Are Dr. David McClelland's seminal 80's women and power research findings valid today? I will attempt to determine this, given that sexism has been and is being addressed in the workplace. He is the author of Power - The Inner Experience. Many of his process observations exist today but to a much lesser degree. You may or may not concur with McClelland's maxims, but either way, I hope to provoke your thinking about how far we've come in just a few decades, to offer a small but significant learning event here. Small events can have an expansive and even global impact. For example, consider the bold investigative journalism of two courageous reporters who persuaded victimized women to come forward regarding the criminal misbehavior of Harvey Weinstein, now serving 16 years for sexual assault. A month after his conviction, eighty-two other women made similar claims of sexual abuse and rape by Mr. Weinstein. If you are a thought leader, remember that small, local events can significantly impact society overall.
This article serves a therapeutic function for me and perhaps for my colleague and fellow leadership coach, Gregg Ward, as well. Both of us have, and as of this publication, are enduring difficult conflicts related to our D-D personality style. That's when two Dominant styles clash, as with the most powerful man in the world and the wealthiest man in the world, who have been embroiled in a vitriolic social media discourse. I am a mid-level D who instinctively adjusts intensity levels to fit the environment. Working with DiSC for over four decades, I have, unconsciously, become a human behavior chameleon, naturally and spontaneously adapting to the styles of other NORPS (normal, ordinary, responsible persons). This perceptual advantage has profoundly enriched my personal life and significantly sharpened my interpersonal discernment, far more than the average distracted person who misses nonverbal cues and the quality of breaks and shared silences. As Disraeli said, "There is no index of character so sure as the voice." Recently, I have been happily completing work for my current caseload of clients and timing the simultaneous conclusion of concurrent projects to create a break from clients, and to dedicate more time to other opportunities to serve. My final client for the season before my big break was what became a charity case for an impossible-to-please person. Embarrassedly, I’m learning as I go, so my dealing with an out-of-control high D includes my mistakes and clumsy dealing with a dysfunctional personality. Okay, here goes. A few months ago, a friend referred their acquaintance, Charlie X. Leonard, to me, a small business prospect who initially seemed somewhat normal, despite eccentric quirks like upfront admitting that he was not a very good money manager, that he had a hair-trigger temper that instantly exploded, going instantly from irritated to volcanic, and was generally disorganized and undisciplined. He looked the part, too. I should've known better. When we first met, Charlie said that he expected people to take advantage of him because that had been his history (a bright yellow caution light). Stupidly, I missed that obvious cue. Having worked as a psychiatric aide in state mental hospitals with dangerous, hostile-explosive psychotics, I believed I could easily handle irregular or socially awkward people. Boy, was I wrong! Because Charlie would be my last client for a while and because he was experiencing cash-flow problems, I generously offered him a significant cash discount, confident that as his lead-generation process gained momentum, he'd appreciate it later and we’d feel proud of having fulfilled our success expectations…plus he’d refer, as most do. However, from 'hello,' the relationship quickly went downhill, as the client constantly created imaginary, future 'what-if' problems. He sent rude, insulting texts and long, unpunctuated emails containing nonsensical and unreasonable demands for tactics that would harm his business. In our initial meeting, this high D would not commit to a fixed work schedule but insisted that we'd 'do text and emails,' although he did not know that I never checked emails unless someone promised they'd send something important. Generally speaking, I don't read long SMS texts from friends because they're often irrelevant noise about the news and better handled verbally, preferably in person. I never engage in text or email battles, although such crazy-making behavior has become accepted by the hoi polloi as normal. For example, recently I located and connected online with a long-lost DeDominicis cousin whom I'd never met. For whatever reason, his DMs were initially friendly and disclosing, but he quickly switched to attacking and insulting, inviting me to debate his “superior intellect.” Madness. Such behavior is an inappropriate use of technology and is ultimately self-defeating. Real, total person communication is belly-to-belly, eyeball-to-eyeball, not digital. Charlie emitted smoke signals about his potential for misbehavior, but I thought that I could forgive such adolescent behaviors. Foolishly, I believed we could have a clearing session to discuss the terms under which we could work together. Because his behavior in a recent Zoom meeting was so rude and argumentative, I abruptly closed that session. Then, I emailed him, suggesting that we could meet only if he agreed to ground rules of appropriate behavior: a planned and timed agenda, no interruptions, no distractions, no third parties, no disrespectful behavior, patient listening, dialogue not dominance, no oppositional conduct, and at the end, clear decisions and expectations. Because he had become such a time-waster, the plan was to give this unteachable client, even when he disagreed with the experts, whatever he wanted, and even at considerable losses for all, to be able to discharge him and end association with an irreconcilable situation involving a nutcase. (I think that's the clinical designation.)
