The James Dicks Blog

When I was in the Marine Corps, a lot of emphasis was placed on leadership skills and how these extraordinary qualities help to make the Corps a solid and dependable organization; focused on teamwork and the mission. Without the team the mission was never accomplished and so it is in today’s business community. I want to share with you a few of the leadership traits that the Marine Corps used to build its foundation upon, one that has served it well for more than 234 years.

I believe that one of the most important qualities that any of us can possess is integrity. Without an honest approach to life and to everyone we come into contact with, our lives are meaningless. Honesty and a sense of duty should be the number one issue in our daily lives and always remember to stand up for what you believe is the right thing, even if it’s not the popular thing to do.

You must always place other’s needs ahead of your own with a sense of unselfishness. Make certain that you, as the manager; never take advantage of any situation because you’re in charge. Never take credit for something that a subordinate has accomplished but always give credit where the credit is due. Those you are in charge of leading should never take a back seat based on your status as a manager/supervisor. As the Marine Corps states, be considerate of others.

Make sure that you get up every morning with a fair amount of enthusiasm and share it with the team. This can be translated as a positive attitude that creates a sincere interest in the performance of all your duties. If you show enthusiasm, others will soon do the same in accepting their own challenges within the organization. Smile, be understanding of others, enthusiastic about the job and willing to accept anything that is required of you and the team.

Also be as dependable as you possibly can to yourself and to others. If you are late to work, how can you expect others to make it there on time? Dependability also fosters a degree of trust among the staff members and develops an effort to try and attain the highest standards possible. Being dependable also means standing up for your actions and never making excuses. Get into the habit of successfully accomplishing a task whether you like it or agree with it. If required by the organization, do it to the best of your abilities.

The courage to do what isn’t popular or might be hazardous is something you’ll have to develop. It’s a very personal trait. Any bravery “under fire” (whether on the battlefield or in the boardroom) allows you to stay calm in situations that require you to remain under control. Your moral courage is also something that must never be neglected in order for you to develop the necessary strength to stand up for what is morally right. Your moral courage also forces you to accept fault when you are to blame. This is something that our drill instructor tried to instill in us right from the start by answering with the statement “No excuse, sir” when asked about our involvement in certain situations. Take the responsibility and the blame when required. It’s all about honor and making sure the team is never placed in jeopardy. Admit your mistake and move forward. It is that important.

Endurance is the final trait I want to share with you because it’s an extremely important quality to have, especially in today’s business world. When you feel like quitting, tell yourself to keep going. Understand internally that you have the ability to withstand the pain involved (whether physical, emotional, or financial), and can handle the stress, exhaustion and the hardships you’ll most likely endure.

If you simply decide to quit, then you will have achieved nothing. But if you hang in there and get the job done, even when you don’t think you can travel one step further, you will have succeeded.

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I think you just might agree with me when I say that there has never been a more important period in our life’s history that requires a distinct positive approach to everything we do. It just might be the key to success in our professional lives today. For those of you in management and leadership roles, you’ve studied the benefits of a positive disposition versus dwelling in the negative. If you display a positive approach to others when “bad things” happen, you are more likely to come to a successful conclusion in any problem you may face.

It’s not easy but it is necessary, even expected, of today’s business leader. Your confidence will be observed by those around you and will become quite contagious. If the team moves in a positive direction, the entire organization will have a better chance of succeeding. That’s important in today’s challenging business environment.

In corporate America today, there is a desperate need to do more with less. The stress of trying to create a positive cash flow when sales are down might force you to develop an approach that has never been tried before. Don’t say it can’t be done – try it. You may be surprised at how innovative thinking suddenly develops when a positive attitude is created.

Another personality trait attained when you’re in a positive mental zone is confidence. Without the will and desire to accomplish even the smallest task, there’s really no point in getting up in the morning. Your optimistic approach to the job at hand will take you to the next level of accomplishment. Part of building a respectable level of confidence is developing and attaining a set of goals that you set out for yourself and your organization. Accomplish each goal, step by step, and your confidence will flourish. You’ll start believing you can do whatever you set your mind and heart to do.

