Leading With Common Sense

How to Get Your Common Sense Back

A colleague recently sent to me this Obituary for Common Sense.   I think it’s premature to declare it dead.  Common Senses may be in some distress, but it’s not dead yet.   To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of my death is an exaggeration.”   We’ll just have to do some personal CPR.  Below is the Obituary, followed by a prescription for bringing back to health.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

•  Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
  
•  Why the early bird gets the worm;
  
•  Life isn’t always fair;
  
•  And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death,

• by his parents, Truth and Trust,
  
• by his wife, Discretion,
  
• by his daughter, Responsibility,
  
• and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;

• I Know My Rights
  
•  I Want It Now
  
•  Someone Else Is To Blame
  
•  I’m A Victim
  
•  Pay me for Doing Nothing

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.”

So, what do we do about this “passing of common sense”?

First turn off your television and talk radio, cancel your newspaper and carefully monitor your social media use.  Why, because the media is programming us to lose our common sense.  In 1964 Marshall McLuhan coined the term, “the medium is the message”, referring to the premise that the medium was more influential than the message.  I believe he was more prophetic that he ever imagined.

Before electronic media, what did we do?  We read, we listened and we discerned.  What does “discern” mean:  According to Webster’s dictionary (not Wikipedia) it means: the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure.  Who does that?  Not many of us and consequently, we lose our common sense.  Common Sense requires discernment!  And discernment requires thinking, reading, questioning and using keen practical judgement.  Successful leaders have discernment qualities; and so do successful people.

Road to Recovery

First, start with reading or listening to the book, “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership”, by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman & Kaley Warner Klemp.  Melody Hobson says that “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership redefines what it takes to be a truly effective leader.”  The authors, “offer a refreshing wake-up call to anyone who thinks that work is a self-driven, zero-sum game.  The 15 Commitments keenly illustrates how making great strides in business requires an awareness of self without self-righteousness.”  In other words, common sense.

To me the book is a primer on how to get your common sense back.

Next, I recommend you find out just who you are.  What are your behaviors?  What really motivates you?  How do you think?  What is your emotional quotient, your EQ?  So many people are spending hundreds of dollars finding out what their DNA is but won’t spend a nickel on their emotional intelligence.

If you want to know more about your behavior, motivators, values, belief system and emotional intelligence, contact me.  I’ll help you get your common sense back.