As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, the reprecussions of bad communications and even worse, getting caught in a lie or hypocrisy will at least for the short term impact one’s trust rating with co-workers and if you are in the public eye, cause some issues taking the morality situation out of it.
Back when President Clinton was in office and people were trying to throw mud against him for his personal life, his detractors tried to come across as holier than thou. As the years unfolded, there were a lot of Republicans who were involved in illegal or at least questionable liasons and Governor Sanford is the latest in the rounds of people who are calling the kettle black shouldn’t have burnt hands.
Is Governor Snuggling Sanford any less of a leader or a human being? Honestly, I am not going to pass any comment on his personal life – that is his business. The big issue I have is that publically he was caught in a lie and the questions that always surface from that are – as a leader or as a business person, what else are you not telling the truth about?
Are you spending taxpayer or investor’s money on your girl friend and not in the business? Are you able to clearly separate your personal relationships and keep them from impacting your business decisions?
In the case of public figures, it seems to be my favorite answer (and the most realistic one) – it depends. In the case of public figures who cause major felonious activity, such as Phil Specter or O.J. Simpson, the net result is that it causes the public to have a backlash and that cuts into endorsement deals, income streams and in the ultimate deal breakers – prison sentences. In the case of politicians, it depends on how popular you are or were in the first place.
What can one do to recover from a situation like that depends on the severity of the indisgression or crime and the public’s ability to forgive or really forget over time what has happened. With the short term attention spans of people these days, the latter is almost always the case. How many people out there even know how or why we got involved in Iraq or even Viet Nam in the first place? People stop learning or find history boring and the rule of the thumb holds true that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it or at least run into bad relationships or having leaders make the same bad choices they have been making all their lives.
In the case of affairs, Governor Sanford probably will not have any long term fall out with the exception that it might put the kabosh on any Presidential race plans he has if he is looking for money for backing from the conservatives out there in the Republican party. Maybe not. Overall, not living in the state of South Caroling (though I love to visit there), I can’t speak for how this will impact the daily operations of the government. Honestly, most states run great whether the Governors are there or not. The problems are in the funding and the mismanagement of resources and generally those types of problems tend to run cumulative over years if not decades and it is tough to blame things on just one administration.
In a personal or corporate business relationship the results will be less than profitable and often times that would mean severing ties. In the case of O.J., a lot of sponsors yanked their sponsorship because they didn’t want to be associated with a felonious person. In the case of spouses, they may feel that their trust has been violated and they want a divorce. If there is money involved expect huge divorce settlements.
What do I think about it in terms of being a mediator? What advice could I give Governor Sanford?
Time is usually the best thing to mend broken trust and that is only if both sides are willing to go along with it. Generally the injured party will watch the person who commited the crime or indiscretion like a hawk. If there is a willingness to still want to keep the business or relationship connection, there should be an eventual point in the future where the person who commited the bad act will be back in good graces with the family/company/business partner.
In the Clintons case I suspect that Hillary Clinton knew what Bill was doing over the years and chose to go along with it because their love and business sense worked well as a couple. The fact that they both are in the public limelight and working in politics tends to support that assertion.
I don’t know enough about Governor Sanford to know how things will be with his family at home though the fact that nobody could find him tells me he will have as the late Ricky Ricardo use to say on the ancient “I Love Lucy” shows that “Have some ’splain’ to do, Lucy.”
All kidding aside I wish Governor Sanford and his family the best in trying to resolve the issues and as a mediator offer my services to the family if they want or need somebody to figure out where they go from there. Obviously there were issues that needed to be worked out and it is always an act of the universe that needs to be dealt with when “the heart wants what it wants”.
The important thing is to make sure that the heart doesn’t crush the wallet or purse in the heart’s pursuit of trying to get what it wants.
June 25 2009
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Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Governor Snuggling Sanford and Trust