Oh, and one other thing – love what you do. That’s extremely important because once you find that your life’s work is actually something you enjoy doing, you’ll want to do it more often. You’ll want to make sure it’s done competently and those around you will also start feeling the same way. It’s often been said that if you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life.

But many of us are trapped in positions and in companies that we don’t enjoy because of the current shape of the economy. What can you do if you find yourself in that situation? Maybe it’s time to get out and start searching for that one thing that you are passionate about. Time to start enjoying the day from sunrise to sunset. Let your passion drive you forward and find what it is that will create a solid, confident, and positive attitude within you. It’s in you right now; you just need to do some soul searching to find it.

Your attitude and the way you think are entirely under your personal control. A positive attitude will help you lead your team to victory. So, when you think about it, your future success, even your very health is something that you can control if you literally put your mind to it. Think positively.

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Your path to financial success never ends. I know for me, there’s always something new to learn in order to give me an advantage when making my financial foundation even stronger. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never reach financial independence; it does mean that once you’ve achieved a sense of financial success, you must keep working in order to maintain your wealth while making it grow steadily. I have found that the best way to do this is to become as educated as I possibly can in the ways of money. But, just like anything else, there’s always something new to learn. Studying about your financial life is going to be a lifelong pursuit, at least it will if you ever hope to be financially successful throughout your life.

The topic of money never remains fixed. Tax laws are always changing, and as we’ve seen recently, the laws pertaining to credit changed and were updated, plus there are always new and different investment opportunities that are developed and must be considered. These are just a few examples; I could list many more, but you get the point. Your financial education on the subject of money will never be finished so just adjust your thinking accordingly. One of the things I suggest is to spend some time researching financial papers and periodicals. So congratulations, if you are reading this, you have already started. Keep it up.

Additionally, there are lots of other methods in becoming a student of money. Many local community colleges offer courses in basic money management, which are normally taught by Certified Financial Planners and other similarly credentialed financial professionals. These classes can be an excellent resource for you. The only caution I’ll offer you about these courses is that sometimes the instructor may use the class as a platform to give out his opinions on how to invest, or even as a means of adding clients to his list of customers. So, you’ll want to pay close attention to the information, and be sure to “weed out” those bits of information that seem to be less than standardized financial knowledge and more financial propaganda or a sales pitch. Something to consider as your wealth builds, you will actually have to spend more time, not less, watching your money. Hey, this is a good problem to have, but it is an issue nevertheless.

You probably spent a lot of time and effort gathering the money you have available to you. So it goes without saying that you must watch out for the scam artists. We’re all familiar with these folks; people who just seem to represent the lowest echelon of human existence. And I’m not only speaking of hardened criminals, but people who live in such a way that their lives are centered on the acquisition of negative energy using risky tactics. Behavioral science has shown us that when honorable people are brought together with those who are less than admirable for an extended period of time, it is very likely that the decent folks will more than likely drop to the level of their counterparts than the other way around. There are a variety of theories as to why this is the case, but chief among them is that it simply requires less effort to fall down than to rise up. The activities in which the less honorable folks are frequently engaged are admittedly very appealing at an instinctive level. So just remember what you were told as a kid – “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Be careful!

One thing is for sure, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and self-control to build a solid financial future for you and your family. There’s not just one method of doing so but there are certain constants that apply to all of us. One of them is that you will have to commit yourself to getting the education you need and then taking the time to do so. Once you realize that there are hundreds of factors that must be studied, considered and applied every day, you will be well on your way. Start your research today. If there’s one thing that we all should have learned in the past couple of years, the financial stature of our lives depends on the decisions we make today. Poor choices create unfortunate situations when times get tough. Start creating an economically sound plan that will guide you to a more solid financial life for your future.

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AIG may need more government support to meet upcoming obligations. Are you kidding me?! I say see ya!! They should have thought about that after they borrowed money from the Fed the first time around and then paid huge bonuses to their top leadership.