Having achieved a modicum of success in Scrabble™, I realize that many of my Scrabble tricks are the same ones I use in business. For example, what is the first thing you should do when you receive your initial seven letter tiles? What is the first thing you should do when starting a new business project? Think. For me, it is the assessment of current resources. What resources and limitations do we have to work with? In the 90s, I learned this from Paul J. Meyer, the founder of Success Motivation Institute and creator of the famous ‘wheel of life’ personal goals pie diagram. His teaching guided me in helping business owners to pause and consider the five or six main resources of any business and to make efficiency improvement decisions for each. For many years, I played Scrabble™ thinking it was just about finding the right word, preferably one with seven letters to earn extra points. Like a chess or Scrabble™ board, placement options and positioning opportunities change with every move. Likewise, as with business investment trends and consumer behavior shifts, things are constantly in a state of flux. There are several Scrabble™ tactics that I can share with you, but for the sake of brevity let’s choose a few brain ticklers to get your wheels turning. My first check-in is on my mood, in both games. Am I calm and centered?
Mass hypnosis is, by definition, ubiquitous, seemingly everywhere, affecting everyone. Am I unwittingly the victim of mass brainwashing? Can I discern the difference between social media's portrayal of reality and actual 'on the street' life? Is my worldview being shaped by the Machine that selectively shows me only a few minutes or hours of activity from the billions of daily interactions of eight billion people and organizations? I am striving to unearth and survey my own buried, perhaps invisible biases and hidden thoughts through a process of relentless 'but maybe' cross-examination questions to myself. I find it easy to follow me around for a month to observe my natural behavior rather than get lost in my head in a unique, subjective world of swirling thoughts and feelings. To that point, I feel a fire burning in my heart to focus on helping others remember that we are all of the same species. We can all do much better collectively through peace and cooperation. Alas, my message may sound like the words of a hopeful idealist, but I am a realist. Liking tangible proof of claims and reports, I dug into deep research about 'man's inhumanity to man' and was dismayed to learn the unfathomable depths of depravity. To repair my mood, I chose instead to study the biographies of persons that made me feel proud of people in this Anthropocene period. I refocused on the best of what it means to be human. To me, the best is universally shared bonds of trust, compassion, and love, an appreciation of all creation, especially our neighbors. Sadly, our collective mind is young in terms of geologic time. Our brainstem’s reticular system is wired with many 'fight or flight' self-preservation synaptic triggers. And thank goodness for that! Let's become more self-aware. Let’s not get lost in the bad news, which constantly bombards our senses. Monica Guzman refers to these neurochemical synaptic spikes as 'dopamine lollipops.’ To heal my media-infected blue attitude, I've researched the honorable side of human nature to restore my faith in humankind. Now, I feel better and can see things from a dispassionate, elevated point of view. Who's driving my brain anyway, external stimuli or my own consciously chosen second thoughts?
This article in this series will be concise for two reasons: 1) It's a nasty subject that is already amply covered by many other researchers and writers; 2) My preference is to move beyond statistical reports and societal trends to defining root causes of violence, and to suggest some proactive strategies for mitigating workplace violence. As case studies abound, instead, I will share observations about the core reasons for workplace violence and some ideas for how to prepare for and prevent violence. AI suggested providing statistics and case studies, which will be listed below in the reference area. I do not want to flood your mind here with evidence of man's inhumanity to man. You already know that mass shootings have transitioned decades ago from a rare occurrence to hundreds every year, so I won't bore you with bloody references. Overall, during the past few years, there has been a downward trend in violence in our cities' streets. To me, the real tragedy is that we have been conditioned to accept violence as commonplace and usual, when we should be outraged at the continual loss of lives and sanity. Alas, many seem too mesmerized by the latest bad news event to stop and focus on preventive measures. Enlightened leaders install workplace violence policies and protocols.
Given the popularity and propensity of quick-fix recipes, systems, solution processes, or courses, including everything from the Tyranny of Noisehow to cut a mango to how to live the perfect life, I've decided to venture where cynics go to share ideas on how to screw up everything in your personal and business life. This is intended as tongue-in-cheek discourse and a public confession (albeit craftily embedded within) about my bad and sometimes embarrassingly inappropriate decisions. 'Negative assertion,' a concept taught in the 80s in Assertiveness 101, always delights.
