Doug Cartland's Four Minute Newsletter
Doug Cartland, Inc.11/02/2010
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Today is the day we will elect the men and women who will lead us.  Watching politicians go on and on about what Americans think, I wondered, when is the last time a politician asked you for your opinion?  I mean, if they don't ask and listen then how do they purport to know what we think?


They're like the three-headed talk show host on "Fox and Friends," Fox's morning gab.  I saw a clip of them last week interviewing Denise Richards...she was once married to Charlie Sheen.

 

Richards appeared on Fox to promote a new show she has in the works.  They asked her about Sheen's meltdown last week in New York.  She politely asked them to stay away from that subject, that she was there to discuss her show.  And, as if he didn't hear her...and it could be he wasn't listening to her at all, one of the interviewers followed her respectful request with, of course, another question about Charlie Sheen.

 

So caught up in what we want to say, we care little for the words of others.  We so overvalue our own thoughts.  The arrogance is sometimes astonishing.

 

I watched "The Rally to Restore Sanity" on Saturday.  I loved it.  My son and daughter actually drove fourteen hours to be there.  In his final speech, John Stewart said it nicely: "When we amplify everything, we hear nothing."

 

So in love we are with our own arguments that we've lost the art of listening.

 

My wife and I went to the Walworth County Fair here in Wisconsin in September.  Our U.S. Representative Paul Ryan was there.  Heather wanted to meet him.  I asked him his thoughts about building the Mosque near Ground Zero.  He gave me his answer.  But he never asked me what I thought...me...his constituent.  Didn't he know that as much as it was an opportunity for me to hear from him, it was an opportunity for him to hear from me?

 

So used to giving answers, it doesn't occur to them to ask questions.  Talk, talk, talk they do...

 

And candidates have been talking a lot during this election season.  Speeches, so-called debates, talk shows, commercials, you name it...talk, talk, talk.

 

President Barak Obama even called my house.  Okay...it was actually an automated message drummed to our phone by a computer somewhere.  Several other local candidates did the same thing.  The phone rang and rang and rang.  Maximize the talk opportunities I say.

 

Sigh.

 

I would love to pick up the phone sometime and hear someone ask me what I think.  And I'm not talking about pollsters.  I've heard from them.  Their only motive is to gather information so a particular candidate can better sell me.  I want to hear from a real politician taking the time to find out what I really think.

 

Then there is TV, the ultimate talking box.

 

Politicians and marketing "experts" say they run sensational negative ads because they work.  Do they?  They don't work on me.  To me they lost credibility a long time ago.  Do they work on you? How do these "experts" know they work?  Has anybody ever run reasonable ads as a test against them?  If all ads are sensational and someone wins does that mean they worked?  Haven't lots of people run them and lost?  If you say apples are the best tasting fruit, but all you've eaten is apples how do you know?

 

I swear the more I listen to most of these "leaders" the dumber I get.  If I may quote Stewart again: "Reasonable conversation makes for bad TV."  That, I suppose, is true.

 

If you do not listen, you cannot lead well.  Listening is a skill that is typically prioritized when it's too late.  Tragedy typically propels us to it.  That, in itself is a tragedy.

Till next week...

I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.

Doug

Doug Cartland, President
Doug Cartland, Inc.

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