When AIG first went to the “well” for money from the federal goverment, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration’s pay czar, Kenneth Fienberg, said bonus payments totaling $100 million to AIG employees from the same unit that prompted a massive taxpayer bailout are “outrageous” but they were allowed under the law. He said the retention bonuses were contractual obligations agreed upon years ago, before American International Group Inc. received a $180 billion federal rescue at the height of the financial crisis in late 2008. In an interview on ABC, Feinberg said, “These are the old grandfathered payments. I do not for a minute ignore the outrage out there, which I share. But the fact of the matter is we’ve got to abide by the law.” Feinberg said he’s working to get back as much of the bonus money as possible. He said AIG employees have agreed to repay $39 million out of $45 million in previous bonuses to the U.S. Treasury.

Well now it’s too late to ask. If AIG employees got a bonus and the company still can’t get on their feet it’s time to eliminate the problem, just like everyone else and every other business in the world.

How about all the small businesses out there that are also having tough times. For the last year these small businesses have been eliminating overhead and cutting costs across the board, most small business owners tht are struggling have stopped paying their own paychecks in order to keep as many of their most loyal employees still on the books. No government support is in sight for them. Worse yet, it takes months and sometimes years to eliminate some of the most weighing liabilities only to wait even longer before the cash flow catches up.

As far as I am concerned, AIG had their chance. Yes, we will suffer for the downfall of AIG but it will get better and in the end we will be better. But we will have make some difficult decisions first. AIG is not the only insurance company out there. AIG has enough subsidiaries, and they can do what we all do, focus on the ones that are profitable and cut the ones that aren’t and that means if you can’t sell it — close it.

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We are inundated on a daily basis by the 24-hour news and business channels that the United States has experienced the worst of the economic downturn and is now coming out of the greatest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But if you ask your neighbor, you’re likely to discover that the typical American family just doesn’t buy it; they aren’t feeling any better today than they did yesterday.

In a recent poll of more than 1,000 Americans conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, 84% of those surveyed believe that the U.S. economy is still very much in recession which is s slight improvement from September’s poll where 87% felt the recession was still alive and well. This kind of public sentiment, while heartfelt, seems to be just the opposite of what the nation’s economists are telling us; that the “Great Recession” has finally come to an end.

Economists are in almost universal agreement that, according to the numbers, the worst of the economic slowdown appears to be behind us. According to the latest reading on gross domestic product, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% annual rate in the three months ending in September, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity. And while job losses continue, the number of jobs lost in November fell to 11,000, the smallest amount of any month since the start of 2008, while the unemployment rate fell to 10% from 10.2%. Plus a recent survey of top economists from the National Association of Business Economists found 81% agreed that the recession was over.

So, why the discrepancies?

While there have been some economic improvements, economists believe that it will take a long time, perhaps even years to dig out of the economic upheaval that this recession caused. Because the improvements have been slight, the average American family just doesn’t feel it yet. One economist put it this way, “The hole is a very big hole this time and the recovery is very modest so it might take us a number of years to get out of the hole.” And this startling result also came to the surface recently. While economists are getting more optimistic, the consuming public appears to be getting even more pessimistic. The same poll found that only “15% believe the economy is starting to recover from the problems it faced in the past year or so, down from 17% who saw improvement in the previous poll in September.” And the public also believes that things will get worse before it gets better.

This is something that the retail industry didn’t want to hear during the biggest shopping period of the year. Holiday shopping so far has been less than stellar. A recent Christmas Retail Survey released during the first week of December by America’s Research Group (ARG) and UBS showed that sales were weaker this year than in 2008. Of those consumers not shopping, an overwhelming number, 95.1%, said they will wait until just before Christmas (some even said they’d wait until December 24) to get more items on sale.

And further evidence of a shaky American consumer base, the most recent Consumer Credit report released by the Federal Reserve showed that Americans borrowed less for a record ninth straight month in October, another sign that consumer spending will remain weak and make it more difficult for the economy to produce a sustained rebound. And unless the U.S. consumer develops some confidence in the nation’s economic foundation, the chances for recovery are probably negligible.

We are all hoping for a more profitable 2010, and the last thing I want to be is pessimistic (it just goes against my nature). But until our national housing and mortgage industry is repaired, until the banks start loaning money again, until jobs start picking up, until the confidence of the American consumer is bolstered by a feeling that our economy is, in fact, returning to normal, this country could continue to experience the same economic doldrums in the New Year. Let’s hope the effects of the technical economic improvements economists are seeing today will soon show themselves fundamentally to those of us who live on Main Street USA.

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