengaged? Do they need a new job? Are they not getting recognition for the things they are doing? Have they been left adrift, causing them to realize no one knows what they do? Then, once you know, you work to engage them. As a note, you can almost never do this with money alone. If you give them money, it's just a function of the vending machine.

I believe Romney, in fact any leader, needs to start with a similar mindset. You don't start by writing people off, you start be figuring out what is causing the disengagement. Then, you engage them, you work to give them the spark of life you get from a job well done. No one likes loosing free stuff, but it is a much easier pill to swallow if you can layout how you will teach people. How you need them to do their best and how you want them to be part of the team. This doesn't win everyone over, but engagement is a powerful motivator. I refuse to believe that a people who love freedom have no interest in independence.