December 25th commemorates the birth of the most influential, controversial life, that of Jesus Christ, whose teachings centered on the phrase "Love one another." This universal ideal is a vision of a utopian society resonating with peace and harmony. However, despite this lovely aspiration, we confront a sobering reality of a world of persistent "wars and rumors of wars," casting doubts for many about the possibility of society ever attaining an enduring peace and power equilibrium worldwide. Often, particularly from young people, I hear discouragement and negative expectations about the future. The contemporary state of our global affairs is a disheartening landscape. Societal discord, aggravated by wealth inequality, ethnocentric prejudices, mismanagement of natural resources, and ingrained biases, paints a bleak picture of our collective future. Today's youth grow up in a world where negativity, although not representative of the larger reality, dominates daily news noise, including distressing reports of an average of two mass shootings per day. The mass migration from personal tete-a-tete conversations in actual rooms to virtual communications has accelerated narcissism. Our self-interest drives us to draw the attention of Facebook contacts by posting pictures from our personal lives, environs, and even our meals. Instead of dwelling solely on negative trends, let’s probe deeper into the underlying societal shifts and their root causes. Toward the end of this article, we'll explore the multifaceted nature of love as defined by the ancient Greeks. Even in conflict, such as war, an underlying motivation emerges, love for one's country, a form of self-love. Numerous surveys conducted in the United States indicate a decline in empathy over the past four decades, with the recent acceleration attributed to factors like the prolonged lockdown, increased social media dependence, and online addiction.
The January 2026 Minneapolis tragedies—especially the ICE murders of Renée Nicole Good and ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti—have evolved from ‘breaking news’ to what psychologists term a ‘cascade of collective traumas.’ The relentless flow of disturbing reports significantly impacts people, both positively and negatively, creating fertile ground for those who profit from chaos and confusion. The Minnesota failures of our safety system are ‘critical error’ messages in our social contract. ICE criminal abuse events, captured on high-resolution video and distributed via 24/7 news cycles, are a profound psychological ‘distraction engine’ that directly impacts the modern workforce, everybody from the custodial engineer down to the lowly and humble CEO.
Like you, I am always trying to make sense of things, especially the deepest, most perplexing, confusing, or foreign things. As a much younger man, one of the most foreign things I’ve never really completely understood was how global trade magically and smoothly emeshes the distribution of natural resources and manufactured components for goods for the 166 World Trade Organization members. Recently, I’ve re-learned that global trade is anything but smooth and simple. In fact, the experts taught me how to properly perceive the reality of the current world trade situation and its inevitable trajectory towards increasing chaos and uncertainty. So, here’s a curious outsider’s insights into a complex and politicized arena: international trade.
Employee Healthcare can cost half as much. Just imagine a world without co-pays and high deductibles. “In the world of employee benefits, a seismic shift is underway, and it's causing tremors of concern for some of America's biggest companies,” says Jed Cohen, cofounder of Fiduciary In A Box . He reports“ Attorneys filed a first-of-its-kind against Johnson & Johnson for its employee health benefits plan.” Recently I learned from Bob Hilke, an expert in Wellness and Healthcare, about a positive and hopefully healing tsunami of change rolling over our broken health care system. Given the perennial corporate problem of employee retention, finite dollars available for costly employee health insurance benefits programs, and inertia inherent within the current purchasing practices, I am impressed by the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nuka health system. Unlocking the Benefits of the Nuka Healthcare System The Nuka System , pioneered by the Alaska Native Medical Center, revolutionizes healthcare with its patient-centric approach. Emphasizing preventive care, continuity of care, and cultural competence improves health outcomes while respecting community traditions. Medical experts from around the world come to Alaska to study the system. While Nuka is the only healthcare system to receive the Malcolm Baldrige award TWICE and many countries from all over the world come to Alaska to see the Nuka Healthcare System, Alaska rarely receives visits from any of the other USA forty-nine states to see the Nuka system. Preventive care is prioritized, reducing the need for costly interventions. Integrated care teams provide personalized treatment plans, enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes. Cultural sensitivity fosters trust and effectiveness in healthcare delivery. Recent news highlights ERISA violations by significant corporations, underscoring the need for ethical healthcare practices. As advocates for patient welfare, we must prioritize systems like Nuka that prioritize patients over profits.